just bought an 03 evo for a project car. car is bone stock except for a hks ssqv installed by the previous owner (yeah, i know!) 78,000 miles. since i first drove it its felt awful slow (high 14's to low 15's in the 1/4 according to my butt dyno). it pulls as good or better at half throttle than full throttle and totally dies above 5k or so. it does not burn any oil!

today i started tearing into it and found this! the shaft play is minimal and all the crud is on the airbox side only. the intercooler piping and throttle body are very clean. bad turbo or what? is it just sucking thru the pcv valve? thanks!

 

getting any engine lights? do you have a boost gauge? looks like that MAF needs badly cleaned to

 

no cel, i havent hooked up a boost gauge yet. i started tearing it apart to check for a boost leak. ill clean it all up, im wondering where it all came from though. i would think poor ring seal letting the crankcase get pressurized and blowing it into the turbo inlet, but the engine doesnt use any oil.

 

You need to get yourself a catch can and Maf cleaner.

 

i figured it was from crankcase pressure, but it seems like a lot for a bone stock motor. im real familiar with turbo cars, but dont know all the common evo stuff.

 

This is a good place to start...clean all that crap up, get a catch can, clean ur maf and chage ur oil, making sure u fill to proper level. then ull at least be set up to figure out if you fixed the problem or if it still exists...u could be a lot worse off considering the history of used evos

 

i imagine i can take the line running from the valve cover to the turbo inlet and run it into a catch can and not get a cel as long as i plug the hole in the turbo inlet, correct?

 

Get a catch can that vents to atmosphere and cut off the recirculation into both the intake manifold and turbo inlet pipe. Avoid recirculating back into the intake for 100% assurance of zero oil in the intake system.

I have been venting to atmosphere both pcv's with out any issues. (passenger side that leads to intake manifold and driver side to the turbo inlet both venting) But I'm gonna buy a catch can with a breather style to collect on some of the oil vapor that squeezes out.

 

Something like this :



Just remember to plug the intake manifold where the check valve to pcv connection was as well as the intake pipe.

 

cleaned it all up and temporarily left the hose off the inlet (hole is plugged) and wrapped a rag around the end of it. huge improvement! pulls up to 7k now without a problem. not sure its 100% where it should be as i havent been in a stock one in forever. thanks for the help!

 

Did you also leave off the hose from the intake manifold to the valve cover?

If you didnt, the intake manifold is pulling in unmetered air from the valve cover which might cause issues with drivability, af ratios, etc...

 

i didnt, but ill do it right now, thanks for catching that!