A little history: I bought my Evo back in January and in March I spun a bearing due to low oil (the oil pan gasket was leaking). I had the motor, trans, t-case, and turbo replaced. Trans is a TRE stage 3, t-case is OEM w/ 05 LSD, and the turbo is a Garrett GT3582R with a TiAL 44mm EWG w/ hood dump. The replacement engine is stock except for cams (BC 272's), and had 60k miles on it and needed a timing service. I had that done before it was put in. I went with Gates balance and timing belts, a gates water pump, and OEM everything else. When I had the car brought to the shop, they did a speed density conversion on it and upgraded my injectors to 1250cc FIC's. When they started it, the timing belt jumped 2 teeth because the tensioner wasn't adjusted correctly. They reset timing and fixed the tensioner, then put it on the dyno. It was tuned for 430whp @23psi.

The day I got back (August 22nd), the alternator lights were on (battery and brake light), but the shop said it tested fine. It eventually cut out on me, so I replaced it myself. It also was getting a flashing CEL (sometimes fast, sometimes slow) when I would hit boost. It wasn't doing it all the time, and I was told it was because I needed 1 step colder plugs. The car was running fine aside from that. No issues. It started fine, AFRs were normal, and boost/vacuum were also normal.

The problem started shortly after I replaced the alternator, which was 2 weeks ago. I did a pull from 1st gear when the road was slightly wet and it pulled so hard my tires spun as soon as I hit boost. My RPM shot all the way up and bounced off of the limiter, and a 2 foot flame shot out of the hood through the wastegate dump. After that, it seemed to not want to accelerate past 5500-6000, sometimes not going over 4500, regardless of gear. It is running EXTREMELY rich. The AFR gauge bottoms out at 10.0 as soon as I get it over 3500 RPM and it hardly gets any boost. It is running so rich that there was a noticeable smell of fuel in the oil.** When I first got the car back, the turbo would spool rapidly at about 4200, but now it stays at or below 5psi until it hits around 4750 RPM. The highest I've seen it go since is 20psi, and the wastegate doesn't open. It also starts kind of rough sometimes (cranks, stalls, then starts. Kind of like it's hiccuping.) I tried replacing the spark plugs with 1 step colder ones gapped at 0.020 and it still has the issue. The flashing CEL didn't go away either, and now it does it every time it starts "hitting boost."

Idle is normal, and AFR is normal (~14.7) below 3500 RPM. Vacuum levels are normal and compression is good (210-210-200-200). The shop that tuned it did a boost leak test and found there to be no leaks in the intake system. When they test drove it, they couldn't get boost to go above 16psi and the wastegate wouldn't open even when they took the vacuum source line off. They checked the turbo for shaft play and it was within acceptable levels and it spins freely. I don't know what the issue is here, but it's really aggravating. It seems like it could be one of a few different things. 1) A bad wastegate/stuck open. 2) A bad FPR. 3) Jumped timing when the tires spun. Hopefully my explanation is descriptive enough that someone might be able to help further pinpoint the issue.

**Side note: this could be from when I replaced the alternator. I had to take the FPR off and it didn't seal properly when I re-attached it to the fuel rail. I fixed the seal and changed the oil and it's smelled normal since.

Sorry for writing a novel, I just want to be as descriptive as possible.

 

I bought my Evo back in January and in March I spun a bearing due to low oil (the oil pan gasket was leaking).
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ thats gangsta.may i use it in my signature?

 

Sure, why not? Lol

I'm all seriousness though, I really need help diagnosing this issue. I WOULD pull the wastegate and check it myself, but I wouldn't really have a clue what I'd be looking for.

 

Got this fixed. Ended up being timing. The brand new OEM tensioner failed after being on the car for 400 miles. The intake cam skipped 2 teeth, which explains the boost-leak like symptoms and the extremely rich AFRs. It also explains why the compression was so high.

 

wow i think this is what my problem is also. ill rip it apart tomorrow to find out. Thank you for posting the follow up. alot of post i looked at never had the actual cause of the problem. i dont think the timing jumped thow i think my prev owner was just stupid or whoever did his work.

 

Normally when that happens you have valves to replace very very lucky