A few years back i bought a Evo 9 GSR from a dealership
Day after buying the car the clutch exploded and was down for a month
Not too long after that my 1st and 2nd gear went out and was down again.

Basically ive had very bad luck with this car.
2 years ago my engine blew 3 holes through the block and sat in a shop for 2 years
getting worked on. Ridiculous i know.

I now have the car back and it runs great for the most part other than my boost
is stuck at 8-10psi.
I bought the car with these mods:
Downpipe with full HKS HiPower exhaust
Unnamed slightly bigger intercooler
Dejon ram airintake
AEM A/F gauge
autometer boost gauge
what possibly looks like a meth pump setup in the trunk(not hooked up)
and a homemade DIY manual boost controller

Before my motor blew, car had no issues hitting all of 18psi from what i read is stock
boost. If anything it was way above at first. I noticed the DIY boost controller and got
rid of it. My boost then stayed at around 18 for the most part but liked to overboost
quite a bit and also hit fuel cut a lot.

Ive had the car back for about a week now and been hesitate to go through the gears
WOT and see if its running good. Finally i did a few times and it wasnt till about on the
3rd day having it back i actually paid attention to the boost gauge.
i notice it only stayed at 8-10psi.

First thought was it was a boost leak, ive removed all piping and inspected it. My
intercooler is really beat up to i pressure checked that and couldnt hear any leaks.
After some thought i dont think it could be a leak, if i was it would have more random
boost readings than constantly hitting 8-10psi.

The guys at the shop say they didnt touch anything on turbo just reinstalled it so
i dont thing the wastegate was adjusted any? But also not sure how to check if its
adjusted correctly either.

I did decide to check if the boost solenoid lines were correct and i ran into something.
Since i dont have the stock air box i cant hook up the lines like the stock diagram shows. So i imagine this might cause some if not all of the problem.

Definitely need some direction or help on what i need to do to get this thing running
correctly and good so it doesnt have to sit in a shop forever again...

 

you mentioned boost controller diagram, and a manual boost controller, are you talking about the oem solenoid? regardless, the diagram should show one of the hoses being rerouted back into the intake tube, this is by no means necessary.

and you have done a boost leak test? pressurized the system the proper way?

what does your AFR's look like? if its very rich under WOT, and you have no boost leaks, the shop touched your manual boost controller, its not hard to accidentally mess with. I would turn it up by increments and keep an eye on the AFR gague when doing the pulls, dont go over the factory 18 psi since you are not tuned. let us know if this works.

 

and definitely save up for a nice intercooler, ETS and AMS make beautiful units, ETS tested up to 30+psi i believe and AMS @50psi, proven intercoolers, besides, I think this is one of the biggest combats to keeping knock counts down, stock tune could use this.

 

I think you are running base wastegate pressure. Can anyone confirm?
If so, my first check would be that the boost solenoid lines are hooked up right, including the "pill".

 

Okay so i read about this "pill" thing and thats gone i believe.
i just have 2 lines that were running from the wastegate and bottom of turbo
to a manual boost controller. But i ditched the boost controller because it kept sticking
open. So the lines are plugged into the boost solenoid.
I also have some Dejon air intake so i cant route it like the stock diagram shows.

 

Just to be a little more clear i bought the car with the mods i listed already on it.
They worked but over boosted quite a bit but psi was in 18-20 area.
Now that i have the car back from being fixed im only hitting 8-10 psi.

I have not pressure check whole system but did check Intercooler because of how
beat up it is from it getting towed and what not and it was good to at least 20psi.
Idle and cruising AFR is 14.7 and WOT gets to about 11.5

When i bought the car it had a homemade MBC and i took it off and used the stock solenoid.
It still worked and it overboosted even then. Since the motor was fixed it hasnt even got past
8-10psi so i looked to make sure the lines where in right but realized i cant run it how it should be
stock as i seem to be missing something?

What is the stock wastegate pressure at?

 

Exhaust leak, boost leak, maybe bov leaking.

 

I don't know what stock boost should be, but if its the 18psi you had before and now its less, I'd suspect whoever put things together after the rebuild may not have done the vacuum lines right. The car needs that pill in the line to control boost.
Also, 11.5:1 AFR is lean for a stock car. Either its tuned, or that's a clue to another problem.

 

Well thats an issue as well, i cant find any information on what stock boost should be
ive only seen 18psi a few places and also cant find what stock wastegate should be at.

But im missing the "pill" thing in the line. Any info on where i can get this? id like to
get this thing back close to stock till i get more money since i just spent $5,000 getting
it back.

 

http://www.norcalmotorsports.org/use...ks%20v1.05.pdf

just found this so maybe thatll help me figure some things out. Wonder if i need to just get
a Electronic Boost Controller.

 

Anyone have any info or site where i can get the stock boost solenoid lines with the restrictor pills
inside of them?

 

your wastegate PSI is 8, that's why you are seeing 8psi. With the pill, the solenoid is able to work correctly and bleed off enough to get 18(?)psi.

i have the stock lines with the restricter pill in it, if you decide to put it back to stock. I can't find any of that for sale to quote a price, but I can ship it all to you for $25. Kinda high, I know, but only because I'm too lazy to go to the post office for any less than $20 in my pocket. LOL

 

haha i feel you. Umm might possibly take you up on that, that is if there isnt really
another alternative. Like would installing a grimmspeed EBC help? I mean why arent
you running yours just curious lol

 

yep, you can install a MBC, EBC, or aftermarket solenoid and do ECU-based boost control. It costs more, but you can control the boost.

I have a Grimmspeed solenoid and using the ECU to control boost.

 

check that the lines are connected properly the wastegate line goes to a port on the solenoid and boost source goes to another. Some people try to connect a line of the manifold for boost source this doesnt work well its better to have a boost source from as close as possible to the turbo outlet. On both my aem and greddy controllers have a 3rd port that vents to atmosphere to control the boost. I would encourage you to have a professional shop look over the car and retune it.