up down and up weekend

[soin]

just a quicky post , have been running my R since rebuild for a few months now .. with the help from martyn at alan jeffery engineering in plymouth , the car has been running at a low boost setting of around 310 bhp @1.bar and a high boost of 411bhp @1.4 bar . a lovely smooth map and the car has never ran so nice .. anyhows , i had the car in all last week for rear discs n pads and asked martyn to remap with a tad more boost .. the car now has 3 settings 310 /380/ and a new high setting of 456 bhp at 1.6 bar .... quick just doesnt justify the performance ... so set off on aroad trip this weekend from cornwall to stafford en route to alton towers .. car ran lovely all the way up and in and around alton ... set off yesterday to head to bristol shopping and then on home to cornwall ... had been running around on mid setting , as i join m6 flicked to high boost and attacked the on ramp .. absoloutly rapid !!!.. a few miles down the road whilst toeing it in fifth, hit like a fuel cut and car almost cuts out ... shit ... pull onto hard shoulder and instantly assume its the lead that comes out the bottom of my coil ... (one of the plug clips has snapped and i have a cable tie holding plug in , this has popped off before and gives a similar effect) to my dismay no... coil lead is still in !!... so call the AA and wait .. flat bed arrives and takes us to nearest services .. here another AA mechanic looks briefly and whips out a plug , the car is missing like its on 3 , black smoke out the back .. he checks all plugs are firing and engine doesnt change when plug leads are one by one removed ... his verdict .. either blown valve or piston (.. so we get flat bedded all the way home at 56 mph .. me in a foul mood declaring war on the R .. thats it im gonna start breaking it tommorrow .. not wasting another penny on this unreliable shitbox.. then i thought id call our very own guru pulsarbob.. i left a message and several hrs later just as we were dropping the car outside alan jefferys bob gets back to me ... i give bob the symptoms and bob tells me exactly what the problem is , and hey presto just like he said i spot the left hand front mount boost /intercooler pipe hanging off .. i wait for AA man to leave , re attach the pipe and car is back to normal ... massive grin appears back on my face .... and i saved £60 .00 in fuel ..... i am very un mechanically minded, and im sure its something a lot of owners may have sussed themselves , but a MASSIVE thanks goes out to bobby for being available to take a call and call me back on a sunday .. the man is an invaluable asset to this club .. thankyou bob... anyway , i will be putting an updated post in members Rs soon , but for now i ll attach the dyno printout

 

[Makaveli_se7en]

Awesome graph there mate, the number plate is very apt too

 

[samgtr]

Great power mate, nice car, good luck with it. Enjoy it !

 

[pulsarboby]

thats a mighty healthy looking graph you have there matt

glad its finally all come together for you, you deserve a bit of trouble free motoring after all the grief youve been through over the last few years:roll:

was no problem with the advice, i left my phone at home otherwise would have got back to you sooner but at least you saved on some fuel, but as i said on phone the aa geezer should have spotted the pipe, hes obviously not very competent with turbod cars!

 

[kenan]

Glad to hear she is running well, must be a beast.

When my car was last having a moment they advised me my timing belt had snapped and that he was going to pop the front wheels on a dolly and drag it home. I helped him out by presenting him with a Haynes manual, didn't go down well :?

 

[soin]

yes kenan .. the car is rapid .. martyn came back from road testing and remarked that it was too fast.. flat straight tarmac only .. i would stand behind the work they ve done on my car , martyns making a very good name for himself on the mapping side of things , he took me out in his 520 bhp impreza the other week , that thing flies .. ap have apparently gone into liquidation ... good ridence .. they were the worst company ive ever dealt with ... enginetuner all the way for me

 

[tomble]

Good to hear about AP going under. i have had a very bad experience with them in the past! complete crooks.

Glad your car is going well, mate.

Tom

 

[stevepudney]

ta da dahhhhhhhhhh :boby: to the rescue

matt that boost pipe thing happened to me sooooo many times in the early days, your heart sinks to an all time low when it happens the first time............

 

[soin]

cheers tomble ... yes indeed good riddance . steve , ive found that the jubilee clip is buggered as its happening again and again on low boost even , still i know how to fix it myself now ... gonna upgrade all my clips today for heavy duty ones ... cheers for all the comments guys

 

[stevepudney]

Mat, is it the actual rubber intercooler pipe work that's coming away from the alloy/stainless pipework ? if it is that then the only true way of stopping it would be to bell out the ends of the metal pipework slightly. Most factory made kits are supplied with some sort of swage/bead around the end of the pipe, does your pipework have this bead line around the end ?

 

[Fusion Ed]

Just to add to steves point. You absolutely must stop this happening, a few times you'll get lucky but you stand a very very real risk of destroying the turbo when you blow off boost pipes.

 

[soin]

shit , didnt realise that ed ... to answer your question steve , the pipework on the hybrid kit is flared out , and some of it the garage flared out even more ... the problem was a knackered jubilee clip ... for now ive replaced it with a new clip , but have a set of wrc standard hose clips coming in a few weeks.. i will then replace them all as a matter of course .. ed how will i know if ive damaged the turbo?

 

[pulsarboby]

this happened to my car the other day too matt funnily enough on the way to eds:dohyou jinxed me matt):lol:
i was also unaware about roller bearing turbos and boost pipes coming off leading to premature failiure.

mine seems ok so im lucky and have got away with it and guess you have too otherwise you would have boogered it by now i would have thought!

i suppose when you think about it, as soon as a boost pipe pops off at high boost the turbo is then free to over run way past its rev limit which would then lead to possible damage of the bearing as it could overheat and seize.

 

[Fusion Ed]

You will know almost immediately if your unlucky there is usually no 'half way' with roller bearing turbos in my experience. They get noisy and blow smoke almost immediately if they have this happen.

 

[soin]

how mads that bob , my pipe actually came off a further 3 times all be it only on lower boost , but i swear there is a different noise coming from the turbo now ... instead of just the mass rush of air noise as the turbo sucks through the filter ive now also got a low pitched wine almost like a whistling kettle just as it starts to boil ... im sure this aint right ... no smoke as yet though ... what should i do ? .... ed , i bought the 3071 off you originally and its only had about 2k miles on it .. it has been opened up and checked once since , due to the ap motors fiasco ... that cost me over £200 .. im sure at the time ed you said if i send it to turbo dynamics via you , it would be cheaper .. is that still the case ? ... i hate the thought that i could be sitting on a ticking timebomb with the turbo ... what do you guys think i should do? run it till it blows or fix now to save buggering it completely

 

[Fusion Ed]

Well to be honest it may be ok if its re balenced if you think something is up. If the core is damaged its a big bill im afraid.

 

[pulsarboby]

just carry on driving it but make sure the boost pipes are all on very securely!
it may be a slight boost leak from a pipe thats causing the whistling sound so i wouldnt drive it untill youve rectified the problem with pipes keep blowing off or at least drive it on a lower boost setting.

just nailed my car today to make sure all boost pipes are ok for the trackday at op, and all is good8) so guess im lucky for once

 

[dotalot]

Wow whats your engine spec, and what management are you using?

 

[dencon]

After my rebuild and running 1.9 bar boost I had two pipes pop off first day although using good Mikalor clamps. After that I welded small vertical
lugs on each side of joint and joined these lugs with a small stainless strap. Pleased to say none have come off since. good luck, cheers den.

 

[soin]

as my luck always has it , ive buggered my turbo, in under 2000 miles .. turbodynamics have quoted over £600 plus vat for a new core ........ fuckin joy...