POP! goes the weasel

[RMiller]

You're all probably thinking I blew up my engine. Sorry, this thread is a little more boring than that.

I ballooned my Home Depot 90* coupler and it popped! I knew it would once I turned up the boost, which I did. I turned it up to 1 bar and it feels really healthy. I like it. Then my hose clamp failed, then my HD coupler blew up.

Now I need to buy one of those super expensive niche silicone 90 * couplers for like $40.

By the way, I'm using a JC Performance ROM chip, and so far so good. I have a wideband and I might be taking some readings pretty soon and I'll share them with you guys.

[NeedCAforS13]

those silicone connectors are stupid expensive! you might be better off making the piping curve and get a straight connector...

Sean

[RMiller]

I probably would. I'm going to look for a really fat radiator hose, like from an H2 or something, and hope it has a 90* bend. I'm sooo lazy.

[91rs13]

Try http://www.sporthoses.com for the connectors.

Who is JC Performance? Any contact info for them?

[RMiller]

JC Performance is a shop in Ireland. I'll post their e-mail when I'm at my home computer.

I bought a radiator hose at Kragen that works great. But now I keep blowing out rubber couplers one at a time. It's getting old, so now I'm buying some real silicone couplers. Thanks for that link, by the way.

My car pulls really, really hard now, and breaks traction and pings fuel cut when I dump the clutch pretty hard, but power comes hard at about 4500 and is hard until 5500, then falls flat. My spark plugs are totally black I know, because I unplugged my o2 sensor to test it. I assume them being crusted with hydrocarbons will kill my high rpm power, but do you guys think replacing them will make a huge difference? When I say black, I mean totally black, and totally crusted.

[biosehnsucht]

totally replace those spark plugs!

[RMiller]

I cleaned them pretty well. They only have about 400 miles on them. I'm going to see how they work out now. They don't look new now, but they look good. I'm really cheap and don't want to spend $20 on new plugs.

[float_6969]

are these colder than normal plugs? If so, you might want to go one step hotter. It doesn't sound like they are keeping hot enough to keep themselves clean.

[RMiller]

They're 1 step colder. They're black because I unplugged the o2 sensor, ran without an o2 sensor, and tried a 1 wire sensor when I was trying to see if my stocker was working well. So it just flooded the engine with gas, and blackened everything up. My o2 sensor was completely covered in black after about 20 seconds of driving. I'll check later if they keep themselves clean under normal operation.

I cleaned the plugs, but I might have to wait a little bit before I run it again because I need to wait on new couplers and clamps.

So it will pull really, really hard, up until maybe 5500, then it feels like it falls flat. But my power peak should be at about 6500, so I don't know what's up except maybe the plugs. Just to specify, I have BC(P?)R7ES-11. I closed the gap to 1mm. If the plugs were covered in crap, would cleaning them up significantly change the high-rpm power? I know I need to just run it and find out, but I'm a few days away from that so if you have experience with this problem or know the answer, let me know.

By the way, I'm really impressed with how well the intercooler works. When I feel the end tanks, the hotside is pretty warm to the touch, but the cold side is...really cool. It's incredible. By the way, it's a Precision Turbo unit, bar and plate.

91RS13: The e-mail for JC Performance is [email protected]. They're really cool, and helped diagnose problems with me. They sent me a total of 3 chips when my problem was my bad. They didn't ask questions, and they picked up the shipping charges.

[biosehnsucht]

clean/new plugs will help, as the higher RPM you go, the less time there is for it to ignite the gas, so the faster/hotter it needs to do so, having them gunked up reduces their ability to ignite the gas as quickly/evenly/etc so you feel the affects more the higher you go, that and higher rpm usually means higher boost, also harder to ignite properly.. so many reasons for it to not work well gunked up..

[RMiller]

Cool, thanks.

[91rs13]

Thanks for the info on JC

DJ

[Notchbackca]

with the stock maps at about 9:1 top end its no suprise your plugs are black, alsoif you power cuts and comes back and cuts and comes back thats boost cut

[r34 gtr]

yeah, that same stupid 90 degree bend just cost me $37.50. along with an adapter for 2 and 1/2 inch to 2.75in (ish) for the throttle body, next day shipping, cost me a total of 90 bucks. for 2 parts. wheee, i hate silicone.

- tim

[RMiller]

I ended up buying a 2" 90 degree radiator hose from Kragen. Haha, probably for an H2 or something. It's crazy how pricey that silicone crap is.

Notchbackca: I have a tuned chip for my application without speed cut and such (do have rev limit though). My plugs are black because I unplugged my o2 sensor.

[float_6969]

Ryan, if you're still having problems with top end power, I think you should go to a hotter plug. IMHO you should run the hottest plug you can run w/o detination. I have every inention of trying to run with the stock plugs when I get the car back together. IF I have problems with detination then I'll go to a colder plug.

[RMiller]

I haven't even had a chance to try again with clean plugs. I need to get some better clamps. Thanks Ryan, I may end up going one hotter.