SUNDAY UPDATE- OK, so the slavish sado-masochist that I am was not able to let the beaten dog lie, and now the entire intake tract is righty-tighty, no-loosee.
ALL clamps are tight and hoses inspected/tested or replaced (vacuum), and yeah they needed it- ALL were at least 5-6 complete turns loose if not more, and two clamps were broken and replaced- both were new ones BTW from Z1 with my new intake boost hoses, replaced by the stockers that are still in good shape which somehow is better than brand new ones.
LOVE crappy fasteners! Unfortunately I have yet to find a vendor who doesn't send crappy fasteners, this includes ALL vendors I've ever used without exception- just CRAP.
Car runs great...for an NA.
No boost past 0 on the dash boost gauge, the gauge is active up to that point at ALL times, but the engine does not boost-accelerate even a little.
So I've been following the Thumper's boost leak guide with all of the excellent info which has led me to many things I've found that needed to be fixed, but no solution (so far) to my problem.
I have from the beginning felt that my problem is not the normal in that it seems like boost is going into the engine cavity somehow and not the intake tract, bolstered by the beginning of this all where my DS PCV vent tube on the valve cover was being pushed out by pressure from inside the engine- I assumed this was a faulty PCV valve and replaced all of them and the hoses. Then today when I ran my final boost test where I can find NO leaks worthy of mention on the engine, or anywhere else on the car, I can hear the compressor air tank filling what sounds like a tire rather than "PSSSSSSSSSsssss-ing" into atmosphere of a typical boost leak- think of a hose air nozzle you can press the lever and hear the hiss, then when you put it on the tire and fill it makes a different, "auditorium" sound as it fills the enclosed tire. Instead of 20-25 seconds to fill the boost hoses/intake to 5 PSI, it takes about 40 seconds for the compressor tank at 5 PSI to "fill" the engine with 5 PSI and stop filling- with NO external boost leaks other than a few small/slow bubbles here and there that another quick tightening made go away. Not enough leak anywhere to cause ANY problem.
SO...WTF???
The next suspects are the Turbos themselves (I assume the wastegates since my soapy water on both turbo exteriors showed no boost leaks), the IACV mess I worked on fixing the erratic idle, and the recirc valves. Since the boost test and soapy water dousing the turbos revealed zero bubbles and the auditorium filling sound was coming from the recirc area, but the recircs hold suction testing at the vacuum hoses and revealed no bubbles on the outside boost test, my brother and I are stuck on what the problem could be.
If the recircs are responsible it seems that if boost is made (active dash boost gauge) it just never makes it to the intake, constantly recirculated...or if it's stuck wastegates, then any boost made is then wasted but into (I assume?) the exhaust. But, how does either make/explain the auditorium/crankcase filling sound we are hearing?
Does any of this even make any sense?
I've had enough of this for now...hopefully some of you guys who know a lot more than me and have played with your turbos for a long time can help me out moving forward...God, I hope!
