hey_aleks

Yeah thanks for the advice mate. I've taken off the top cover so it's nothing under that one, so it's something to do with the bottom cover (which I don't think I can take off without removing the timing belt, need to move houses first). Hopefully nothing internal.

Hey guys, so I'm in the middle of moving (can't start taking things apart too much because the car needs to be able to be driven to the new house). I have a consistent light knocking sound coming from the lower timing cover. I thought it was rod knock since the knocking is consistent at idle and increases with rpms. I used a broomstick to determine that the noise was coming from the lower timing belt cover BUT when i pushed on the cover a bit too hard, the noise sort of died down/changed (the noise changes depending on how hard you push on the cover). What do you guys think it could be? This all happened after I boosted the car to 120km/h when it was relativity cold (stupid). I'll work on the car when I'm finished moving but it's killing me not knowing if the engine is f**ked or not. Any help is appreciated.

Why else would it be in my bed m8

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What state are you in mate? They go for 150-200 if not used in SA, you should try fb marketplace.

Bump

Sure did, still hasn't arrived though

Yeah man that's it. If the turbo fails within 12 months you get a free replacement and If it lives for over a year that's money well spent. Also when I received the turbo, it had some sort of clear coat sprayed all over it (including the rear turbine). The car slightly smoked for a few mins from the engine bay and and exhaust until it all burnt off after a quick drive. Before I went for the drive, I messaged the ebay seller about the startup smoke just to see what they would say and here's the response, they'd rather send you a new one for 50 instead of having to return and rebuild it lol.

Feels a few hundred rpms laggier compared to the stock turbo (i'd say similar to a hks 2530 I had on my old car). Did a bit of reading and people who run smaller ebay turbos say that they are quite reliable when not going over 14 psi so I think it's a great alternative to the 25 year old stock ones going around for $150-250. Yeah mate my rev needle goes crazy but I haven't bothered trying to fix it. I've never soldered but I do have a spare cluster with a working tacho so might swap it over to this cluster.

^

Will get a proper photo of the hot side after but it looks stock if you don't know RBs. Used the factory hard lines, had to slightly modify the factory rubber intake since the ebay turbo has a 3" inlet not a 2.25" or whatever it is but it wasn't too hard. Used OEM gaskets of course, toss out the ebay ones. The turbo comes with a restrictor built in so you can just bolt the factory oil feed hard line on.

Also could be a leaky injector.

Just read your response, could possibly fuel pump? It sounds like something small to be honest so maybe take it to a known mechanic/a jdm shop/tuner and have them look at it before you spend any more money. If they quote you a ridiculous price, at least you'll know what your issue is. Just last week my auto 33 turbo was having the same issues without the smoking. I got brand new NGK spark plugs as mentioned above, i taped up all the coilpacks with electrical tape (3 were red Ebay ones and 3 were stock ones, all looked fine to the eye but probably had hairline cracks). The boost was 10, i completely removed the boost tee and ran straight to the actuator to elimate issues with it (some are fakes and some just work shit, just run stock boost until you sort the issue).

Hmm sounds like a fuel issue, maybe put anothe quarter tank of 98 and see how she runs? One of my 33s would start to cut out at around 1/4 tank then not start once it had reached just under a quarter before the low fuel light even went on (probably the owner messing with the fuel gauge needle when changing the cluster bulbs or your fuel filter needs replacing/fuel pump is on the way). Or it could be a vacuum leak since mine blows black smoke and cuts out really bad when one of my intercooler pipes blow. Are you running the stock blow off valve plumbed back? May have issues idling/starting without the stock bov setup if running stock ecu. Also if its mainly happening on wide open throttle, lower your boost to 8 to test if the ecu is going into 'rich and retarded' mode. Also what spark plugs are you running? At 11psi they should be gapped to around 0.8mm (alot of people recommend NGK BCPR6ES plugs). Also look at your coilpacks if they are factory/ebay ones. I had a splutter on 75%+ throttle running 9psi and wrapping my coilpacks with silicone tape fixed it.

Send a pic of your engine bay aswell.