Power Fc -r33 Problems --- Help

[Blue_R32]

Hey guys,

just want to throw some ideas around about the sever issues my friends car is now suffering after having a pcf installed and tuned at a fairly respectible brisbane workshop.

upon picking the car up my mate was told that they could not tune it to 11 psi as promised (std 33 turbo) as the actuator was screwed.. Now it was boosting up fine before taking it to the workshop - 8-9 psi arround 3k rpm as expected via a turbotech.

he drives it home and says car is running shit and lacking in power. Dyno sheets show 189 rwkw and good air fuel ratio. Now there is no torque graph, which i thought was strange? hiding something maybe.

anyhow full boost is not not made till arround 4-4500k rpm.. and it has been tuned to only run about 7 psi tops..

also car has all supporting mods, brand new fuel pump, fmic, pod full 3 inch zost with hiflow cat and now the pfc.

so i take it for a drive. strange rattle noise round the exhaust\turbo area.. lacking power for sure, boost does not hit hard. now we get home and let it idle. i can hear a rattley noise from arround the turbo exhaust housing when giving her a little rev. exhaust note sounds shit now aswell and not tough.. not to mention at idle she is blowing loads of black smoke and smeels badly like fuel.. and does not have a nice smooth idle. very up and down and just sounds wrong..

so from the above anyone got any clues as to what might be the problem. I am thinking possible exhaust wheel damage on turbo, hence rattles around the exhuast housing of the turbo..

Now if this is the case, would u not think a professional workshop would have known this and offered some advice more then just "mate your actuator is stuffed so it is not boosting properally" in which casue u would think they would replace it at a fee instead of trying to sell u a 3 grand turbo.

any ideas fellas

[paulr33]

sounds like exhaust gasket is shagged

mine died around 140,000k's

the car sounds really "farty" and quiet loud when driving

[Duy]

If its a std turbo should be on song at 2700rpm, take it back.

[Blue_R32]

Paulr33 thats spot on shounds bloody terible, very farty and rattley. exhaust gasket? maybe it blow on the dyno??

would that explain the awefull richness at idle.?

[Blue_R32]

and yes on boost wel and truly prior to 3k, just giving a round number.. not after we got it back from the workshop though, now it is not on 7 psi till about 4500rpm..

[Blue_R32]

whats the best way to tell if the pfc has been tuned proerally? any easy way to tell. this is the first time i have checked out the hand controller..

[paulr33]

yeah its possible it blew on the dyno

mine died on the street under load but it could fail at any time

the parts to replace it are about $100 all up

but u have to pull the turbo off, my dump gasket died

but we replaced all of them cos it was off and easy to do

[R31Nismoid]

Only way is to get it on a dyno and have a gander at the AFR's and the smoothness of the graph itself.

There isnt anything "dodgy" about not showing the torque figures on a dyno sheet mate

If the exhaust wheel was damaged and "rattling" around, it wouldnt be there now. It would have flown off the shaft.

Have you even spoken to the workshop the tuned it?

If it is indeed a manifold gasket, its no-ones fault. They get old and perish. Nothing you can do about it

[paulr33]

if you post up the IGN and INJ maps from SETTING

they are 20x20 cells we can see

also post up the AIRFLOW screen when u press right on AIRFLOW inside SETTING

[Blue_R32]

umm maps a a biatch to type up.. i kinda have the written down, might take a pic..

i noticed all the airflow settings are 100 percent..

inj maps.. from 1x1 to about 5x5 it os 100.. from six x six up a bit it is at the 119 mark and at 20 x 20 she tops out at 123.

hope that kinda makes sense. try and get a pic...

only reason i thought no torque graph was suss, is cause the car has definately lost torque. but according tot he dyno sheets it has gained 10 kw top end and lost 3 psi of boost after the tune???

[mad082]

if it was the gasket, that would also explain the lack of boost.

[Blue_R32]

yeah does make sense, maybe we blew the gasket taking it for a drive after we got it back..

would the blown gasket cause shite loads of black smoke on idle though??

boost climbs but just does not snap up of full boost, just climbs slowly..

and nismoid, no have not spoken to the workshop yet as just the car back at 5pm, they closed up etc, so we'll speak to them tomorrow..

in no way am i tryin to blame them, just trying to figure out the chain of events that led to the car now barely running.

still the work shop said the actuator was fubared?? how many r33 stock turbos have stuffed atuators? is this common?

[Blue_R32]

Would just like to stress the intention of this post is not to bag out any particular workshop, and i have not mentioned any names etc, so no need to get upset.. You know who you are..

One would imagine though if they took their car to a good workshop for a apexi power fc install and tune they would either come out with a smile from the new tune (from what I have read eveyone else raves about the powerfc) or an eplanation on why their car now runs like a pile of crap...

car is getting checked out soon.

[qic200]

Would just like to stress the intention of this post is not to bag out any particular workshop, and i have not mentioned any names etc, so no need to get upset.. You know who you are..

One would imagine though if they took their car to a good workshop for a apexi power fc install and tune they would either come out with a smile from the new tune (from what I have read eveyone else raves about the powerfc) or an eplanation on why their car now runs like a pile of crap...

car is getting checked out soon.

Glad your not trying to bag any work shops as this problem was definatly not the work shops fault. I don't understand how you can drive away with dyno graphs and a car that runs fine and then when it starts playing up you blame the tune, it just doesn't work this way. if there is something mechanically wrong with the car, no amount of tuning is going to fix it.

For those of you who are reading the thread, someone had been playing with the hand controller and had selected the "nismo option" AFM instead of the normal r33 GTST one, which caused the car to run like a piece of crap. With a new set of plugs and the correct AFM selected the car now runs fine again but the turbo is definatly on the way out as it's a little noisy (as was explained to the customer when he picked up the car).

It's very frustrating when you go out of your way to look after the customer and pay for the tow truck back to the work shop and it's due to someone playing around with things they don't know about. At least the car is running well again now which is the main thing I guess!!!

[Beer Baron]

good to see it resolved and another case in point why if you dont know what you are doing the only screens you should should be looking at on your PFC HC is the monitor or sensor check screens.

[noone]

Do all powerfc's have nismo afms as an option thought that they were set as z32 and a correction table used. Have I been misled on that? Car isnt here so cant check at the moment.