scoobywentbang

Can anyone tell me how much activity is normal on a jap import sti type r engine running shell optimax, 1/2 bottle per tank of NS (not NOS) octane booster, and 1.25 bar (approx 18psi) turbo boost pressure?

The lamda and maf have just been tested and are fine but the knocklink's red light is on all the time under hard charge in first, second, or above 5000rpm in any gear.

Surely I don't need to go to a bottle of booster per fill-up?

Yours, on a pushbike till next payday,
scoobywentbang

Cret

Red knocklight is very very bad!
I think you either need to lower the boost you're running at or or get another ecu/chip/map with less ignition than the JDM one to srt this out.

p1prodrive

iTrader: (3)

yeah sounds like you could need a re-map to run on just optimax

STI Craig

i agree your prob running too much boost
and that red light flashing it telling you youll pop your engine if you leave it too long.

wen i got my import i was running optimax and a bottle of booster per fill up untill i had it remaped to optimax only

martinscooby

does anyone know whats wrong with my car its a impreza turbo uk wagon with a full stainless ,boost controller ,fuel cut defencer,fuel pressure reg,blow off valve ,n indution kit its only running 15psi and i havnt got a knock sensor
and the damm thing is ill now i was out in it last night and it was fine then smoke was coming from dump valve when leting ov revs as it dumped big puff of smoke then smoke from exuast and boost went down to about 10psi then i was taking car home on motorway at 80mph in 5th with my foot half on revs then the speed droped to 50mph and i was full revs and i thought it was gonna stop all together it started to miss fire like it was on 3 cylinders but i took it easy all the way home doing 30 with loads ov smoke about a mile behind when i got home i opened the bonnet and there was **** loads ov oil on dump valve and oil on inside ov bonnet where it was shooting out ov dump valve i rang my local scooby tuning place n they said that turbo will be goosed and the propeler in turbo will have snaped n gone into engine (causing it to miss fire) and i would need engine rebuild but would it miss fire if it was just turbo or seals has it got to be engine damaged aswell if its miss firing or is it just coz turbos gone plz help im not spending 2grand to rebuild my engine id rather get newer engine for bit extra cash or just change my turbo plz plz help

andy97

iTrader: (1)

Why didnt you stop as soon as the black smoke appeared and check over the engine bay and possibly get rescued to home or nearest dealer for subarus. The only way to tell what the damage is to get the turbo removed and checked over to see if it has self destructed. If its broken into little bits then then it would be neccessary to see if those parts have got beyond the intercooler, if they have then your engine will need a rebuild.

Andy

martinscooby

the smoke that was coming out was pure white but i have just did a test the car on tick over it is just smoking and not miss firing when reved either but when u try n drive it miss fires like mad but on stand still reves fine i noticed this a couple ov times in cold morning when i was going to work first few mins u try to put foot down a little bit and it would judder like miss fire till it was warmed up but id never did that when i got it i have only just remember coz it only did it a few times and thats what its doing now miss fire when driven but u rev on spot and its fine so what u wreckon just turbo or what?????

cheers for ur help lads

GC8

If the reds only appear during a spirited gearchange, might they be mechanical noise rather than detonation?

Simon

Peanuts

iTrader: (15)

white smoke = water based??
as opposed to blue for oil?

also, b r e a t h

scoobywentbang

Adventures of a paranoid owner continued...

Just got back from a trip to Leicester this afternoon.
Forgot my octane booster, got lost, all the usual. Ended up in a Tesco in Ashby, put in a tenner's worth of normal 97 super (not their 99 ron cos it wasn't there) to get home to Peterborough.

Late getting home, so upped the pace a little bit, squinting all the while at the knocklink, waiting for the light to go more bananas than it usually does with my normal blend of optimax and NS booster.

It didn't. It went off a lot lot less, which is leading me to think the garage I'm filling up at all the time is full of duff/degrading Optimax.

I use half a bottle of NS booster per fill up as a rule, which is worth 3 octane points. That, plus optimax should be worth 100 ron.
Yet tesco 97, with only the residual booster from the previous fill-up (maybe half to a points' worth) reduced detonation significantly.
That, by my calcs, is pointing the finger at my local garage's optimax (if it really is) being more like normal 95 or seriously dirty.

Off to BP in Bretton in a mo, armed with a half bottle of NS booster, to see if that lowers it further still.

On a side note, I guess it's possible my knocklink isn't calibrated properly. It was fitted while my replacement engine (other lunched its crank indirectly thanks to a knackered lamda) was running in and the garage was, understandably, well reluctant to thrape the motor at that point.

Does anyone really know, do knocklinks need setting up, or do they just hardwire in and that's it?

pslewis

Cocklinks are for those who can't tell when their car 'might' be doing something it shouldn't .............. anyone who can drive as one with the vehicle don't need such toys!!

Pete

scoobywentbang

As a sidenote (ok, ok, I'm going now, really...) I wonder how much effect barometric pressure, humidity and air temperature have on detonation.
My scoob seems to knocklink its butt off on those cold, damp nights, and less so on hot, dry days.
Imagination or did I get something right?

"Scoob - like a gsx-r600, only faster"

scoobywentbang

Are you part car, part bloke then Pete?
Your quote coming from a man who wrote, recently: "I have overfilled the gearbox oil, is it the same oil that the front diff uses?? By this I mean is it using the gearbox oil or its own?"
Snigggggggger.

pslewis

I drive my cars as part of it, I feel it, I hear it, I smell it, I sense every movement - I treat them with sympathy, with care and with respect.

It's to do with the years of driving - driving cars without computers, laptops, maps, MAFs, injection, electronic this and that, sound proofing, etc. etc.

I fear we now have a bunch of drivers who rely solely upon electronic gizmos and drive like they are on their Playstations ............................ the genuine art of driving has been lost, you just keep looking at your Mickey Mouse lights and crapping your nappies .........

I'll keep driving and feeling ........

Pete

scoobywentbang

well done, I just used to race for a professional living...

scoobywentbang

Hmmmm, BP Ultimate and a whole bottle of NoS booster (different brand of both fuel and booster) this time and I've still got excess knocklink activity.
Red if floored in first or second any revs,
Big red between third and fourth on the gearchange (prolly just extra mechanical activity)
Amber/red on full pedal above 5000rpm any gear.
Maf and lamda still fine.

Now wondering if
a) knocklink isn't set up quite correctly and is erring on the side of caution (anyone know if they have to be calibrated?)

b) I need to disappear some of the 1.25 bar turbo boost.

c) I need a full UK fuel map.

dualtech

Hi,

I,ve got a my 99 sti ra that has been remapped. 1.45 boost all the way to 8000 rpm and i only sometimes get 1 green light. Just goes to show that a remap is worth it.

By the way I live in Peterborough so give me a shout if you want to meet up

scoobywentbang

Thanks mate, that's a big help - good to know it can be ironed out. I'll meet up with ya if you wanna give me a shout. The motor's at Best Bodies Gym in Bretton right now.

StickyMicky

my thoughts



BP ultimate is crap

martinscooby

hi its me again i removed my indution n intakes and got to turbo and i checked the propeller inside and its fine no breaks or bits missing and it moves round with no play.

so can anyone tell me if my turbo seals are gone would this cause oil to get into my intercooler there was loads iniside had to pour it out n dump vale had some in and air flow system so would this cause my smoke from exhast n dump valve

plz help and any1 got a turbo for sale LOL

Butty

iTrader: (2)

Martin,
From your description, I'd look more closely at the engine than the turbo. Carry out, or get a garage to carry out a compression test.
I'd also start a separate thread about your trouble as you're "hijacking" Scoobywentbang's thread.

Nick

scoobywentbang

Awwwww, now on tank of Optimax and 1.5 bottles (9 ron points-worth) of NS booster and the knocklink's still going barmy.

Off to Xtreme asap to get it looked at - maybe the knocklink's u/s.

Failing that, it's remap time.

Any suggestions as to who should be doing it for me. Limit is 200 miles from Peterborough so the chap in Scotland is, unfortunately, out.

Need a map to take Optimax and booster on a religious basis and keep 1.25 bar of boost pressure.

New to mapping so any suggestions more than gratefully received.
My limit's about 600 quid.

Keith
(back on me pushbike)

zhastaph

Hi Keith,

The first thing that you want to do is to determine whether the knocklink is showing you det or whether it is picking up some other mechanical noise.

Unless you have a friend with a set of det cans the method I would choose to determine this is to drop the boost pressure signifigantly. This can be achieved by directly connecting the nipple on the compressor outlet to the waste gate actuator thus skipping the boost solenoid. This will take boost control away from the ECU and drop the boost produced to a trivial 7/8 psi.

If you find running the car on reduced boost results in the same red lights then this is most likely some form of mechanical noise that the KL is picking up, in this instance the first thing I'd do is check it's fitment location.

However, if the red lights stop then this is most likely det you are seeing. At this point you need to be very careful as for sure it is not going to be long before this engine follows the same route as your previous. For me, first port of call would be the maf as they are well known to be troublesome 'engine eaters' on the STI 5.

chris dt

iTrader: (3)

all this money you are spending!!!!!just buy an apexi pfc and get it mapped properly and youll be laughing.i did and its well worth it.
chris

scoobywentbang

Thanks for all the input, guys.
The car's booked in with XtremeScoobies tomorrow morning.
First port of call is to check the Knocklink's operation - the sensitivity is apparently still set to max, so they're going to check its accuracy and adjust it accordingly.
If it is detonation and the Knocklink is doing its job, then it is remap time.
Again Xtreme have a mapper to hand, so I may be coming out either a couple of quid lighter or 500-600 quid.
I'm changing the maf for sure this time as well just for peace of mind as, you rightly say, they're prone to taking a holiday on sti 5s.
Keith

scoobywentbang

Back from Xtreme, none the wiser.
It's not the maf (swopped and checked) or anything minor.
The Knocklink is fitted correctly but the motor's still detting.
Possibles include - a wonky ECU, knackered injectors, or mechanical noise.
When I pushed them on the last one they suggested it *might* be (but unlikely given the Swiss watch nature of the engine) the big ends on the way out. This doesn't want to be the case as it's a replacement 30,000 mile engine from a breakers, bought to solve the old engine's problem of ........... big ends on the way out.
It's got a start-up warranty only from the breaker but that's ok - it did it from the start-up, so nothing's changed. Only time elapsing while we try to discover the exact cause of the problem.
I'm awaiting a call from Det can man Pat Herborn. Apparently, his diagnostic kit will pin-point exactly what the cause is.
The cabin is stinking of petrol a bit but I can't see any fuel leaks from anywhere.
My money's on the injectors at this stage.
Yours, looking at a Vauxhall Monaro in 10 mins,
Keith
BTW, popped over to Hayward and Scott to get me flapping back-box exhaust bracket welded up while I was in Essex. Despite being incredibly busy, they fitted me in straight away, did a sterling job, and only wanted a fiver. Top guys.

scoobywentbang

Injectors off - sitting in the cleaning bay of Specialist Autos, Peterborough at the mo.

scoobywentbang

Injectors back on, warm car up, tease the throttle in first gear. Knocklink sleeping. Harder in second, Knocklink sleeping, floor it to 8000rpm, Knocklink sleeping. Drive it like I stole it AND I'm late for tea....nothing, except one GREEN light blink. No amber, no red.
I don't believe it - a #140.41 injector clean out and diagnostic tune-up has cured the detonation which has spent a week confusing just about everyone who's looked at the car.
Quick call to Xtreme to make sure removing the injectors couldn't have disturbed the Knocklink's sensitivity and, woohoo, happy.
So, a big thanks to the guys with helpful advice on Scoobynet and an up yours to the silly sod who whinged about Knocklinks turning drivers into girlies and for his what-do-they-do-anyway-as-the-car-has-its-own-retard-mechanism comments?
Simply put - the stock ECU isn't designed to cope with the excess tolerances of injectors gummed to the point mine were, coupled with a significant increase in turbo boost pressure, which mine also has.
Still going to get the remap done - this week hopefully if Pat ever gets out of bed and phones me, lol.
As I'm a newbie, I can't post attachments so I'll type from the diagnostic report for anyone interested. The flow rate increased around 2 per cent, that's all. But the main breakthrough was the delivery of a better spray pattern after the injectors had been cleaned.

Before cleaning: FAIR spray pattern on all four injectors. Flow rates of 121, 122, 122, 121, respectively.

After cleaning: GOOD spray pattern on all four injectors. Flow rates of 123, 124, 123, 123, respectively.

Not a lot of an increase but enough to make the difference between heavy det and nothing.
I'm going to add it to my annual servicing schedule.

For anyone in the Peterborough area that's interested, I got mine done at Specialist Autos in Brook Street (next to Jenna's curry house). Bloke's name is Trevor on 01733 349329.
The 140.41 cost included them removing and refitting the injectors, an emissions test (er, um, where'd I put that cat) and the VAT.

Now, if I can get the car mapped to run on Optimax only and keep the power, I'll be well happy. Pat.... where are you..........?

AC-scoobie

Glad your cars OK now. Just goes to show you'd never have known had it not been for your 'cocklink' and you would be looking at a hefty engine rebuild.

scoobywentbang

'Zactly, mate. 200 quid Knocklink saved certain destruction.
Oddly enough, a bloke that tunes Nissans, who trains at my gym, came in last night. I told him the problems I was having (but not the cure) and asked him what his likely diagnosis would be. He listened to the engine for bottom-end rumble, smiled, and said: "I'd guess at the injectors needing a clean. It's unusual, but sometimes the spray pattern is disturbed to the point the petrol almost drips rather than drizzles." Uncanny.

Used up all the fuel with additive playing last night, now running on super only (ultimate this time), minor knocklink activity (two greens).
Spoke to Xtreme this morning, hopeful of getting down there Friday for Pat to have a listen and diagnose exactly where we stand at the mo.
Will consider my options, probably go for 550 injectors and an uprated fuel pump, and get a full remap to take advantage of the air filter, 3" exhaust, etc.

Not sure of the likely bhp outcome but I'm opting for a safe remap rather than a hairy premature engine-wearing one.
Keith