My shop installed B+B headers and a zork pipe. Now my wastegate seems to not work at all. The boost will build for as long as I give it throttle, and not bleed off at 1 bar like it used to. This is not simple overboost to 1.2 or anything, this is like no reaction at all from the wastegate. No pressure release at all through my dump pipe.

I thought the install was just a straightforward bolt on to the wastegate, which is what the shop indicated. And they removed the intercooler to tune the CIS, I believe.

What range of things might have gone wrong? I would like to have an idea before talking to the shop.

I will probably just get a Tial, but I would like to at least have a clue what happened because I need to deal with the shop now.

 

On the wastegate there are two lines. A vacuum line that attaches to the intercooler: this is the line that actuates the wastegate, and a vent line: really is attached to nothing (vents to atmosphere). I know that on the factory wastegate and the Tial wastegate, the vacuum line attaches to the side of the wastegate...the vent is on top. I have seen these lines reversed or in some cases not even hooked up. The wastegate won't open if that's the case. Have a look and see. Also verify that if the vacuum line is properly attched to the wastegate body, that it's also properly attached to the intercooler.

 

One other thing - don't laugh - I once saw a wastegate complety bolted on to the manifold backwards...the exhaust side of the wastegate was attched to the headers instead of the piston side...obviously this would cause a non-functioning wastegate.

 

What kind of boost gauge do you have?
Once I made the very simple mistake of not tightening down my line to my wastegate. I went to the dyno, did 2 pulls before I realized that instead of 1 bar of boost, I was getting 2 bar of boost. Long story short, the engine had to come back out....

Do you know what boost level you saw??? And for how long?

 

I know the boost went up until I backed off, and I drove the car for a while and tried to keep it below 1 bar but clearly the wastegate never kicked in.

Did you damage your engine from your dyno pull?

My car seemed to run fine.

 

Oh yeah, burned a hole straight through the cylinder ,and burned an ARP head stud in-half.

2 pulls - 2 bar of boost...

 

What was the HP just out of curiosity?

 

I don't remember, it wasn't far off though. Probably the first pull at 2bar did it in....

 

Thanks, this answers my question as well. Last night I pulled the intercooler off and forgot to pull the hose off the intercooler, so the hose pulled loose from the wastegate instead. I wasn't clear if it pulled off the mid port or the top vent port. Sounds like it belongs connected to the middle of the unit port.