not building boost, am i missing something? Options

[easternpiro1]

Hi all, was wondering if i can get some feedback on something i was missing. here's the story:

recently a friend and I fixed a leak due to stripped thread in the head causing a leak between the exhaust manifold and block.

after rethreading and putting everything back togehter leak is gone BUT now im seeing much lower boost numbers after taking it for a drive.

I own an AEM tru boost controler/gauge and the boost is currently set to stock wastegate pressure (8psi) and consistently held this pressure PRIOR to fixing the exhaust leak.

as of today, my first drive out, my car would not pull past 5psi and touched 6psi BRIEFLY. I double checked my IC piping and adjusted and retightened.

when i went back out the car would only boost up to 4-5 psi adn sometimes as low as 2-3 max.



Im pretty sure its a leak somewhere but it can only be one place as the only IC piping that was removed was the piping coming from the turbo (charge side) i have checked and double checked it.

is there something im missing? any helpful hints would be appreciated! thanks!

[easternpiro1]

"I used cigarillos."

You don't say...

Glad you found the leak, engine at 100% now?

lol dont get too excited there about those cigarillos buddy... I see your avatar! lol

So where was the leak at?

sorry guys, didnt update after I FULLY inspected where the leak was coming from. when i orginally posted that i found it, i saw steady smoke coming from the area of the IC piping routed under the fuse box (right by the wheel well) I didnt have time to jack the car up and look on the underside until the next day when I had another set of hands/eyes to help me out pumping the air in.

Here is what happened:

I jacked it up and saw that the smoke seemed to originally be comign from piping.

upon further inspection I noticed that a coupler (which was in an IMPOSSIBLE PLACE btw) WAS FRAYED ON THE EDGE cool! this is where the leak is coming from i figured...

I placed the IC Piping back on and jacked the car up and asked my gf to hold the air pump onto the vaccum line coming from the BOV.

I saw that smoke was coming from the air filter and not from the coupler like i thought. I felt like an ass... the video posted on here about that smoke test didnt account for covering up the filter and i completely forgot about it!

so next I will cover up the filter area and try again..... If this dosent work I will Unclock my other CT20b and put it on. If my car is STILL not boosting I will be selling it, this is apparently WAY over my head or im missing something.

What was weird was that after all this, when i started the car, two things happened: 1. it idled at 2k 2. my RPM gauge no longer worked (this is after i moved the fuse box to get to the piping) Cam told me that that shouldnt affect my idle because my tach addapter is next to the ECU INSIDE the car.

Im honestly beginning to think this is an electrical issue... but due to my limited Experience I'm not sure how this can be so.


Lagos, thanks for all the advice! I honestly dont know what to do at this point... the most knowledgeable person nearby absolutely hates my car lol, and for all the research and tricks ive tried to fix this problem, im just about out of ideas