Bad idle+sea foam+gasket?

[leex]

I sea foamed my car and found a leak in the manifold gasket. I fixed it and sea foamed it again, now looks like its coming from my turbo inlet and outlet gasket?? Sea foamed twice to double check the leak. That turbo gaskets weren't leaking before or so may be due to the leak from the manifold which absorbed most of the leak?. Also, my car idles worst then before?? I don't know how could this happen? Too much sea foamed bad? What are the consequences of too much sea foam and can a turbo inlet and outlet gasket cause bad idling? Pls Help?

 

[orng1]

I'm a little confused as to what you mean by turbo inlet and outlet. Are you talking about on the turbine/exhaust side or the compressor/intake side?

If it's the turbine side you may just need to tighten up the bolts a bit.

 

[leex]

Yeah, I guess that sounds right. The gaskets for the turbo?? DO you think I loosened it when I was fixing the manifold? We didn't even take the turbo apart, just the down pipe and then stuck in the manifold gasket. It has alot of problems idling now and sometimes in neutral it'll just stay at like 200 rpm for 3 seconds. No gas problems though, every-time I step on the gas, the car runs and will rev up. Only in neutral is when its have problems idling. Do you think the leak from the turbo is causing this idle problem? I just ordered two gaskets for the turbo and they are coming in this Friday. Just wondering if anyone knows what else might be going wrong with it or have similar problems and might know what to do so I can save some money, I just want to fix this car.

 

[orng1]

The car would stall at 200rpm, this car does tend to stumble a lot at idle. The 1st line on the tach is 500rpm it usually dips down to around 650 as the fan kicks on.

 

[leex]

I mean it would idle at 500 to 600 but have a rough idle that goes in between 500 and 600 and then later you find it idling at 200 then back to normal but you could feel the engine having problems keeping the calm idle at 500. You think it's because of the turbo gasket leak?

 

[sublyminull]

I mean it would idle at 500 to 600 but have a rough idle that goes in between 500 and 600 and then later you find it idling at 200 then back to normal but you could feel the engine having problems keeping the calm idle at 500. You think it's because of the turbo gasket leak?

My MSP was doing the same thing at idle. after getting used to it and nursing the car i found that it was the Wastegate actuator slowly going bad. this could be something to look into. Do you have a boost gauge? if so, what are your readings?

 

[leex]

No I don't have a boost gauge. That may be a problem too, hmm......

 

[leex]

subly,
What other problems have you been having lately? Did you just buy a wastegate? Did it fix the problem? How much did it cost? What kind of reading did you get on your gauge? I am thinking about putting my friends gauge on mines to read it and see what problems I run into. That's a great idea. Yeah, after we place a new gasket into the manifold, the car has been acting strange, rough idle and would idle at like 100 to 200 sometimes for like 3 or 4 seconds and then goes back to rough idling at 500 and 600. I also notice that when I accelerate high and shift to neutral right away the car will want to stall, rpm drops like crazy to 100 and 0. However, if I baby the car and accelerate then let it decelerate and then shift to neutral the car won't die it'll just go back to it's rough idling. Same problems?

 

[leex]

Hey subly,
What problems did you have with the wastegate? Did it let too much air in? Too much air out? How did you find out? What were your readings? Do you think I could tighten the wastegate up, would that help?

 

[sublyminull]

Hey subly,
What problems did you have with the wastegate? Did it let too much air in? Too much air out? How did you find out? What were your readings? Do you think I could tighten the wastegate up, would that help?

The issues I was having was intermittent stalling at idle at first then it progressed into a constant stall at idle.

Boost guage was reading 10 vac to 0 depending on the day.


You can't tighten up the wastegate actuator. there is a diaphram inside of it that will expand when it reaches a certain PSI. When i got the part off I could easily move the rod side to side and up and down (thats what she said). I just bought a new one and replaced it and it runs way better no more stalling out at idle.

and for quick ref here are the readings you shoud have

at idle or during non throttle times with the AC off.
around 20 vac.

with the ac on i usually am at 15 vac.

I highly recommend borrowing that boost gauge or just buying one as they are on of the best diagnostic tools for our car for some reason lol. if you have anymore questions about it feel free to PM me or i'll check this post as much as possible.

 

[Pez]

I highly recommend borrowing that boost gauge or just buying one as they are on of the best diagnostic tools for our car for some reason lol. if you have anymore questions about it feel free to PM me or i'll check this post as much as possible.

(mswerd) Boost gauge is definatly a must need tool for an msp. Easy to install too!

 

[orng1]

(mswerd) Boost gauge is definatly a must need tool for an msp. Easy to install too!

x1,000,000,000

 

[leex]

Hmmm.. so you are saying the diaphram is not opening up or is messed up? Is that it? Can u explain further in detail.