J_Boulton

Yep, the car is very different with the HKS cams in. As Chris says, it sounds much better too and something that I'm really pleased about is that the revs now rise and fall quickly again, sounding very nice, whereas with the Titan cams it revved like some little 1.2 thing, sloooow up and down, not nice. Bottom line is that it's now much more enjoyable to drive and is eager and ready to go from under 4k in third, rather than having to drop to 2nd and thrash it's nuts off to make any progress. Basically, it's a different car. Next step is to fit the Precision 6765 that I've got and then get some niggles with the map sorted, including the ones Chris mentioned. It's the DBB, billet wheel version and I'm hoping it'll give me earlier spool than I'm getting with the BW. If that turns out to be the case then I'll be very pleased. Anyway, I'm so relieved that I'm starting to see light at the end of the seemingly endless tunnel and I'm really looking forward to getting it on the track in the new year as soon as the weather allows, particularly as I've now got a decent suspension setup. Also, once I've got everything on the mechanical side sorted I can finally turn my attention to long overdue cosmetic work, including the refurb of the BBS LM's, which I'm thinking of making all silver rather than the silver and gold they are now. Chris, I've got the vvti solenoid connector working fine by using two very small spade connectors. As soon as I've identified which connector it is from the document yon gave me I'll let you know so it can be ordered.

Bloody hell, I knew I'd get one of them wrong! Front this, input that, release the other...

Right, latest attempt to try and get to the bottom of the lag is that the car is back with Chris having two HKS 264 cams installed. At the same time Chris will be fitting new suspension (current setup has probably outlived it's usefulness), and a new RPS twin carbon clutch. Oh, and he found a workaround to the missing locking wheel nut key - good old brute force, plus some fine fettling so no damage was caused. The Germans should have had a replacement sent out to me at the beginning of the week, after I'd supplied all the correct information, but their famous efficiency failed to materialise and nothing got sent. After a number of conversations they admitted fault and said a new one would be sent out immediately, but then proceeded to insist my postcode didn't even exist. It was at that point I reminded them who won the war. The new one should be with me tomorrow. Chris began work today and has spoken to me a few times with updates, as there were a couple of issues that arose once he started dismantling things. One of them being the front main seal has failed and leaking oil so a new modified one is going in. The water pump is also on its last legs so that's getting replaced too. And a rattle from the gearbox area when I switch off has been confirmed by Chris as the release bearing so that's also getting binned for a new one. All those things aside, the main push towards eradicating the lag is the fitting of the new HKS cams and I'm very interested to see what effect they will have...

Right, thanks Lee. I've looked on the invoice and it says Fedex ground.

Once stuff has actually shipped from MVP, how long does it usually take to get here? Just asking as my new clutch is on its way. And I'm in exactly the same position as Ricky and Magictorch with a turbo. I even spoke to Precision (Nathan I think) before I ordered the turbo to make sure he'd definitely got what I needed before I ordered it from Dusty. When I kept checking last week with MVP I was always being told it should be with them in the next day or so. When I called again on Tuesday I asked for a proper update on what was going on, so Paul (MVP), called Precision while I was on the phone and came back on to say 'Hmmm, looks like they lied to me when I ordered it, they haven't got the housing size you ordered.' So I've now had to change the order, after all this time. Paul did say that Precision had told him that they would send the new housing out to him that day, but after hearing what's happening with you guys as well, I'm not so confident about the turbo appearing anytime soon...

True, it's worth a shot.

Yeah, sorry Lee, I knew you weren't actually saying it's been ruled out as a problem, I'm just trying to think of the next best thing to do. I'll get that new gasket fitted today.

I'm pretty certain it's not a genuine Garrett exhaust housing as it hasn't got a little plate on giving part/serial numbers, etc. Do you think they would still be able to repair it economically if that's the case? Or are they just going to say to me it's not genuine, they can't do anything with it and I'd need to buy a new one.

Right, so if cr is possibly not an issue does it now seem logical to do a test of swapping the turbo for a similar one, like Ian suggested? If so, which one? I still have my GT4088R but the blades are frayed and I know it's down on power because of that, but would it at least give me a comparison on the spool and lag? Or is there another one to test which would give a better comparison and go on easier, with maybe less hassle? Yeah, you're right Jamie, it'll be a room with padded walls for me soon if I don't get it sorted.

No, it was springs and valves, plus any other necessary bits. It was basically all the Supertech stuff that was due to go onto your head but ended up going on mine. The GT4088R setup I had previously had good low down power. Michel, Ryan and others could all vouch for that.

The pistons are the same ones that were in when I was running the GT4088R, and there was plenty of low down grunt with that setup. Could something with the new head/springs/valves be causing a lower compression? Lee mentioned his car use to have the same trait as mine, nothing low down and then a sudden surge of power. He found out it was due to low compression and once he sorted that it was fine.

Right, changed the exhaust cam yesterday and, cutting a long story short, there's virtually no difference. It does now begin to pull at about 4.5k, but nothing of any real consequence and then still only really goes at about 5k. It still has nothing low down and remains like an asthmatic old man. I took a trip down to see LeeP yesterday to get the swap done with the plan of then seeing Ryan is morning to get some tweaks and niggles ironed out on the map, but he couldn't make it so will have to get that sorted next week. Thanks for everything yesterday Lee, it was great to finally meet you. Lee checked the timing of the Titan cams first and everything seemed fine so then went onto swapping out the exhaust cam. During the swap his eagle-eye spotted an issue with the cam caps. On the exhaust side, one was on the wrong way round and on the intake side there were two in the wrong place Apart fom the disappointment of the cam change not working we did get a couple of other issues sorted, the main one being a slack throttle cable which Lee did a nifty job on. The throttle pedal is now much better. Something that Lee did mention was compression ratio and how it might be affecting things. Paul, could you remind me what compression ratio it's running and what gasket you put on? I have got a couple of little jobs to do which may or may not have some influence on things. One is to replace the wastegate spring with a stiffer one. There's a 7psi in there now and I'll replace it with a 14psi one. There's also a slight blow from the turbo gasket so I'll replace that today as well. So, the end result is still no real progress towards getting this issue sorted.

Right, the turbine blades are fine, I took everything apart on Wednesday morning and found no indication of damage. Wastegate is fine too. So, I got in touch with AET about trying the smaller .88 housing. They'd got one and could adapt it to the 3" v-band fitting. Then, yesterday morning Ryan called me to catch up on the latest with the car and I told him the turbo was fine. Ryan then seemed pretty damn sure it was the cams causing the problem, and suggested we get standard cams back in to see if the spool improves. Since then the .88 housing arrived and I fitted it yesterday afternoon out of desperation. The result? Bugger all difference. Certainly none that I can notice anyway, spool is just as bad. So It certainly looks like Ryan is right, the cams are the bad guys in all this. So now I have to organise a cam swap and then get everything re-shimmed - yet again. Anybody got a VVTi inlet cam available? (my original one had it's head chopped off when the new ones were fitted)

It hasn't been checked yet Jamie, I'm planning on having a look tomorrow. I've got a horrible feeling you may be onto something because as Chris says, it just doesn't feel anything like 650+ but more like my previous setup with the GT4088R which had about 500 at the flywheel... I'm going to have a look at the wastegate as well like Chris suggested to me earlier today. To be honest, if the turbo is knackered I'll be relieved, in a strange way, because at least that explains something. But I'd also be looking for some answers as to why it has after only a few months, particularly as it hasn't really been used much in that time. Could it be that these turbos are simply not spooling early or is it generally the opinion that they should, and do on other peoples setups, but mine is the odd one out and clearly indicates something is wrong? God, what I'd do to get a nice early spooling setup that I can just enjoy. I'll report back with findings when I've checked the turbo and wastegate. And thanks to everyone for their input and help so far on trying to get to the bottom of this issue.

Hi all As well as putting up some info that some may find useful, I wanted to say a few thanks as well. During the last few months I've had a few ups and downs while tryng to get my car mechanically sound so that I can get round to some cosmetic stuff, such as wheel refurb, etc. The story with this car started two years or more ago. It went from a standard twin turbo VVTi to a single as soon as I got it. The turbo was a Garrett GT4088R on an SP manifold (I think) and at the same time this was being done all the new fuelling work, etc., was carried out, new 850 injectors, uprated pistons, rods and bearings, but nothing on the head. The ECU was an AEM. All went well, for a while... I had the same problems everyone else seemed to be suffering with the GT4088R - frayed blades. Upon seeing this happen, the manifold also decided to follow suit and promptly cracked around the runners and on the turbo flange. After that I decided to leave it alone for a while as I had other things that needed my attention and I was also stinging from paying out a lot of money to basically have feck all to show for it. Back in April I decided to try again, and this time I went for a BW 91/79 and Whiffbitz manifold, which Paul also fitted. I also decided to have the head done this time round and had Titan Motorsport cams fitted (272 9.9mm lift) along with Supertech valves, springs etc. A Syvecs ECU was then supplied and fitted by Ryan and he then went onto map it. It produced 654BHP when it went on the the dyno at SRR, with about 540 ft/lbs. The main thing I noticed when I first drove it was that it seemed laggy, quite a difference to the previous setup. Ryan had commented on this too. When I spoke to Paul and he saw the graph, he said it looked too laggy for the setup. Other people with the same turbo and manifold seemed to be getting useable boost around 4000 plus, mine wasn't really doing anything 'til about 4750 or so. Anyway, a number of things were investigated to see if there were any obvious problems but nothing showed. I then got the car to Chris Wilson, who had looked after my previous Supra, taking it from a standard UK to a really nice BPU setup. And having Chris only about 15 mins away is excellent. During the time Chris had the car he did a lot of work to it, including fitting a new clutch, flywheel, idle control valve (needed because the idle was pretty crappy to be honest) plus a few other odds and ends. Chris also fitted a new VVTi unit as the old one was making a knocking noise. Once the new one was on Chris dismantled the old one and found it had seized, definitely buggered. One of the other bigger jobs he did was to re-do the valve clearances, and boy, what a difference that made! The car went from being noisy, harsh-sounding and seemingly stressed when being asked to perform, to being sweet, tight, more willing to get on with it, and all with lower EGT's. Also, the oil temp now didn't go above 100 or so, even when pushing fairly hard, whereas before I could easily and quickly go over 110 and beyond. Everything seemed a lot, lot better. After that we had a few electrical issues which caused a far bit of frustration to say the least. A couple of sensors were dodgy and got replaced but the main issue was tracked down to the wiring for the map sensor being severed. Once we sorted that, the ECU reported back that all was good and I set about booking a new mapping session. Which brings me onto last Friday when I spent the day down at TDI in Thurrock getting the car mapped by Dave Rowe. Some we did on the road but the real stuff was done on the hub dyno. What a setup that is - a fantastic dyno room with more fan-power than a Take That concert. We were in there for three hours or so and I even managed to do my bit by sitting in the passenger seat pressing Alt R on the dyno keyboard when I got the thumbs up from Dave before each pull The car went in running at 1.45 bar, making 654 BHP at the flywheel and 540 ft/lbs from when it was dynoed at SRR back in June. It came out running at 1.75 bar, making 593 BHP at the hubs with 479 ft/lbs on Tesco 99. Dave (mapper) and Sam (TDI) both commented that there was more power in there but a limiting factor seemed to be the wastegate spring, which was only .5 bar. I was really pleased with the overall results and I'd like to thank Dave for a stirling job. It was great to work with him and see him in action. One issue that cropped up was my intake temperature. A probe on the cold side of my filter was reading 56 degrees. It really pushed home how useful it could be to get the air intake boxed off from the hot air in the bay and fed with its own dedicated supply. On the way home the car felt good. It sounded nice and pulled really well, wanting to break away at the back on a few occasions. The lagginess is still there so it seems as if the cams are playing their part in that. But when it all comes on song, pulls hard and keeps going, they're probably playing their part in that too. I'd love to get a quicker spool and will look into possibilities. So, a big thanks to the guys at TDI. Sean and Sam were highly professional and did everything they could to make the day as hassle and stress free as possible. Very knowledgable guys too. Also, I need to thank Lee (SRD) and Jamie. Many times I've spoken to both on the phone and every time each has spent time talking stuff through and giving honest, real-world advice on a number of things. Thanks guys. And Chris. I've now known Chris for quite a while and I think I've caused him as much frustration during that time as I have myself. Particularly with this most recent set of problems. But, he has always given me honest, straightforward, no-nonsense advice. There have been times I haven't listened, but I've suffered for it. And he's gone above and beyond the call of duty to help me when I've been in a hole, on more than one occasion during my time as a Supra owner. Thanks Chris. Jules