I have a stock turbo on a '84 GN with 65,000 miles. I was tuning my car this weekend with my T-link and everything was fine. I woke up Monday morning and started the car, but it made a real funny mechanical clink when the motor was turning over, so I tried starting it again and it fired up fine. I started down the road and at about 35 mph the car starts stuttering like it does not want to shift. I procede to floor it thinking maybe I got some bad gas, the car hesitates then takes off like a mad dog. I have been driving this way a few days and the car drives ok as long as the rpms don't build up, once it shifts into overdrive the sputtering stops. I have noticed on occasion puffs of smoke coming from the exhaust and different whinning noises from the turbo?? It definately seems mechanical and coming from the side where the turbo is. the only tuning wise I did was increase the fuel pressure to 40 psi( with vac hose off) and play with the TPS. I did put the TPS back the way it was. The best description of the sputtering is like a car running out of gas, you press the accelerator and car does not want to go. When the car was finished being tuned on Sunday, it ran great?? I know I am looking for an excuse to buy a TA49, but it would be better if I could wait a few months. Anyone got any ideas??
Is my turbo fried???
- Thread starter Darkside
- Start date
The turbo is easy to check, Pull off the inlet pipe and take a look at the compresser blades. Any physical damage here will be easy to see. Next grab the center shaft and try to wiggle it around, a slight amount of play is normal, but it shoulden't hit anything. It should also spin freely by hand. If this all checks out OK, you could pull off the exhaust elbow to get a visual on the exhaust wheel to see if it's all there. If everything is in order, your prob is prob elsewhere. What color is the smoke you are seeing? It should be coming out both pipes since all the ehuaust goes through the turbo and downpipe then splits into the duel exhaust. I had a problem with my cam sensor a while ago the caused a situation like yours. You could check your adjustment on that.
The smoke was kind of black. I did not notice it on both sides because I noticed it from my drivers side mirror, but car was under a load. It's funny that you mentioned the cam sensor. I noticed a tiny coolant leak from the thermostat housing today, it was dripping down past the cam sensor. Luckily the leak was so tiny that a can of bars leak fixed it. I wonder if water could effect the sensor, I know the cap is really old?
An easy check of the cam sensor is to unplug it after the car is started and take a ride. The car will not start with it unplugged, but it will run. You will hear a change in the injector noise when you unplug it, they will fire in batches instead of sequentialy, This is normal. If your problem goes away you're moving in the right direction. With black smoke It's either a fuel or ignition problem, a turbo going south will usually result in blue or white oil smoke. My usually has a gray haze behind it if I'm really standing on it but nothing should be seen under normal driving. Have you tried setting your fuel plessure back to where you started? Also how old is the timing chain?
