Wastegate rod came loose now can't seem to get the car back to what it was

[john74]

Hi, new here and very new to the turbo buicks. Wanted one since I was 16 and saw my first GN and finally picked one up 22 years later.
I do not have a whole lot of back ground on my car other than what the seller told me.
According to him:
upgraded turbo (didn't know more than that)
bigger injectors (didn't know how much bigger)I looked at the links in the "new to turbo buicks" thread and can not see any of the markings mentioned.
Alky Kit
3000 stall converter
Bigger intercooler
Upgraded fuel pump
Adjustable fuel reg
K&N Intake and breathers
Flowmaster Exhaust
Chip (didn't know the specifics)Pic below
(will attach pics)
Now, when I bought the car, it built about 22.5 psi of boost, kicked you into the seat and would ignite the tires at will.
Coming home one day I noticed that the car sounded a bit different, laid on the gas and it had a real hard time building 5 psi.
The car ran great but no boost. Read through the forums and found that my adjustable wastegate rod had come loose. Tightened it up and played for a while and now the car is building 22-25 psi, seeing it creep up to 26-27 and has some decent power but doesn't have the off the line punch that it did.
I am running premium fuel (92 Octane), have the Alky kit set at about 7 and seeing zero knock with the Alky on.
I can not seem to find a tutorial on exactly how to set the wastegate up other than by max boost. I swear my boost is possibly even a touch higher than before but I am definitely missing some bottom end punch.
Am I possibly too loose or too tight on my wastegate?
Any input on the car would be greatly appreciated. Curious what you guys think this car could/should be capable of with the mods it has and what things I should be looking at.
I tried to attach some pics but I am too new lol.

 

[john74]

If anyone can let me know how I can post a link to some pics of the car and mods that would be great.
The chip has a hand written tag, top line says TT 5.6 3755, middle says 60# ALCOHOL, bottom line says 23 deg/21 deg 20-24 psi. Intercooler is an RJC Racing, (bloody huge lol), Turbo is a Turbonetics T-27944.

 

[Chuck Leeper]

Just how did the wg come "loose"?? Fall off the lever on the dp? Jam nut come loose?
The dp end is locked w/ a clip. The diaphram part should not turn in the diaphram hsg. The dp end has to be taken off in order for it to be adjusted.
If the nut is all that "came loose", there's likely something else going on....

 

[john74]

Well that might explain what is going on, the jam nut came loose and the rod turns inside the diaphram quite easily. From what I saw the jam nut loosened and then it simply vibrated loose. (Extended the linkage). I shortened the length of the rod little by little until I hit the same boost levels I was seeing before.

 

[john74]

If the rod is turning easily in the diaphram, does that mean that it is likely leaking by? What do you think that might cause? I am seeing a bit of creep up on the boost which I don't remember seeing before. I really have not had a chance to drive the car a whole bunch yet so I couldn't say for 100% certain that it wasn't. And like I said earlier I just do not have the bottom end power that I did before. Enough of a difference that I can tell there has been a definite change.
Thanks a lot for the reply btw.

 

[T- Type Tim]

tighten that sum b**ch up

 

[Chuck Leeper]

If the rod at the diaphram is loose, it can leak boost/vac to both sides of the actuator.
If the boost creep was already apparent, it could be the w/g hole needs to be ported. That involves taking the dp and the turbine hsg off.
Once off, you should be able to see carbon tracking around the hole. That will tell you how much excessive coverage the puck has. [If any].
If it's way off to 1 side, you may want to get a larger puck, and then do the porting.
3/32 to 1/8" overlap is what I do...Others may have different ideas....

 

[Mike T]

Just how did the wg come "loose"?? Fall off the lever on the dp? Jam nut come loose?
The dp end is locked w/ a clip. The diaphram part should not turn in the diaphram hsg. The dp end has to be taken off in order for it to be adjusted.
If the nut is all that "came loose", there's likely something else going on....

As chuck said, you may have another problem with the WG linkage (my rod will not spin). Power down low may be the puck not sealing. Did you adjust the rod much past where it was ? Looks like you now have more boost than you did before ?

 

[john74]

I couldn't see any marks on the linkage to show exactly where it was so I started low and worked my way up to the 22.5 boost range. Now when I walk on it it jumps to 22.5 and then slowly creeps up to around 27. Today I took it out for a ride and I tightened up the waste gate rod a bit just to see if that increased my low end power and no dice. No knock showing on the scanmaster and the o2 rides around 500. (Haven't found what I should be seeing yet). The car definitely smells like it is running rich at idle. I think I am going to pull the plugs out of it tomorrow and have a look at them. It is just weird because the car had full power before the wastegate rod loosened and as soon as that happened I seem to have lost all my bottom end punch. Anybody have a link to some info on what i should be looking for for readings on the scanmaster?

 

[HouTX87]

It almost sounds like you have the rod adjusted too long and the puck is not closing which would cause turbo lag. If you have the rod adjusted too short the puck won't be allowed to open all the way and could cause boost creep. O2's should be close to 800 at wot.

 

[Mike T]

You have to keep the boost low until the problem or problems are found, right now you are flirting with disaster. Did you verify the actuator is not bad/diaphram leaking ?

 

[john74]

I have the boost set at around 15 psi right now and a new wastegate actuator on order. It is weird, even building 15 psi it has almost no power compared to what it did. Maybe a dumb question but the O2 reading, is a higher number richer or leaner?

 

[john74]

Few pics of what I have to work with.

 

[john74]

Thanks a lot for the input so far btw. It is greatly appreciated.

 

[Mike T]

Nice car. Three things caught my eye in the photos, looks like you have a bolt missing in the actuator (not the problem), sometimes a gasket between the down pipe & the turbine housing can interfere with the puck (I don't run one) and the vacuum elbow at the fuel pressure regulator looks loose. If it blows off with the boost that you are running you will have more problems.

(edit) noticed one more item. Is the wastegate rod hitting the turbine housing or is that angle of the photo ? And to answer your question the higher o2 number is richer.

 

[87-WE2]

I have the boost set at around 15 psi right now and a new wastegate actuator on order. It is weird, even building 15 psi it has almost no power compared to what it did. Maybe a dumb question but the O2 reading, is a higher number richer or leaner?

Higher o2 reading is richer. 750-800 is ABOUT optimum. Anything lower than that would be considered lean according to most. A/F ratio is the tell-all, but requires a wideband o2.

 

[john74]

The wastegate moves freely with the linkage disconnected and you can hear metal on metal contact when you close it but I will definitely have a look at that tomorrow. I didn't notice the vacuum line so I will fix that up tomorrow as well. (good eye, thanks). That is a bad angle pic, that rod does run close but doesn't contact anything.
I asked the local engine builder to track down a wastegate actuator for me so hopefully they can find something for me pretty quick. Tomorrow I think I will pull the plugs out and replace them. I don't know how old they are so they should probably be done anyway and maybe do a compression test at the same time. Since I don't know much for background on the car it probably isn't a bad thing to do.

 

[john74]

Out of curiosity, with the mods listed what do you guys think that car should be capable of if it is running well?

 

[Chuck Leeper]

I'd also replace and tie wrap all vac lines...
Test the actuator w/ a hand vac pump. See if it will hold a vac.

 

[john74]

I took your advice and picked up enough vacuum hose to redo everything under the hood. I found a few that were starting to loosen up a bit so it definitely needs to be done. (Just picked it up today so I have not done it yet). I also thought of something and curious if it could be part of my problem. The wire for my amp shorted out against the exhaust pipe around the same time as my loss of power happened. When it happened, I was driving and the car was stalling and starting again. This happened maybe 3 or 4 times inside of 30 seconds till I was able to pull into the closest parking lot and pop the hood. I never even though of this being connected because I fixed the wire on teh spot and the car was running fine. I have found out that I have a Turbo Tweek 5.6 chip in the car. Is there a possibility that the amp wire shorting the system out to ground could have screwed up the programming in the chip?