TurboDiverArt
08-05-2007, 18:52
Hey all,
I had posted once before about having trouble with losing boost just when I needed it most. The first two times it happened was when I was towing, it would drop out of gear, RPM’s would go up, boost would climb to around 10-12 then it would crash to zero, no power, black smoke and the EGT’s would go up. If I let off allowing it to up-shift I could get boost back and everything was fine.
Anyway, I checked the air way and it was good. I knew it was something with the pre-turbo induction setup cause the little “change filter now” pop-it thingy was orange when I would look under the hood.
Anyway, coming back from Ohio today with nothing in tow it happened again. This was the first time it had happened without a load in tow. It happened every time it dropped out of gear at high speed on a hill. It did not happen on the way out earlier in the week.
When I got back I grabbed a new stock air filter and set out to do some testing. I had no problem recreating it on the street from a standing start. I popped the hood intending to swap air filters for a back-to-back test thinking the filter was maybe clogged even though I had cleaned it 3000 miles ago (it looked clean before the trip). When I pulled off the UNI filter (still looking clean) the yellow foam on the inside of the filter was pulling away from the rest of the filter casing. It’s pretty clear to me that this was clogging the air path to the turbo, bunching up and making the air-way out of the filter much smaller. I’m just glad it didn’t rip off and get sucked into my turbo and stall the wheel or worse do catastrophic damage.
I’ve got a stock FRAM filter on now and I have no problems. I guess I’ll be buying a K&N next time. I’m surprised I only got 80,000 miles out of the UNI filter. I cleaned and re-oiled it every 10,000 miles and I’m not in dusty conditions. I like the foam filters cause I think they filter better but I just can’t risk it coming apart like it was and destroying my turbo!
Art.
I had posted once before about having trouble with losing boost just when I needed it most. The first two times it happened was when I was towing, it would drop out of gear, RPM’s would go up, boost would climb to around 10-12 then it would crash to zero, no power, black smoke and the EGT’s would go up. If I let off allowing it to up-shift I could get boost back and everything was fine.
Anyway, I checked the air way and it was good. I knew it was something with the pre-turbo induction setup cause the little “change filter now” pop-it thingy was orange when I would look under the hood.
Anyway, coming back from Ohio today with nothing in tow it happened again. This was the first time it had happened without a load in tow. It happened every time it dropped out of gear at high speed on a hill. It did not happen on the way out earlier in the week.
When I got back I grabbed a new stock air filter and set out to do some testing. I had no problem recreating it on the street from a standing start. I popped the hood intending to swap air filters for a back-to-back test thinking the filter was maybe clogged even though I had cleaned it 3000 miles ago (it looked clean before the trip). When I pulled off the UNI filter (still looking clean) the yellow foam on the inside of the filter was pulling away from the rest of the filter casing. It’s pretty clear to me that this was clogging the air path to the turbo, bunching up and making the air-way out of the filter much smaller. I’m just glad it didn’t rip off and get sucked into my turbo and stall the wheel or worse do catastrophic damage.
I’ve got a stock FRAM filter on now and I have no problems. I guess I’ll be buying a K&N next time. I’m surprised I only got 80,000 miles out of the UNI filter. I cleaned and re-oiled it every 10,000 miles and I’m not in dusty conditions. I like the foam filters cause I think they filter better but I just can’t risk it coming apart like it was and destroying my turbo!
Art.