I finished installing my FM II kit this weekend and have not yet attached the electronic boost controller on my 99 with the Hydra. The manual says I need to adjust the mechanical boost so that it 'settles' around 5-6 psi and adjust the wastegate until I get it to sit around there. At moderate acceleration, it does sit around the 5-6 psi area. However, at wide open throttle, it gets up around 10 psi or so. Is this bad? Should I lower the wastegate until it only gets to 5-6 psi at WOT or just leave it as is?

I am in no hurry to get the electronic boost setup, but I do want to put the heat shield in place and I can't do that until I get the mechanical boost setup.

 

If you are only supposed to run 5 - 6 psi, then 10 psi is really bad.

 

if you have an intercooler and larger injectors 12psi should be fine... as long as you tune the hydra correctly.

 

I do have an intercooler and the 550cc injectors, but I don't have the electronic boost controller connected yet. I guess my question is: does that 5-6 psi apply to WOT or something slightly less?

 

you need to adjust the wategate some more. if you're running a line directly from the turbo into the actuator and it's hitting 10psi when it should hit 5-6psi then somethings wrong.


the hydra should however be perfectly fine with handling it as is.

 

contacted FM and I am going to log some data and send it in for analysis. They seem to think it should be fine as is though. We'll see.

 

I suggest you need to control better the WG, if you are aiming for 5-6 and are getting 10 is DOUBLE!!

Imagine when you decide to go with 15psi, and you suddenly get 20psi.... Bad things can happen.

Boost control, is supposed to be seamless between mechanical boost control from the standard WG and the electronic Boost control via ECU...

miatex

 

agreed. I sent FM a data log and they are going to send me a new style of wastegate they are investigating. Yay, free new parts!

 

new wastegate is on the way!!

 

interesting. good deal.

 

well no joy on the new parts. It seems the connecting rod was about 1/2" too short and I was unable to get the new WG to lower the psi over the stock one. The new one had some fitment issues anyway. Now I am totally bummed as I am not sure if it is safe for me to start getting into electronic boost.

Also, most of the coating (i.e. paint) on the exhaust manifold and downpipe have flaked off after just under two weeks of being in the car. Anyone else have this problem? I am not terribly happy with this as it looks terrible. You can see it even with the heat shield on. :(

 

Thats **** poor if its supposed to be a ceramic coating, if its not then i would expect that to happen. You should call them and ask.

 

Man that paint looks like ****. I really hope they don't coat all their kits with that. What a **** poor deal.

 

yeah, I am none too happy with it either. To give them the benefit of the doubt, I registered my issues with them and I will see what, if anything, they plan to do about it. I know they had quality control issues with the manifolds for a while, but I doubt this was part of it.

 

It is not a ceramic coating. One of the techs said ceramic coating is the only way that this issue wouldn't happen, but I am surprised they don't do this as a part of the kit. I spent enough money on it, I shouldn't be expected to put up with flaking and rusting parts two weeks into the install.

Like I said, I am giving them the benefit of the doubt on this until I hear back. But if I have to take my ENTIRE turbo off to get to these parts, I am not going to be a happy camper.

 

damn **** that ****

 

Should have bought a BEGi, they use real ceramic coating. The rusting of steel/iron is too be expected when the heat cycles are so extreme and the parts are not ceramic coated. The flaking is due to the exhaust gas temps probably being too high, but even the most high temp paints tend to fail on a turbo exhaust. Stainless steel will not rust in this environment but that's a different discussion.

Mark

 

posidon42, It's pretty common for manifolds and DPs to be shipped with a high-temp paint on them, rather than a proper ceramic coating. And as others have said, that paint does not last on a turbo manifold.

I honestly wouldn't get too pissed about it. I don't think FM claims to ceramic coat anything, and for that matter it's not really common practice. Bell coats their manifolds, however most of us have manifolds and turbos that are coated with a nice patina of rust. It's just the way it was meant to be.

 

Thanks for the feedback. I am a little disappointed, but nowhere near pissed. I just wish I knew this was going to happen so I could have coated the parts while they were still off the car. Maybe I will just make a bigger heat shield that hides the mess a bit Its just that I have been looking forward to installing this kit for so long and to have issues like flaking paint, a diode installed backwards in the wiring hardness for the Hydra that made my air conditioning stay on all the time and the wastegate not working correctly; it is just disappointing. Of course, I know I would never have had the guts to install a DIY kit on my car and I wanted some sort of company support for the product and that's why I went with a kit. I don't regret my decision, I just wish the final product was a little more more polished. Or coated as the case may be

 

They shouldn't paint them if it's gonna flake - lame.. The non painted mani will just rust but that's to be expected. As for running w/o your heat shield in place - that's not gonna hurt anything for a while (assuming you've wrapped your heater lines and optionally brake resivoir). To some degree you will see higher boost in WOT anyway, are you seeing higher boost in WOT at say 6K vs 4K ?