It's time

[redline380]

yeah i would say those are form vapors or the valve cover gasket.


If you let it sit idle and the coolant temp goes past idle then you should replace your thermostat.

Not sure about reusing the oil, but instincts tell me to get some more non detergent dino oil instead of throwing used oil back in.

well i drained the oil, and swapped out the oil temp sensor from my other motor. mind you the sensor i was using was out of an aug passat, but they had the same part numbers. replaced oil with 5w 30 and ran it around town. seemed to work much better. the oil temp slowly climbed up to 200, then sat between 210 and 225, and settled around 225, without ever reaching the 250 mark. 225 stills seems a little warm to me, but a whole hell of a lot better than what the other sensor was reading. guess ill put external oil cooler on my list of things for the future. also i picked up a 90 degree plastic bend and some 1 inch hose from the hardware store to make a pcv dump. ill just run a straight dump until i decide on a catch can setup

but the car is running pretty good now. afr readings are sub 12 at full boost, which is only 16 psi. ill get some more miles on it and crank it up to what the tune is written for, which is 22 i believe. spool is still slow, not really hitting 16 til 4500ish. i might mess around with my tune a bit to help, or if i get some more shingling jobs coming up ill have it tuned.

[thenj3]

lets hope more people needs roofs. i tried self tuning and its just a pain in the ass. too much traffic where i live to really open her up and get good logs

[redline380]

lets hope more people needs roofs. i tried self tuning and its just a pain in the ass. too much traffic where i live to really open her up and get good logs

space shouldnt be an issue. not sure if you noticed the corn fields in some of my photos, but i live a little out of town, on a dirt road even. dont get me wrong, im not capable or comfortable with tuning myself at this point yet. i get a lotlof research to do, but at least i always got the base map to revert back to. kinda glad i went maestro. but things are lookin decent now. im gonna clean the interior a bit and put my pcv dump in and post pics

[thenj3]

tuning really isnt that bad. like ya said gotta read alot of info learn what your doing. it just takes time and im not a patient person lol. so id rather pay somebody and then enjoy

[redline380]

well got my temporary pcv dump on. but i forgot to mention when i drained the oil, i was half expecting to find a oil squiter on my magnetic drain plug. happy to report no oil squiters were on there, but some metal shavings about half an inch long and much thinner than a human hair were on there, as well as two hucks of metal approximately the size of a pin head. these kinda worry me, but im hoping there were in the motor before hand and got worked out of an oil galley or something. either way they arent large enough to necessitate me tearing apart the motor, but i will keep an eye on things. only time will tell, but ill switch to synthetic oil in 400 miles.

[redline380]

wrapped the downpipe tonight. also got a turbo blanket on the way. my coolant temps are fine while driving, but creep up after idling for a couple minutes. figured keeping the hot exhaust temps inside couldnt hurt. on a side note, i was working on my girlfriends jetta tonight. her epc light was on (have no idea what it is for). after the damn thing wouldnt rev up even when flooring the gas pedal, i tried to adapt the throttle body. it wasnt having it. luckily i had another dbw throttle body sitting around, swapped it in, and epc light went out right away and the thing revs up now. but now for a couple pics.

[redline380]

well a sad update. my car is simply leaking too much oil. i am leaving decent sized puddles in the garage every day. the bellhousing is pretty wet, with small puddles forming on it. the coolant flange is slightly wet as well, but the head and block are dry. the engine side of the flywheel is wet. theres only one thing i can think it is and that would be the worst thing to leak. the rear main. of course i put in a new one. i rebuilt the whole motor. maybe i didnt put it in right? needless to say im pretty pissed. please someone tell me it isnt the rear main. but to add to it, the clutch does not slip at all. i also picked up a blanky to keep my turbo nice and cozy.

but i would like to give a very special thank you to aaronamerica. he has been a huge help with maestro.

[Seerlah]

My mechanic told me it actually isn't a good thing to replace the rear main when doing a clutch job, but people do the opposite. He said he fixed more leaking rear main seals because of people doing it when doing the clutch instead of just leaving it alone. Same thing with pilot bearing. He was saying how it has a rather perfect seal, so don't bother it unless it really starts to leak. Not sure if you did it because of that reason, or because you were building your block. But if your clutch does not slip, that just saved you a bunch of money. Pull the engine and replace it, along with cleaning the clutch parts of any oil. Seems your clutch disc is not compromised, so that is a def big plus. As for the coolant flange, just replace the o-ring. Clean both areas very well (light sanding if necessary) and go to work.

[redline380]

well the engine was sitting in a junkyard for who knows how many years, so i figured replacing the rear main was necessary. and the coolant flange is wet with oil, not coolant. the flange, along with the o rings, are brand new. i am just kind of pissed at this point. ill probably end up taking the tranny out cause i think it will be easier. hopefull i can use the car lift at the diesel shop down the road. that would make it a bunch easier. but i am still not positive its the rear main. anything else back there that would leak that much oil besides the rear main or the oil pan?

[Seerlah]

Not an expert, but I don't know of anything else. If there are oil holes that need to be plugged, then there is that scenerio. But I never worked on my car in that area to know. Others would. But I am betting on the rear main seal. It happens more than you think, so don't think it was like an amateur goof. ASE mechanics make the same mistake. Just clean the surface really well. Try Permatex gasket remover next time around (just used this a couple min ago to surface my block, and it is some good stuff. I have not even gone over it with brake clean yet. I did it like 3-5 times though, and went over the surface with a razor once.) On the good side, your clutch does not seem to be hurt by this. That's what's the real pocket killer when this happens. But I would def clean the flywheel and pressure plate with some brake clean and a rag, just because.

As for the oil in the coolant, do a compression test for safety measures. More than likely just a bad o-ring on your oil cooler to housing o-ring (not seated correctly). Hopefully it is that and not that big of a deal. If it makes you feel any better, you are not the first person to go through this. I have my fair share of bullsh*t happen. Me placing in forged rods currently is a prime example. Then there is the whole thing of what is going to happen once I button everything up. Comes with the territory, man. Take the punches, roll with them, fix them, and enjoy the f*ck out of your car when you get it running right. Just about all of us who heavily mod our vehicles go through this. Those who don't more than likely had a shop do all the work for them. Even then, sh*t happens.

[redline380]

there isnt oil in the coolant. i was just saying oil has gotten up to the flange, thats how bad the leak is. im thinking the flywheel is flinging it out the holes in the bellhousing. as far as the rear main goes, im sure ill end up replacing it when i get tired of oil spots in the garage and adding oil all the time, which will be soon. but i remember putting the seal on and it was kind of tough to get it to seat in properly.

[Seerlah]

If it were me, I would replace it. Not even replace it, but reseat it and use Victor Reinz sealant that is used for the oil pan (I use this stuff all the time, including my oil drain plug, turbo oil gasket, etc). If that oil gets on your clutch disc, it's pretty much done for.

[redline380]

thats the thing though. im not positive its the rear main. the bellhousing is actually dry. its more the body of the transmission that is wet. is the tranny leaking an issue? i cant imagine but maybe. the oil ont the ground really seems like motor oil and not gear oil.

[aaronamerica]

I'm not sure but that spool sounds normal to me....I can't wait to see what's going to happen when you hook up n75 valve

[redline380]

just tried hooking it up. no difference in power lower in the rev range. i did get scared cause boost shot up to 25psi, even with the mbc turned all the way down. i think it shot up that much cause thats what the tune is written for. i hooked up the mbc in line with the n75. maybe its just me then not being impressed with the power from 0 to 15psi. just doesnt seem there at all to me until 5k, then it rips pretty good. i just expected there to be atleast some pull during spooling.

[Seerlah]

Something is up with your spool. I can hit 22psi a little over 4k rpm.

[thenj3]

yea the power is hitting way late. my turbo was spooling faster. on a shit tune and leaking wastegate

[Seerlah]

No wonder he isn't happy with the powerband. I would be upset too if I was hitting full spool around 5k rpm. I hit 15psi well below 4k (like 3.5-7k rpm or so).

[aaronamerica]

maybe it's time to tweek the n75 map

[redline380]

well im gonna go to my least favorite store in the world, walmart, to get some grilling supplies. ill snap a video on the way of my boost guage and tach. give me about an hour or so

[thenj3]

you positive you have no boost leaks?

[xdewaynex]

Just taking a guess, but if the coolant flange on the back of the head is soaked in oil, maybe the rear of the valve cover and cam tensioner gasket is leaking.

[aaronamerica]

anyone know what exact the maximum ve map does? i noticed in the tune its set halfway till 4000rpm

[redline380]

you positive you have no boost leaks?

never checked, but i was surprised by how much vacuum i got. 21 inches at idle and 26 in fifth, even with a bov.

Just taking a guess, but if the coolant flange on the back of the head is soaked in oil, maybe the rear of the valve cover and cam tensioner gasket is leaking.

thats one i thought of, but the back of the motor isnt wet, only the flange and the body of the trans, the bell housing is mostly dry. ive looked at it pretty close a few times and i cant narrow it down. the enginge side of the flywheel is a little wet, but far from dripping.

[aaronamerica]

any updates?

[redline380]

well something is wrong. i raced a 01 duramax and lost pretty bad tonight. of course he had a chip and what not, but it wasnt very close. i could play it off like he got to pre-spool, my s4 clutch isnt good enough to launch, whatever. my performance isnt where it should be. but i did a little research last night i am wondering what exactly does the boost duty map do? this is what mine looks like, the untouched map.


this is another one i saw. notice the difference? could this be affecting my spool up and power lower in the revs?



the other thing i thought of is maybe the wastegate isnt tight enough its tight now, and takes quit a bit of force to move it, but if its not tight enough, the exhaust gas will push it open. any other thoughts why i am not seeing down low performance?

[redline380]

just another thought. i gotta shingle tomorrow again (yay, money! boo, shingle) but if i got enough time maybe ill call the dealer i purchased maestro through. he seemed pretty smart about it (he should he tunes it). maybe he can clue me in whether or not the stock 630cc tune is set for late spool and must be adjusted. if not, then i know its a hardware issue, which id rather have. im much better at turning a wrench, but i dont mind learing the software side of things

[aaronamerica]

this was my next question..are you using the n75 valve yet? if so, how much boost are you seeing at peak? I would definitely raise your boost duty map in the mid range to see what it does

my honest opinion...the maximum ve map is what concerns me, the setting in this map are set low between 1000-4000rpm and after 4000rpm is when the settings raises....if I understand correctly that map is the overall boost limiter??? I'm guessing this map needs to be raised where the boost spools slow....anymore opinions on this?

[redline380]

i am not using the n75 cause i dont want 25 psi or whatever the tune calls for. ill change my boost duty map to the other one i posted. how about the max ve map? flatline it?

[thenj3]

Boost duty map will do nothing since your not using the n75. maximum ve i understand it to be as the max requested load. i guess changing that should make the car more responsive but Im not positive

[spindoctor]

Boost duty map will do nothing since your not using the n75. maximum ve i understand it to be as the max requested load. i guess changing that should make the car more responsive but Im not positive

I'm curious about this myself.

[redline380]

ill try it out tonight. i flatlined it. wish me luck

[thenj3]

dude small changes. hope you dont the motor

[redline380]

well i flatlined the max ve map. zero change. im starting to think its a hardware issue. anyone else have problems with slow boosting on base maestro map?

[thenj3]

meeeeeeee. but i had an issue with my dp leaking at the wastegate. haven't ran my car since i switched to the full race setup

[redline380]

its just retarded. im calling stellar autoworks tomorrow to talk to the tuner guy. how hard should the wastegate be to open by hand? i can do it, but only hardly. hell, i am even going to email tapp right now. think ill get a response?

[thenj3]

tapp wont respond till morning. the wastegate should be rather hard to push if you can move it at all. what spring is in there

[redline380]

i am still internally gated, so whatever it came with. i think its about 16 psi. but i did think of something. my actuator has two ports. one on the face like youd except. and one on the side. mike hood said it was a dual port actuator. no idea what that means, but could it affect anything? i wouldnt think it would affect spooling.

[thenj3]

it sounds like its set up like an external gate is with the dual ports. how do have the vacuum lines ran? and what boost controller you running?

[redline380]

vacuum lines for wastgate? my car has zero emissions crap left fyi. the boost signal is from the atp quicktap right after the turbo going to my mbc, a forge ball and spring, and returning to the wastgate. the lines are kinda long cause the mbc is hidden in the false firewall area, but theyre only like two and a half feet. its just the more and more i think about it i have a hard time imagining its anything to do with that stuff. if its anything WG related, its the WG itself coming open too early. boost does build, only slowly and with no extra power in the 0 to 15 psi range, or less than 4.5k rpm.