daddystop

I commented all of the photos. I will post the rest probably tomorrow. I hope you all enjoy. Let me know if you have any questions or sharp criticisms, as long as they aren't "dude why didn't you manual swap it and use a GTE."


Treadstone GE manifold, supposed to be bolt on, manifold holes didn't line up, had to be redrilled ~1/8" over from where they were.

BW EFR 6758 (250-500hp) w/ TurboSmart IWG.

BW EFR 6758 (250-500hp) w/ TurboSmart IWG.

I had a customer adapter made to convert from T4 to BW V-Band and be low-profile.


Relay panel to be mounted in the trunk.

Fitting installed in stock oil pan for turbo return, and capped for now so I can still drive the car because it's not time to install the turbo.

Powdercoated the pan white so I can easily clean it and/or see any leaks easily in the future. You saw it here first, I didn't copy this idea from anyone.


Ortiz Pods custom gauges.... Trans Temp gauge installed.

Night time view of trans temp gauge.

BTI CANBUS Gauge installed in the other pod.

Greddy 3" catback for SXE10 chassis.

ID 1050X injectors.

Relocation of ABS box so that the turbo can fit.

More room now that ABS is out of the way.

Greddy Catback installed.

Cusco rear strut bar installed.

Bracket for Radium FST-R w/ 450HP pump installed.

Mockup of Radium Pulse Dampener and Fuel Pressure Gauge w/ Fuelab filter.

Radium fitting to adapt the stock fuel hard line to -8AN.

Pulse Dampener and Gauge installed.

Radium fitting to adapt -8AN line into stock OEM rail.

daddystop

Relay Panel progress.....

Relay Panel progress.....

Relay Panel progress..... these are the buttons.

Button mounting for relay panel control

Button mounting for relay panel control

Relay panel mounted to the top of the trunk. I don't like this spot but it works for now.

Aristo pump hanger provides lift pump for FST-R. FST-R remains in dead-head configuration like the OEM car has. This got me around running a return line or having to buy a fuel rail.

Fuel line routing.

Fuel line routing. I don't like where this is, but it's out of the way.

Braille battery mounted in trunk with CE Auto Electric supply relocation kit.

Trunk.

Fittings to adapt -8AN hose to Aristo pump oem fittings. Aristo pump will probably last forever as a lift pump since it doesn't have to push any pressure anymore.

Cusco tower bar.

Manifold installed.

Turbo installed.

Exhaust being welded at my house.

Downpipe installed.

Water to air wrapped w/ DEI reflect-a-gold.

Mocking up intake.

Intake mocked up.

Still on jackstands. I have a rare color apparently. It's "Jade Mica Perl".

New replica OEM wheels w/ new tires all the way around. I don't recall what tires I got.

Intake installed, heat shielding installed.

Intake and heat shielding installed.

Factory MAF installed pre-turbo.

daddystop

reserved for later use

daddystop

reserved for later use.

TrueGS300

Looking good. I was wondering why you wanted the MAF pre turbo? I put mine in the charge pipe going to the throttle because if you ever blow a coupler the car will still run and get you where you need. But if that happens and it's pre turbo, it probably wont run.

My other concern was why such large injectors? A set of 550cc would be more than enough for that turbo. Besides, you can only push 8 psi without blowing up the GE vvti engine unless it's built. Tuning will be more difficult with huge injectors is all. I used a Walbro 255lph pump, a Radium rail, and some Bosch 550cc injectors for my build. More than sufficient.

daddystop

The MAF pre-turbo is because the way a MAF works is based upon a constant that is used in the math. There are a few constants actually. One is the diameter of the metered opening within the maf housing itself, the other is that the ecu is assuming that air pressure is going to be "ambient". When you put a MAF in blow-through configuration you can no longer accurately meter the air and the ecu doesn't really know what's going on with the intake. People definitely get away with doing this, but I've been tuning ecu's for a very long time and I don't choose to do this.

There are other reasons as well. I kept the auto trans and had it built. There are several things required for the auto trans to be happy.

* Stock ecu controlling it.
* Stock maf intact.
* Stock throttle body intact.
* Stock o2 sensors intact.

If you don't have those things working, you will have a traction control light and your traction control will not work. The MAF is ONLY in the car to make the stock ecu happy still so that it can properly control the A650E. The engine is controlled by a ProEFI 128. Again, as you mentioned about the injectors, this ecu is way overkill for the turbo i'm using and the power goals I currently have. I bought injectors and ecu to allow for future growth where all I'll have to do is likely get another EFR turbo that's bigger to squeeze the car for more power.

Also, "you can only push 8psi" is a misleading statement of sorts. 8psi on a tiny turbo is barely any lb/min airflow. 8psi on a large turbo is a massive amount of lb/min flow. There are turbos that can blow your car up on 6psi even if the bottom end is built. It's all in the tuning really to a point. The bottom end of my other motor I pulled a few weeks ago is going to be upgraded w/ rods/pistons and then swapped into the car.

If you have any questions please let me know and I'll do my best to answer them. I do own 5 other modified turbo cars, this is by far not the fastest one (the red talon in one of the pictures above is)..... but I took many of the lessons I learned over the years with that car to do a higher quality build on my Lexus.

TrueGS300

I hear you on the MAF. I am using an AEM FIC-6 with an integrated MAP sensor. This should come in handy to run the engine with rather than the MAF and just have it there for the other necessary info for the trans etc. When do you start tuning? And are you going to dyno the car? Have a power goal? I am taking my GS in for a professional dyno tune in about a week. Been perfecting my build bit by bit. Shooting for 320-330ish whp on the 8psi waste-gate my kit came with, the BC-264 cams I installed, and the rest of my supporting mods.

daddystop

I guess I should tell the rest of the story about the car. I assembled it, the last week or so things were extremely rushed as I prepared to drive the car to Colorado for the (2018) Pikes Peak hill climb with 2 other people in the car, all our camping stuff, and pulling a trailer. This actually worked out great, we were tuning the car on the way. I hadn't installed the wastegate actuator onto the turbo, so it was all plumbed in but should have been able to make more than maybe a psi or two at full throttle. We weren't "overpowering" the car in any way. So, in any case, we drive about 6h north of Austin into the pan handle of TX. We needed gas, the car takes 93oct only...... so we stop at some little tiny redneck gas station, the only one in the town we were passing through. I start pumping gas and it's pumping slow af. Finally after about 15 dollars worth of gas, we decide f it, we will drive to the next town to fill up because this gas station sucks.

About 3 minutes up the road my friend points out that he can hear detonation in the engine every time I roll into the throttle a little bit. So I test it, sure enough.... bb sounds bouncing around in metal.... sounds like tapping randomly. I had never heard real detonation before so I wasn't terribly alarmed right then. A few minutes later the exhaust note changed drastically. It got quieter, the car felt down on power. We pulled to the next station, and with the car idling you could hear this crazy "sucking" sound coming from the turbo/intake area. There was also oil somehow leaking by the turbo/intake. We shut the car off, and take the UICP loose to find that the compressor housing is full of oil, and the intercooler is full of oil. Probably a quart and a half total. I forgot to mention that the low oil light came on right before we stopped again. So I'm expecting to find some oil leak or something, but there's none, there's no massive oil leak and we had a full pan when we left Austin. The sucking sound we heard was the motor aspirating intake air through a "puddle" of oil. This also works great to soften the tone of your intake, don't try at home.

I still have not narrowed down exactly what failed, but I think it was a ring land. This allowed excessive crank vent pressure to push oil from the valve cover into the intake pre-turbo..... this filled the turbo and intercooler with oil. This is my theory anyway. The turbo is brand new and I tested it according to BW's procedure where you blow air into the oil housing of it and see how much leaks down. My seals in the turbo are still perfect, so it's not the thing most people would think failed, which are seals in the turbo. I think it cracked a piston. In any case, the car has sat for over a year now because I have work and other car projects. Getting it back from the panhandle was a disaster as well. I don't think I want to type that story out right now, maybe some other time in this thread.

Fast forward to present time: I watch my local salvage yard like a hawk because they list their inventory on their website. A month or two ago they put an is300 in the yard, this is not a common thing to find around here.... those cars just don't end up in yards. It wasn't in the yard for 4 days before I went out there and pulled the GE long block for $300. The car was wrecked and it was a 2005..... so I'm certain the motor is in good shape. The crank spun well, and the wreck looked like they had the car going pretty good when the mistake was made. In any case, I'm going to swap all my stuff over to this new motor. The "broken" motor that is in the car right now will be used as a core for a full bottom end build. Then, on the wrecked car's motor from the junk yard, I will start tuning the cruise/idle again driving it to/from work.... and then I'll put the WGA on and run it at spring pressure for a little while to tune that. Anyway, that's where the car currently sits. I've just been lazy about fixing it. I bought dirt bikes in between when it failed and now, so sometimes I ride the bikes on the weekends more than I work on the car projects.

I will update here more when I start in on it again. Right now the Eagle Talon I have is in the bay for a ps rack swap.... once that's out of the way I'll push the Lexus up to swap it's motor. I'm also turbo'ing a Kubota B5100E tractor with some of my free time, but it's ok..... good to stay busy with multiple things.

Ali SC3

iTrader: (10)

What does your breather setup look like under the valve cover? do you still have the pcv on the drivers side like factory?
That breather setup could be part of the issue on the passenger side it looks a little restrictive, I would put a breather on both valvecovers and forget about metering that air and the PCV.
At least until you get it sorted out the PCV is not helping you in this situation it only allows the slightest of pressure out, then the passenger side has to vent all the pressure alone.

It could have been building up oil the entire drive, and finally showed the symptoms of burning off after you shut it down and started it again (When its hotter).
That feed line looks rather large, what size feed are you running and what turbo? a 4an will often test the seals if they are not perfect they will leak without a restrictor of some sort, size depends on ball bearing or journal bearing turbo.
Also what does the drain line look like, a 4an or larger feed line without a restrtictor moves a silly amount of oil fast (probably why your low oil light came on), you need at least a -10 drain for that amount of oil, a 8an wont cut it on a 4an feed like that it will back up.
I normally run a 3an without a restrictor on journal bearing turbo's. ball bearing needs a small restrictor or they get overpowered easily.
Lots or people run 4an lines, and that has even more oil, so take it what its worth. alot of turbo manufacturers say 4an straight to turbo, and the better turbo's don't leak but some of the do.
The idea is the bearings are supossed to be constantly coated in oil, like think floating on it... but the oil is not supposed to get pressurized or it doesn't work as effectively.
if you think like a garden hose, large hose and small space (bearings) is going to fill fast and add pressure if it can't frain.. smaller hose and small space is going to fill slower with less potential for pressure.

I still think you could have a turbo problem instead of a engine problem (not saying its bad but maybe not setup 100% right yet).
have filled bad gas along with others and not blown a motor. unless you had excessive crank case pressure before a few minutes of bad gas won't blow the motor, or create that amount of pressure right away.
You could pull that fuel filter you have and take a look, I would imagine it would be sludgy if it really did pick up all that mud etc..

Run the motor with the oil cap off, it will be obvious if you have crank case pressure you will see the puffs of steam etc... coming out. a little oil mist is normal, combustion smoke is not.
I would expect to push that amount of oil, it would be excessive and obvious, and would show up in a compression test.
Your oil pressure can be 50-60 psi + at rpm's and it's got to go somewhere, that doens't mean the seal is bad its just being overpowered and you need to fix why its being overpowered or it will happen on the next setup.
It could even be that the turbo needs to see pressure at some point to balance out those inside chambers, I have never run it with the wastegate disabled before.

Also, I would run that maf about a foot away from the turbo, it is supossed to have a straight section to smooth out any air impulses etc... especially when the bov goes off.

Edit* just to add, you mentioned you were tuning while you were driving. if everything else checks out with no issues, I would look at the tune.
It is possible running too much advance and then the bad gas caused issues. I Don't think it would happen on a stock tune, but I haven't seen your tune to know and prolly want to try safer numbers next time.

I just listed a bunch of potential issues to look over that could be related, but I would suggest starting with the basics. do a compression test and list the numbers, that will help a bunch.

daddystop

I have not done anything under the valve cover and as far as I know the only modification I have done outside of what the setup is on an n/a GE is that I put a 1-way valve in the breather line so that boost cannot exit the manifold into the crank case. It's been a long time since I messed with the car so some of this stuff I might be saying might be a little "rusty".

Yes, as far as I know/remember. I tried to not delete anything from the factory setup when I was building my turbo setup.

Great idea. One thing that my friend and I considered was that the compressor wheel may be drawing a lot more vacuum on the breather line from the valve cover than the stock engine does and this could be causing oil to draw out of the valve cover in a greater volume. That is just speculation though. Since I have the t-body/y-pipe off already I have access to remove the valve covers. I will just get them modified with -10AN lines and run them to a catch can like they should be for a turbo system. Then, if we see puke in the puke tank then we will know something is very sad.

That is another consideration we took into account. The drive before it started acting up was ~6h though at highway speed. When I stopped for gas you could hear a "fluid sucking" noise which I found to be the intercooler full of oil and the motor aspirating it's "clean air" through a "puddle of oil" in the intercooler. After emptying the intercooler and refilling the oil in the crank case, we drove about 10 more minutes to the camp site we were staying at and found about another quart of oil already in the intake again. I feel that, for this reason, something "broke" around the time the oil went into the intake. The exhaust note changed too, which I later realized wasn't the exhaust, it was the intake being full of oil making the engine much quieter sounding. I'm thinking something "let go" and started just dumping oil and that's why my theory is that it's the ring land or something in the bottom end. I hope that you're correct about no engine damage, however. I will be really surprised if that's the case though. Keeping my fingers crossed.

The feed line is a -4AN line and the turbo is a EFR 6758. It has a built in restrictor and the documentation from BW says that you can feed it oil with the size line that fits the factory fitting and the turbo's CHRA will restrict the oil. After I called them and told them what happened with the car they did say that some applications would require another restrictor. If that is the case I can just change that oil feed filter out for the one that has the smaller orifice to add a pre-turbo restrictor for the oil feed.

The drain is a -10AN drain without kinks in it that drains to the location that it would on a GTE engine. There are pictures above of where I installed a -10AN fitting so I think we're good in that department.

Here's what it says in the manual (https://www.full-race.com/wp-content...otechbrief.pdf) page #74:
"The oil supply line should be kept as short as possible.
If a line of unusual length is required, we recommend a -6AN line
especially for very cold climates. -3AN line is not recommended due to
excessive oil supply delay times during cold start. We recommend that
oil reaches the turbo in less that 4 seconds during a cold start cranking,
and in under 1 second during hot-start conditions."

I have not removed the fuel filter yet, but that's a good idea. I will definitely do that and report my findings. The motor was operating just fine before the "problem" happened and all the years prior to that without any issue when it was n/a. My guess is more that the fuel was low octane/watery more than it was sludgy.

What is the easiest way to do a compression test on these cars if the y-pipe goes over the top of the spark plugs? Just do the test w/ the upper intake manifold open?

Good point.

The space is SUPER tight there pre-turbo so I'm not sure where I can get room to do that. The only reason the MAF is in the car is to keep the stock ecu happy with the transmission and not put the A650E into limp mode. It has no actual control over the fueling of the car though because that is done by the ProEFI.

I'd be happy to send you a copy of the tune from my ProEFI if you'd like to take a look. The basemap I used was from Larry @ Sound Performance.

TrueGS300

For the compression test it's best just to remove the throttle and spacer so you can get to all cylinders. You aren't starting the car, just cranking it. So leave it off till you've tested all cyls and get your readings. No problem leaving the intake open. Just keep things away from it so it doesn't suck anything in.

Ali SC3

iTrader: (10)

True is correct on the compression test that is the easiest way to get to all 6 cylinders, make sure the engine is warmed up a little and put a few drops of oil in before each test.

your breather setup on the passenger side looks super restrictive. IF you put a check vavle in there, its even more restricted.
That line goes to the intake pre turbo, so it never gets pressurized on the passenger side. the drivers side PCV is a check valve cause it goes to the intake manifold.

Unless your rings are perfect, you will have some blow by, and that valve cover setup is not helping on the passener side with a check valve and those plastic Tees, I wouldn't even drive it like that honestly without fixing those lines.

I take it yours is a ball bearing turbo, so it should have a restrictor in there somewhere and they are usually very small for BB.
Generally they are so scared of people running the turbo dry and claiming warranty, they won't give you any advice that is helpful.
First off a 6an line is ridiculous... and second off I don't buy that a 4an line fills that much quicker than a 3an line... 4an has more volume so even if it fills faster the end result would be similar I would think.
I am not positive on that, but at the end of the day you do have a restrictor on the top of the turbo, so it should be alright on that side of things.

BW used to even mention a 3an line, but I think so many people are using filters etc.. that a 4an line is more popular.
I used to run a 3an line no filters and it ran perfect for years and years, no shaft play, no smoke, no wierd stuff.
Alot of guys who run 4an with the filter, in time if they don't keep up on filter maintenance end up clogging that filter, and starving the turbo from oil which blows it.
So if you are going to run a 4an and a filter like that, you better make sure that filter stays clean, don't forget about it.

So do a compression test to give us an idea about your engine. IF it seems healthy, then its got to be a oiling issue / breather issue as I think the turbo sounds ok.
I can see you have a breather issue already, and the over oiling (4an) is normally ok if your breather setup is good, but if it builds any pressure it becomes way worse with all that oil backing up.

Ali SC3

iTrader: (10)

You can even tap the valvecovers and use hose barbs and filters as a temporary catch can, then you don't need lines and an actual catch can etc.. and the oil will drain back into valve cover.
As long as you don't have so much blowby that you are spraying oil, its a simple solution that will let it fully vent as a test.
like in this old pic


DIY:
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/per...catch-can.html

daddystop

Ok, I was wrong..... in the picture you can see I put the kynar valve in the brake booster line so that boost cannot screw up the diaphragm. What I meant is I put one-way valves on the pcv line just in case the pcv is leaky under boost. I didn't mean that it went on the breather lines that go directly to the compressor inlet pipe.

-6AN seems awfully giant... I agree.

I have another much stronger turbo car that I've had for ~15 years that has a turbo feed filter on it..... I check/clean it every time I do the oil in the car. I don't like the forcedperformance one though so I'm going to get a turbosmart brand one. Just in case you're wondering why I don't like the FP one, it's because the filter element is really difficult to remove from the housing to clean. The recommended method is to use a wood screw to pull it out but that always damages the filter element in my experience.

Ali - what is the silver thing that looks like a disc next to your compressor inlet?

Ali SC3

iTrader: (10)

Gotcha, yeah I figured you had some experience with turbo cars since alot of it is setup correctly as far as I can tell.
That passenger breather line is all wrong though, stock its already small diameter and then it necks down to a tee and a really bendy looking hose.

choices:
1) Remove current line and have a direct line going to the turbo air intake pipe that doesn't narrow down to any tees etc..
2) Remove the line and put a air filter on the stock hose barb, if the pro efi is running the engine with a map sensor then you don't have to worry about metered air here.
3) Remove the line and stock hose barb on the valve cover, drill it larger and tap it for a larger fitting, and then run a filter on it or run it to a catch can.

I would personally do #3, especially if you want to keep the stock PCV on the drivers side (which will get enough oil in your top end already from normal use).
opening up the hole on the valve cover allows for better breathing and not having it run back into the turbo pipe will help you narrow down where your oil is going.

That DIY thread shows how to drill and tap the covers larger. If you still have issues then also do the drivers side and remove the PCV and line to intake manifold.

All of this is assuming you have a healthy engine. If you have a bad ring or piston issue, that will cause crank case pressure no amount of proper breathing will help with. I don't think you got there yet but you need to do some kind of test like a compression test and get back to us. Right now all we know is you said the timing lines up which is good.

That is a non vvti engine in the picture on the 95 SC that I sold, so it has a distributor normally and that is the aluminum distributor cover you can use when you go coil on plug. I was using VVti coils on that setup.