First I must start off by saying that i did not install my turbonetics kit on my scion tc... I had a very good reputable shop recommended from turbonetics install it in California.. Now the kit was installed in California but I am in kansas now along with the car... I had it shipped after the turbo was installed...
One of the huge problems with Kansas is that good reputable shops to get any assistance with turbo maintainance are quite a ways away .. and none of them are unichip tuners... The closest unichip place I found was in nebraska, which is 5 hours away from where I am at in Kansas. And i definately need a new tune...
I don't have any guages yet as I am waiting for some good electric ones. Planning on getting an AEM Uego and Defi Blue racer gauges...
One of the main things that me and the mechanics that installed the turbos talked about was leaving the turbonetics kit at the factory settings, which would allow me to get the guages in the future... because we both agreed that turbonetics comes pretuned and therefore it would be a safe bet for me.
Getting good help from knowledgable individuals with turbos where I am at isn't an easy task, especially in my area at kansas... Therefore I look online for help, but it's hard online as the help can't see the car in person etc....

Now to my problems :
- The car stalls out quite often. I'm not sure if it is when I step on the clutch to engage the next gear or if it is because the air/fuel drops at about 4000 rpm (i had it previously dyno'ed to check the air/fuel ratio). The thing about the dyno is that previously the o2 extender was on the turbo downpipe, which i moved to it's correct position on the factory exhaust - or the second o2 position. After moving the o2 extender the car idled a lot better and I was able to get rid of the pesky check engine light which was on since the car was shipped to me.
But the car used to also stall out before the o2 extender was moved and obviously still does..

-Another problem is that exhaust is leaking on the turbo. It's hard to see in this pic, the leak near the center on the upper left.

In This pic you can see that my heat tape has come off the ac line.. Again I wasnt the one who installed it.. But i'm working on getting some new tape from thermotec. Anyways the black exhaust smoke can be seen on the heat wrap of the turbine.


-Some other things i've noticed is I smell different things from time to time, don't know if it's normal or not.. Can't tell if it's oil or coolant etc..

-This one is my most recent problems, and I've only noticed it after I got my turbo timer installed on 7/22. So I don't know if the turbo timer has any correlation with this, but I figured I should toss it in. About two days ago (that was about 7/23) I started the car up and white smoke came out from the exhaust, I wouldn't have even noticed it if i had just taken off and had my windows rolled up... That was the first time i noticed it, and me having the windows down was the only indicator cause some of the smoke crept into my car. The smoke was quite a bit as i thought it was coming from another car driving right behind me in the parking lot. The next time i started my car and white smoke came out was 7/24 (the next day). A buddy of mine from work who happended to be driving behind me in the parking lot as we were leaving noticed the white smoke again coming out from my exhaust.. On the 24th I was driving my car to work etc... as normal before i was informed of the smoke from him in the parking lot...

I must be honest and say that my knowledge to work with engines is not comfortable enough to auctually get under and work with my car too much, also being the reason I had a good reputable shop do the work. But of course as i've learned turboing a car is difficult, as it is easy to run into problems from the slightest factor. However, my main goal right now is only to get the car running fine with a stock turbonetics tune, and fix the problems I'm having...
I've read about the Nu_ERa's car smoking but I dont know if our problems are exactly the same, but it seems very similar.. I'm hoping nothing that nothing is damaged to where i will have to pay expensive amounts of money to fix my engine... Any help is appreciated towards fixing these problems..

 

white smoke=bad TRUST ME

 

Does the smoke also bellow out of the dip stick and oil fill while its running? Suprised you did not at least plug in cheapo boost gauge to make sure you were not overboosting.

 

Just because the name of "Turbonetics" is on it, does not excuse or ease the mind about monitoring your vitals. Turbonetics has blown up it's fair share of 350Z's, so don't EVER take it lightly when turboing your car, even if the company is well known.


There might be times where you will get white smoke. I have had it right after an oil change, and once or twice back in the winter of 2005. If it is a continous thing, then you have a problem.

Do you have any oil leaks?

 

Hmm, now have you driving the car aggressively?? Be honest cause my car was perfect until I drove it at the track and one the way home was when the problem occured. Now I have oil being burnt and its also coming out of the turbo housing, but only a little. Anyone knows that oil leaking by the downpipe is bad and could start an engine fire. i did a compression test and my second cylinder has a 98psi compared to 175 for the other 3 so its a messed up piston ring.

Now back to your situation does the smoke come out a lot?? Or does it go away?? Is there just white smoke or kinda blueish?? Have you had the kit on for a while cause like others have said that usually the kit will smoke for several hours and around the heat shield to since the material is settling in. And of course... check for oil.

 

Common sense: You just need to retighten the bolts so the exhaust won't leak out. And the A/C line heat wrap, you need to put a wire around it at the end, twist the wire so it'll lock it in place.

The different smell is normal, that’s the smell of turbo (i think so, mines has strong smog smell from the 3'' catless downpipe-back exhaust, but no smoke coming out at all since the beginning. Only had it when it was first installed about 30 min.)--Well hows yours smell like?? where are the smokes coming from??

Best thing is re-read your instruction manual for the turbo installation, check and go through everything (connections, vacuums, injectors, etc.).You can download the Adobe PDF file from the turbonetics site, if you don’t have it.

Our cars are not that old yet, so not all shops (even well reputable once) knows everything about our cars : I

Oh snap! Happy B-day Nu_ERA!!

 

Well Turbonetics is not bad at all. I'm pretty sure that most problems come with either bad install or over powering the motor (which I did). I didn't take the proper steps to break in being I boosted this car at around 400 miles and messed up the motor at around 1900 miles

 

that shouldnt even really matter...the first 50 miles is the most crucial miles for break in...the rest is just babying the car. If you break it in like a b!tch is gonna be slow like a b!tch. Your piston rings will properly seat and seal themselves within that first 50 miles...anything after that is just regular mileage
and yes, happy 21st bday, have fun not remembering it tommorow lol.

 

Have a drink on me ! Happy b-day!

 

Thanks All! Just others with more miles on the car boost 10psi or a little more and I did the same but at 13 psi and well the rest is history.

 

For that exhaust leak I would take out the turbo and re-apply high temp silicone because it looks like you didnt get a good seal. The heat tape that came with the kit is cheap imo. Just get new tape. As for the white smoke, you may wanna do what Nu_ERA did and get a compression check. How hard did you push your motor for the first few 100 miles? I didnt hit boost for about the first 300miles, prolly even more. I'm close to 2,000 miles now with no problems.
Better safe then sorry. I dont think your Turbo timer has anything to do with your problems.

Hope you find the problem fast. I wouldnt drive it too much till you find out though

 

Tuboes are great if kept at like..8psi and properly put on/tuned...but I prefer the TRD Supercharger...60,000 miles backed by TRD...decent #s, and has potential! Plus sounds WICKED with the BOV combo...like kyty

 

just so you know - using a bov w/ the sc is deff going to work against you. Its going to blow off air and your maf will not read correctly. ...its a bad option.



also - to the guy w/ the new turbo: Why the heck did they not tune the turbo while it was at the shop. You always need to make some changes on a car eventhough it has a base (or pretune) tune.

The exhaust leak should have been checked before hand. If you had your car shipped I would assume you paid a few $$$ .....what the heck did these guys do? I would bring it back and tell them to make it right (and compensate you for the money you are losing by maybe tuning it or something).

 

it sounds to me like either the kit was not installed correctly, you could be driving it too hard, and also, you might wanna take it up to Nebraska and get that unichip tuned correctly

 

Did you re-circulation Tube that plugs the BOV to the Intake charge pipe get hooked up?? When not re-circed the car with run rich everytime you shift causing you to stall if you kick your car into neutral and coast. Mine is plugged but I love that Atmoshpheric sound

 

I rarely drive it hard... I either shift at 3000 or 4000 just driving around. When i'm driving i pay real close attention to my speed.. My driving habits are far from aggressive ^.^
Another thing I forgot to mention though is that my exhaust has scraped some surfaces before due to the fact of it being too low...
I'm hoping none of the problems are too serious though, but i talked to turbonetics today about the problems. And as mentioned I'm gonna go ahead and check all the vacuum lines and intercooler piping as that might be the cause of the stalling. It's also hot here now when i stepped into the car and red the temp it said 111 in it ... Could that be another reason why smoke is coming out the exhaust?

The bov is definately set for recirculation...

Here's some pics of my car ^.^ :

 

If it's hot outside, then wouldn't that produce richer conditions for the fuel, therefore making BLACK (good) smoke, and now WHITE (bad) smoke?



I failed to see where this comment had anything to do with this guys Tnetics kit problem..

 

I agree with jwaggz, on a non tuned s/c setup it's not a very good option. I'm going to be using the antistall on the ultimate so mine will be working perfectly. On a non-ultimate tuned s/c setup though the bov is a

Anyways, back on topic.....

 

Did I read that you dont have any guages? You NEED gauges. If you dont want many at least get a Boost gauge and a wideband. You could have boost creep or a vac leak which would cause the idle issues. O my brother T-netics kit we drove it for about 5 miles then it started stalling to the point where we couldnt even get it home. Turned out to be that one of the t-clamps just wasnt tight enough. Could be something that simple.

 

So does anyone not ever stall out with turbo?? I always read that if i do this is that it will stall out .. etc... I know i dont have faulty clutch work, so if everything is working right, it shouldn't stall out with proper driving?