Unplug Wastegate Control Solenoid?

[tta583]

What happens when you have the wastegate control solenoid unpluged and you boost the car? I was taking someone for a drive today but couldnot get the thing to boost over 10 psi. Boost was also slow to build up. On latter inspection I found the solenoid unpluged. I have yet to drive the car again, not had a chance. Sound like my problem?

Thanks

Brent G

 

[turbo buicks]

i had the same 10 psi problem and after i cleaned my solenoid w/electric parts cleaner it went to 15 psi and held perfectly and it still does. dont ask me how it works but when people talk about the WG solenoid 10 psi always seems to come up. maybe thats a fatory safeguard or something. just plug it in and you should get 15 psi.

 

[TurboDave]

That's because when you unplug the solenoid, you've removed the ECM's ability to increase boost beyond the wastegate actuator's base spring setting. Which in most cases averages between 10-12#

 

[tta583]

Sounds like me!!. I have been doing some poing around in the forums and found about the same. Guess it is time to take it out and make sure it is fixed. Something tells me I am going to be good to go, I hope!!


Thanks Guys,

Brent

 

[tta583]

Guess what? The boost is back. No idea how the think became unplugged, who knows what I was working on and had to do it.

Any way, on the same topic, I have had some boost spike issues in first. It will jump right to 19 then come down to 15. I am seeing about .2 KR on turbolink around this time. I am running a Power plate and 97 octane (xylene mix) so I am confident I can run close to 20 and have <1 kr but I need to get rid of the spike. Waste gate actuator? That's my guess. It was on the car when I bought it so who knows how old and how much abuse it has had.

Brent

 

[tta583]

I did some looking through the archives and learned that the Thrasher 93 will leave the sol. open so that you get a fast spool. It has a tendancy to spike as it takes a little time for it to catch up and bring things under control. Guess what chip I have. I know I have ran the rod out a little here and there while I have worked on the car to play it safe when I went to retune. I am thinking I have the rod dialed to 15 psi, the car spools to around 20, the ECM figures it out and dials it down. Never had the rod at this point so this spike was kind of new to me.

I plan on shortening the rod and testing it again tomorrow but does this sound reasonable? I know the car will do 20 with no problem. I have added a power plate and was expecting to dial atleast another pound in as others seem to get atleast 2. I am guessing I never saw the spike in the past since I was boosting at least 20, which is were it ECM seems to be catching it (really like 19).

I was also thinking of going with a manual boost controller to cut out the ECM. Thoughts???

Thanks,

Brent

 

[turbo buicks]

with an adjustable wastegate you should be able to hook up the pressure line from the turbo directly to the actuator and be able to control your boost w/o using the stock solenoid. thats the point of the adjustable WG.

 

[tta583]

Never heard of doing it that way, but to be honest there are only a few Buick folks here I associate with. I have always run the stock plumbing through the sol. to the WG actuator. Never had a problem until now, but I admit I made that one myself.

Still just trying to put some reason to what I was seeing and wishing to improve the situation.

Brent

 

[1NASTY6]

wastegate solenoid/thumbwheel chip???

Guys,

If a person is running a 16 pos. Thumbwheel chip, is the stock wastegate solenoid supposed to be unplugged?? Or do you leave it plugged in??
Car seems to perform fine with it left plugged in, but had possibly heard that it should be unplugged......

Any feedback??

Thanks!

Tim

 

[1NASTY6]

ttt

Thanks!!

 

[87GN]

1NASTY6
If its the MaxEff its supposed to be unpluged and the selenoid wires are used as a shift light by hooking a 12v light inside the car to it. I'm buying a ME and thats what Steve Y told me to do.

Nic

 

[85 TR]

I have not run a selenoid for a long time ,had a bad selenoid when I replaced it still didnt work put on all new vac/press lines still nothing so i just ran it from the turbo to the wastgate works fine now but cars seems to spool slower and is not very fast. I just got my scantool and will be tunning this thing soon is that going to effect anything?

 

[JACKH]

I managed to fix my boost spike by making the restrictor just a tiny bit bigger... stock it is .05, I made it .06 using a 1/16 drill bit. I just twirlled it by hand till it opened up the hole. Be careful which bit you try... since I had a few that were .065.. which I think would be too much.

This fixed my problem of boost spiking to 25-26# when my boost was set to 21#.

I also tried using helper springs... which did not work for me, and actually made the problem worse.

Jack
Jack@Huisman.com