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Engine Cuts out and stumbles under boost...HELP PLEASE! `

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Ok guys, I think I may have found my problem...at least I have narrowed it down. I knew I was hearing some sort of ticking sound like an exhaust leak and I went out to get a data log of the problem and all of the sudden the exhaust leak got so bad that I turned around and came back to the house. The only problem now is I cant find where it is leaking! I looked at all of the usual suspects and re-torqued the manifold on both sides but it is still amazingly loud! I don't see any black areas around the headers or head where it is leaking but it is loud! I cant find it anywhere!

Also, I am still learning the PowerLogger software and I don't think this file is telling you anything but tell me what I did wrong because I can't figure that out righht now either. I am even more frustrated at this point. I have also been trying to upload a video of the exhaust leak sound but I can't manage to do that either...what kind of video files are acceptable to this site?
Do you have gaskets between the exhaust manifolds and heads? Do you have a gasket between the turbo and header?
 
Was the piwerlogger file recording during the cut out symptom?

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A exhaust leak won't give you the symptoms you described. It sounds like you took out a head gasket. Time to do a compression test or a leak down. Check your dipstick to see if you have milk shake. If your lucky, it could blow into the intake valley or out the side of the block. If you get under the car and look up at the head , you would see if the head gasket blew that way out.
 
Yes, there is a gasket but as you can hear from the video I posted it isn't a small leak...is sounds like a plug is missing! I would think it would be easy to find a leak that large but I don't see anything anywhere! I may try using smoke or something...
 
Was the piwerlogger file recording during the cut out symptom?

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I hit record and the red light was on showing it recorded but I don't think I saved the file right because I don't see anything on the file...what did I do wrong?
 
A exhaust leak won't give you the symptoms you described. It sounds like you took out a head gasket. Time to do a compression test or a leak down. Check your dipstick to see if you have milk shake. If your lucky, it could blow into the intake valley or out the side of the block. If you get under the car and look up at the head , you would see if the head gasket blew that way out.
I would be pretty upset if the head gasket blew after less than 10 miles and spending $10K on a motor but stranger things have happened I guess. There is no water in the oil at all but I can do a leak down later this evening just to see. It is definitely on the drivers side...extremely frustrating. This is the 3rd motor I have had built for this car and I have driven it less than 100 miles!
 
A exhaust leak won't give you the symptoms you described. It sounds like you took out a head gasket. Time to do a compression test or a leak down. Check your dipstick to see if you have milk shake. If your lucky, it could blow into the intake valley or out the side of the block. If you get under the car and look up at the head , you would see if the head gasket blew that way out.
If it blew into the intake side that would make sense because it seems like I can hear it coming from the intake...I knew I should have left the car in Phoenix!
 
Also, I am still learning the PowerLogger software and I don't think this file is telling you anything but tell me what I did wrong because I can't figure that out righht now either.
The first weird thing,that I noticed,that caused me to start looking at my spark plugs was the inability to get any recordings of data on my Powerlogger. The spark plugs can cause problems for any computer including the Powerlogger. The second weird thing I noticed was my idle shooting up to a very high rpm. Neither of these things have happened since replacing my spark plugs with resistor types.

Did you click on monitor before your run? It won't record if you don't.
If you click on monitor,you can hit the space bar after a run and it will record what just happened.
 
The first weird thing,that I noticed,that caused me to start looking at my spark plugs was the inability to get any recordings of data on my Powerlogger. The spark plugs can cause problems for any computer including the Powerlogger. The second weird thing I noticed was my idle shooting up to a very high rpm. Neither of these things have happened since replacing my spark plugs with resistor types.

Did you click on monitor before your run? It won't record if you don't.
If you click on monitor,you can hit the space bar after a run and it will record what just happened.
that is my problem, I didn't hit the space bar. no need now though...I just did a leak down. It is a blown head gasket on a brand new motor with less than 10 miles on it.
 
If the problem happens like mine did, you will be monitoring and when the problem occurs sometimes the PL would disconnect because the ECM was actually rebooting. But I still had a log I could save. In that long thread I posted a link to you can review my log and see the example of what I am talking about.

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that is my problem, I didn't hit the space bar. no need now though...I just did a leak down. It is a blown head gasket on a brand new motor with less than 10 miles on it.

Note to self.... Throw that chip in the lake. Call Eric from Turbotweak and let him know what you have and get a chip burned for that. 2nd, when it's up and running again. Get it tuned before you throw this car any beatings. Your tune is obviously out, or something is cutting out in your electrical to that cylinder. You can hurt the head gasket at 5 pounds of boost if it's not right. Pay someone to take that responsibility away from you, then enjoy your car.
 
Bummer man. I too lost HG's 10 miles after a build.
Note to self.... Throw that chip in the lake. Call Eric from Turbotweak and let him know what you have and get a chip burned for that. 2nd, when it's up and running again. Get it tuned before you throw this car any beatings. Your tune is obviously out, or something is cutting out in your electrical to that cylinder. You can hurt the head gasket at 5 pounds of boost if it's not right. Pay someone to take that responsibility away from you, then enjoy your car.

I agree with you 100% however I must not have made myself clear...Eric burned the chip that is in the car and I DID pay someone to take this responsibility from me (to the tune of $11K) after failing twice before. I kept thinking that my old builds were all caused by me and it turned out that I had some issues with the old block. Nick Micale had this motor built by his guy in Phoenix and it was tuned by him as well. Nick had already built up to 17 PSI and it was running fine. I am not sure what caused this problem but I do want to make it perfectly clear that I don't believe that Nick or his engine builder did anything wrong. This is a race car and I am pushing the envelope (even though we never got near the envelope this time) if it was easy everyone would do it. I have built many race motors over the years so its not like I am new to the game however I am fairly new to the GN world and these cars are definitely different enough to seek the advice of guys like you and others on the board. Nick has been excellent in helping me with this issue and is standing right beside me (figuratively at this point since I am back in Houston) and I know he will make it right. I wish I had stayed a few more days in Phoenix so we could solve this problem there however I am not concerned, I know Nick will support me and I am easily capable of changing head gaskets even though I would much rather be out there driving it right now instead of working on it.
 
Bummer man. I too lost HG's 10 miles after a build.

DId you ever find out why it blew so early? Nick did some tuning around 17 PSI but we turned it back down to let the motor break in a little so it was only running around 10 PSI when it blew. Luckily it blew into the intake side so it didn't fill the block with water!
 
that is my problem, I didn't hit the space bar. no need now though...I just did a leak down. It is a blown head gasket on a brand new motor with less than 10 miles on it.
You don't necessarily have to hit the space bar after a run if you checked the TPS volts box as a recording trigger. The reason I don't use the TPS as a trigger and rely on it is because something unforeseen might stop the recording. In my case it was the spark plugs. If we do nothing to start a recording before a run and instead start a recording after the run with the space bar we're more likely to get the information we want or need to see what our tune is or to figure out the cause of a symptom.
 
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