The car - Murphy, the 87 GL-10 Turbo Wagon (EA-82-T)

 

The latest problem - very poor turbo performance. Four months ago, before I had to change the head gaskets, it seemed to have plenty of power. Since the head gaskets replacement, I have had a general lack of power. From a stand still to about 300 RPM, it seems OK. Not as good as it was, but there is definitely boost. In higher revs, it almost feels like there is either a fuel restriction or air restriction. It is timed properly (w/ green bypass connected and @ 20 btc). Has new distributor cap and rotor. Has new plugs. The spark wires are not new, but they are not old either. Has a new air filter. I did find the rear cat was shot, complete with a ball of cat stuff which formed into a ball and clogged the exhaust at higher speed. Last week I took care of that problem (hint, hint, nudge, nudge), and that helped quite a bit, but not completely. So here is what I'm left with:

 

 

• Did I connect the vac hoses wrong when I put the car back together?
  
• Can bad wires cause this problem?
  
• How likely is it that the primary cat is also clogging? I'll take car of that temporarily if I have to, but cost is an issue and I would rather not have the replacement of two cats hanging over my head if I can help it.
  
• Could the turbo be going bad???? How freely should it spin? The whirring sound does seem louder than before, but that could just be my imagination.
  

 

 

Well, maybe I'm just getting lazy, but, as much as I love this car, I'm getting to the point where I just can't justify putting any more $$$$ in the car.

 

PS. And of course I just put brand new tires on it, so I'm out $400 + even before we get to this problem.

Edited April 23, 201114 yr by Sonicfrog

Depends on who you ask, I guess...

 

If it were me and it came down to it, I'd just throw a Weber'd NA EA82 in it... doubt it'd be too hard with a little bit of junkyard shopping...

 

Then again, I'm crazy and that option isn't too good of an idea in California

From the info given, it sounds like your timing belts are off a few teeth. if you said it started happening after you changed HGs. its very easy to have it miss-align during re install

From the info given, it sounds like your timing belts are off a few teeth. if you said it started happening after you changed HGs. its very easy to have it miss-align during re install

 

I checked that. They are spot on (of course now I'll have to go check them again). Plus, if they were off, you would also get a strange idle. I know, I've done it before! :-)

UPDATE: I just discovered the prime suspect. The vac tube on the solenoid that connects to the canister, air intake, and has a check valve on it, was cracked. I think the solenoid is called a duty solenoid. I'm letting the engine cool a bit before I go in and reconnect

UPDATE to the UPDATE: Reconnecting the vac hose helped a lot, but i'm still losing guts after 3400 RPM's.

Well, I've decided to go ahead and "fix" the other cat. It seems like the turbo is spooling slower than it used to, and since the vac hose that controls turbo boost is now properly connected, I have to think it must be the primary cat just doesn't let enough air through to let the thing run properly.

a friend of mines got about 3 extra ea82 turbos he's getin rid of if ya want to make an offer.

a friend of mines got about 3 extra ea82 turbos he's getin rid of if ya want to make an offer.

 

I may very well be interested. I'm just hoping that after I gut the other cat, I find that that was not the problem after all.

Sooooo..... Before I took a hammer to the primary cat, I wanted to check something first. I changed the disty cap and rotor, that seemed to make a difference, so I decided to change the spark plug wires. Well, on Friday, I searched all over for a set of wires but none of the auto stores had a set in stock for the turbo. Well, after going to the fifth store, I remembered that I had a spare coil to disty wire in the storage compartment in the back of the wagon. One of the wire sets I bought some time ago had two in the box for some reason, so I kept the other for a spare... just in case.

 

Well, the "just in case" philosophy paid off.

 

As soon as I started driving with the spare coil wire in place, I noticed there was better acceleration after 3000 RPMs. It's still not perfect, but it is better. Thank GOD I didn't smash up the cat yet!

 

I did find a shop that says they have the correct wires in stock. I'll be heading over there in a bit to pick those up, and then we'll see if the performance is back to normal....

 

Then, it's time to continue getting the Bratt up and running.... and then put the tranny in Red, the 94 Alpine wagon!