Vibration on RHS under decent acceleration.

OK, only had my MPS 6 for a week, took it for it's first decnt highway drive this morning.

When I was overtaking I had the car in 4th, as the RPM hit about 3000 there was a terrible vibration and noise in the RHS of the engine bay. When I backed off all was normal again.

Took the car straight home and have startred fault finding. Removed the pod filter and MAF, cleaned the BOV and wastegate, cleaning the intercooler now.

I did some reading and the possibilty of engine mount failure seems to be thge culprit. On the RHS engine mount there is a rubber diaphragm under the mount itself. This is very easy to push in on, I reckon the fluid from this mount has escaped before I bought the car.

Ordered in some new mounts to see if it fixes the issue. I also noticed that the intercooler has been banging into the wastegate body, leading me to believe it is a mount failure as the engine is moving rearwards under load.

Taking this time to really go over everything and clean all electrics with contact cleaner and remove any carbon I find.

I am trying to remove the valve cover to inspect things but the wiring across the valve cover is very hard to remove. The is two large connections on the right of the valve cover as you look in the bay from the front. I cannot seem to unplug these for some reason.

Any tips on valve cover removal and disconnection of wiring over the cover ?


Mike

No idea on all this, but as said in other thread... Very interested in seeing a picture of engine bay, I suspect you have an aftermarket turbo set up and possibly a different to stock sized intake...

If this is the case, a new fuel pump and a tune should be top of your list of "stuff to buy now"

I will get the pics up when I have then engine back together mate. I am sure I have an aftermarket cold air intake system, it is quite large and has two pipes running off it. Top pie runs to a 3" chrome pipe attached to the K&N pod filter, the smaller lower pipe has been plugged for some reason?

On the Tial wastegate, it is pluged ito the e boost system on the right end looking in the engine bay. The outlet pipe on the left of the wategate it attached to some scabby looking outlet pipe, it is only bolted to the wastegate, the outlet end is just hanging freely under the car.


Mike

Guessing something like this:
Attachment 16954

The bottom part is the recirculation point for the by pass valve (or blow off valve)

Also sounds like you have a vent to atmosphere external wastegate (aka screamer pipe)

How big is the inside diameter of pipe where the intake is?
@spooon or @Fizzy would you be able to have a look at this car?

Below are the pics of my OEM spark plug gunked up with carbon
Cold air intake pipe
Wastegate with unknown pipe to the right
Suspected damaged front right engine mount
Damage to front of wastegate cover from intercooler

Here we have the 2 wire clips on the left side of the valve cover that I cannot unclip

The turbosmart BOV top view

The intake pipe/s the smaller lower one is blocked off, the diameter of the top larger pipe is 80mm


Mike

Scratching head a bit on this one... The Tial looks like its plumed into the stock manifold with a screamer pipe down the side. Which is really odd unless you're running a bigger turbo... Or I think because running a separate boost controller they've bypassed all the stock boost control and plumed up something different and are using the Tial to control the boost. But I have no idea how you would trick the ECU into doing that.

They really shouldn't haven't have blocked up that lower (smaller) pipe, its the return from the BOV. In theory it would be backfiring like hell. Something very very odd about the setup on your car buddy.

Oh and yeah... Engine mounts are horrid ether swap them out or stock up on cheap Chinese ones from ebay

On the plus side, that's a stock intake pipe, so suspect it's a stock turbo...

Your main issue at the moment is that the previous owner has bastardised your exhaust manifold...

This is what a stock one looks like:
Attachment 16965

Ok wow, just saw this one, thanks for the heads up sam.

From what I can gather is they have wanted more boost, thrown an e-boost on it, and an external gate, but doesn't look like its actually been tuned. I would be worried about the life-span of that engine in that case...

From what Sam said RE looking at the car, I assume you are in Perth somewhere?

Ok , no I am worried fellers.

There is a turbosmart e boost control unit plumbed into the right hand side if the wastegate. There is wiring running into the car to the controller and vacuum lines running into the system.

The car was running fine before I had the vibration under load at speed.

The exhaust manifold does seem different to an OEM unit, it has a single 3" exhaust pipe running right through, only one outlet at the rear. The car is loud under throttle and 'whooshes' through the gear changes.

I am in Halls Head down in Mandurah.

My mobile: 042 seven 79nine9 4four

Feel free to call me in the evenings if there is anything you wish to ask.

Mike


Mike

Can you get us some overall shots of your engine bay? Just need them for context and to see if anything stands out.

My hunch is still as previous post - that they've upped the boost by bypassing all the factory boost control, most likely by welding up the internal waste gate, welding up a Tial WG into the stock manifold and wired in a e controller for the boost and possibly introduced a interrupt or something to fool the ECU into thinking its OK.

Big problem there is that fuel is a limiting factor on this engine and if it's leaning out its a sure fire way to zoom zoom boom.

To be honest I had a discussion with someone about boosting up a MPS using almost the identical method to what I said above... Given that the factory stuff is not actually that bad I argued against it... Its in essence a 1990s style solution on a 2000s style car (I.e. computers are your friend). I can't remember when or where though.

^ what he said. Sounds like someone who had some spare parts kicking around and welder went nuts with that. I give them credit for the effort, but if it doesn't have a bigger pump and a tune I would be worried personally.

Overall photos would help too.

any idea how much boost its hitting? Does the boost curve fall off? (with the stock turbo it shouldn't hold a massive amount of boost to redline, or its going to eat the turbo seals, very common problem and damn mazda for putting a rubbish turbo on it to start with. spose its what happens when you target response and budgets).

Firstly let me say that I really appreciate the advice and interest given by you fellers, it's very welcome. You blokes are a credit to this forum.

I will get pics up when I am home later this evening.

Regards to boost, I am not sure how much I was getting, in third gear it really took off and I shifted at about 4000rpm, very strong pull even in the lower end of the rpm scale. The e boost was set up at 7 PSI from what I could tell, this has now been turned off.

When my engine mounts get here and I install them I will take it for a drive and report all data.


Mike

Ahh something new and weird to figure out so its kind of fun.

Wow 7 PSI is pretty low, stock is about 14.

The other possibility is that they've plumed in the screamer pipe just for the sound of it because #yolo .

BTW I noticed in another thread that you have access to a fair bit of fab gear. If you're getting new mounts you could look at tabbing up a bracket for an engine dampener like the Engal's stiffy for a bit of extra support.

Righto fellers having one of those weeks. Broke my laptop yesterday and on the iPhone now.
Will attempt to post pics tomorrow with some light from the phone.

Yes, I do a fair bit of machining work at home, just got a little CNC mill yesterday. Already have two lathes and welding gear. I do plan on getting the dimensions from the old mounts and making some flash new ones.

As I mentioned in another thread, if any WA blokes want some work done just let me know. Happy to just help out for beers and advice.

Mike