Well my motor/turbo build has been going on for a year and a half and I finally got to hear the car idle for the first time in a long time. So I finally got everything together and loaded the car up for the 400km haul to the dyno. I was a little worried as almost every part on the car has been changed, modified or moved and wasn't sure what to expect. So I arrived at the dyno shop and Danny (the tuner) started to read my ecu and then went adhead adjusting the injector constant enough to get the car running. Well a good 10 turns of the key and it finally spit and sputtered, smoked and farted and finally it ran (not very nicely mind you). So I drove it into the bay and stapped it on the dyno. After a few minutes of idling the car was revved a few times and some changes were made to the ecu. So the moment of truth. He started the pull around 2500 I would say and it wasn't looking nice, running rough and rich. He managed to get through the rough spot and at 3200 he went WOT. Well man do I love the sound of turbos. Sad thing is he only made it to 4000rpm and had to let off and when it idled down it wasn't sounding right and then shut it off which ended up being the last time we could get it to run for the day. Upon further inspection it appears my coil packs bit the dust so I have 2 new packs arriving tomorrow and have to re-run the vaccume line for the WG and change the WG spring out for a smaller run to make it a little easier to tune and then I'll break the motor in for a bit. So back I hauled the car another 400kms to home where it now sits on a trailer waiting to be tried yet another time. On a more positive note the motor sounds healthy and aside from all the tuning issues and exhaust leak, it did make a little power so I am pretty hopeful I will see some decent numbers in the future. The numbers aren't great and are by no means a true representation of what the car has in it but it made 177whp and 227wtq. Under the circumstances I thought it wasn't too bad. So the plan is to try back on the dyno next week. I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best in the mean time.

I was wondering what was going on with your car, hopefully you get it dialed in next time out.

I am excited to see updates. I was following your build before and cannot wait for videos.



LE61T PTE6262 Powered

Hope you get it worked out... I'm kinda concerned on why they were doing WOT pulls before getting any driveabilty done though....





P&P Tuning
420.5whp / 359.8wtq

Some people tune that way. I dont like it either but normally its completely acceptable.


1994 Saturn SL2 Home Coming Edition: backup car
2002 Chevy Cavalier LS Sport Coupe: In a Junk Yard
1995 Mazda Miata R-package Class=STR
Sponsored by: Kronos Performance

WPI Class of '12 Mechanical Engineering
WPI SAE Risk and Sustainability Management Officer

Leafy wrote:Some people tune that way. I dont like it either but normally its completely acceptable.

Its not acceptable when the thing barely runs after 10 attempts/changes of the injector constant.... Something is not right, and rule number 1 is to never tune around a problem..... It only makes more problems......





P&P Tuning
420.5whp / 359.8wtq

I must not have worded it right. He changed the constant once and it took a little while for the engine to catch the first time. As I said it took 10 turns of the key before it fired. He didn't have to change anything with the ecu just think it took some time to grab fuel as the car hadn't been run in over a year and a half. Coil packs should be in today and with any luck it will fire back up. As for the guy tuning he knows his stuff and his street legal daily driver 10 second 700hp acura integra isn't too chabby either

Matthew Jollymore wrote: As for the guy tuning he knows his stuff and his street legal daily driver 10 second 700hp acura integra isn't too chabby either

doesnt matter what other cars they have... none of them are the j body pcm... Just like a local turbo cav kid here, went to get tuned, told me the guy has an 800hp mustang and a twin turbo 750hp vette, and a bunch of other cars, well i told him, just wait til he gets his hand on your car and see how well it goes.... 3 days later, he got his car back and the guy said he couldnt tune it for him because it was so tough.


good luck with it and getting it running and tuned right. Will for sure make it a spirited driver for sure.


Edited 1 time(s). Last edited Wednesday, June 15, 2011 11:05 AM

^no kidding, its a total pain in the ass.


1994 Saturn SL2 Home Coming Edition: backup car
2002 Chevy Cavalier LS Sport Coupe: In a Junk Yard
1995 Mazda Miata R-package Class=STR
Sponsored by: Kronos Performance

WPI Class of '12 Mechanical Engineering
WPI SAE Risk and Sustainability Management Officer

He has tuned other J-bodies before. One of which includes Matt's SC LD9, which made pretty much spot on what every other one makes and ran the approximately the same 1/4 mile times as well.

He uses HP tuners, which is what he uses on most other GMs AFAIK, so I think he should be okay. It's just another engine that requires spark, fuel and timing. If he is familiar with the program (which he is) he should be fine.

And the way that I was the most familiar with tuning was getting the car running well enough to do wide-open pulls to perfect the tune for maximum hp / tq. Then perfect the tune for driveability. Different strokes for different folks I guess.

Matt, where is this Dyno place located? I think i remember you being in London, Ontario and i wasn't familure with any dyno tuners that used HPT around here. Oh yeah, i live in Kitchener, beside the 401 Homer Watson exit.

Its in Capele, NB (or something like that). Its called JD Racing.

BuiltNBoosted wrote:

Matthew Jollymore wrote: As for the guy tuning he knows his stuff and his street legal daily driver 10 second 700hp acura integra isn't too chabby either

doesnt matter what other cars they have... none of them are the j body pcm... Just like a local turbo cav kid here, went to get tuned, told me the guy has an 800hp mustang and a twin turbo 750hp vette, and a bunch of other cars, well i told him, just wait til he gets his hand on your car and see how well it goes.... 3 days later, he got his car back and the guy said he couldnt tune it for him because it was so tough.


good luck with it and getting it running and tuned right. Will for sure make it a spirited driver for sure.

The guy tuned my car when it was S/C'ed as Kevo mentioned. I just need to get my stuff figured out. I did swap in 2 new coils and still only spark on one pulg so we are gonna try a new module and see if that works. I'll probably have some updates soon, either good or bad haha.

177whp and 227wtq on one cylinder. I'll take it!

227wtq x 4 cylinders = 908wtq. No big deal. lol

Just imagine.

Thrice . wrote:Matt, where is this Dyno place located? I think i remember you being in London, Ontario and i wasn't familure with any dyno tuners that used HPT around here. Oh yeah, i live in Kitchener, beside the 401 Homer Watson exit.

Dyno is in New Brunswick

Well tiny update...it was the module after all. We checked the spark and now have fire on all four cylinders. Hoping today or tomorrow we are gonna fire it up and figure out where my exhaust leak is. Keeping my fingers crossed.

177whp isn't bad if he did in fact only get to 4000rpm.

Im excited to see your results as your build is almost identical to mine.


"Oil Leak ? What oil Leak ? Oh, Thats Just The Sweat From All The HorsePower!!"

Glad you are getting it sorted out. thats good to know. cant wait to see how it does for you this year!

Well we didn't get the car on the hoist today but I did get the module in and had it running. Drove it down the road out of boost and it seemed to run ok. Its still pretty rich and I need to see where the exhaust leak issue is but I'm some glad everything seems to be running like it had been prior to the module quitting on me. Hoping for monday to be back on the dyno but with only a 6 psi spring in the wg, but if we get it driving and running good I'll break the motor in a bit and then pick up a boost controller somewhere and increase the boost. Hopefully have some numbers next week with lower boost.

hmmm what wastegate you have? I have my tial 38 in St louis, with the 6.5 spring I THINK, and I have another spring here at home.

also if you are doing a manual, boost controller, get a Hallman, with the in cab adjustment. I dont need fancy electronics changing my boost... I put it where I want it and leave it. Only time I turned the knob was when my clutch was blown i turned the boost as low as it could go...

different story if you need different stages of boost though.


Edited 1 time(s). Last edited Wednesday, June 22, 2011 1:56 AM

I have a tial 38mm as well. They got the 6 psi spring in (may only be 5.8 or something), fixed the vacuum line for the wg and now the wg is functioning properly and no longer have it leaking. I haven't decided on boost controller I'm gonna go with but the guy tuning the car likes the AEM one but they are probably pretty pricey compared to the manual one. But I have lots of time to decide which I am going to run. I'm hoping I can make at least 200whp with the 6psi spring but I guess time will tell.

Well after a better part of the day tuning we have the car pretty good. Ran out of time to increase the boost so I am still running the small wastegate spring. So the numbers are 206whp and 205wtq at 4.5psi. I was looking for more power but as I said we just ran out of time. But on a good note I am pretty pleased on the power the car put out on only a small amount of boost. I'm looking forward to picking up a boost controller and heading back in a few weeks after I put some miles on the car and break it in. I didn't get any videos on the dyno but got a few when I returned home. I'm still waiting on the dyno graphs but when I get them I will post it up. But here are a few vids.

Cool stuff, thats real good power at that boost level. What turbo are you running again? Not a t3.


1994 Saturn SL2 Home Coming Edition: backup car
2002 Chevy Cavalier LS Sport Coupe: In a Junk Yard
1995 Mazda Miata R-package Class=STR
Sponsored by: Kronos Performance

WPI Class of '12 Mechanical Engineering
WPI SAE Risk and Sustainability Management Officer

TO4E 57 trim with a stage 3 turbine

What are your wheel diameters both compressor and turbine inducer/exducer? I also assume the psi reading was post intercooler, so your using a 7psi spring? Sorry if I missed that, i'm on my phone.

I have no idea on the measurements of the turbo...psi is post intercooler. I think its a 5.8psi spring in the wastegate.

I did some looking around and I found the specs on the turbo:

TURBO SPECIFICATIONS:

compressor wheel: 56.7 / 74.9 mm 57 trim
compressor housing: 0.70 a/r, 4" inlet, 2½" outlet
center section: oil cooled journal bearings
Turbine wheel: 76 trim (stage 3)
Turbine housing .63 a/r, 4 bolts outlet flange