I am very concerned about some boost charactaristics of my turbo after the install of my wicked wheel a couple of months ago. First of all, before the
installation of the wheel, I could reach well over 30 psi, sometimes 35 and
the truck had plenty of power. Now I can not reach over 26 or so psi under
the same driving conditions. Another symptom is that during light
acceleration i can hear the turbo spooling up like normal and during hard
acceleration the high pitched whine starts sounding like more of a
mechanically driven turbine as opposed to pnuematic. not necessarily a
harsh sound but definately different than the normal whine. I checked and
rechecked all my intercooler lines, checked my intake system for blockage
(stock now due to the fact I didn't know if my open air system was the
problem so I changed it back). My question if why cant I get the same boost
out of this wheel as the stock with the same setup assuming nothing else is wrong with the truck. Driving to work today I even noticed that with the pedal mashed going about 80 there seemed to be a lack of power and when i started letting off the pedal it felt like it came back as the boost dropped????? I'm stumped. I hope i didn't get a bum wheel cause I really don't want to have to do all that labor again.
>
> On top of all this, my buddy with an 03 Cummins just got his guages 100 hp
module intake and 4" exhaust and wants to see how our trucks compare. I
would die if that old goat beat my truck, so I have to find out what is the
problem. Maybe you guys with the aftermarket compressor wheels can help me out. I'm certain I did the install correct and didn't damage anything as it went smoothly without incident.

 

As far as the sound you are describing - that's exactly what mine does with the wicked wheel. Turbo sounds normal down at low boost #s but up higher a totally new noise. I'm sure that the sounds are normal - that's the different blade pattern on the wheel talking to you....
I've only had my wicked wheel for a week now, but I did not loose any boost with mine. I wonder if your wastegate is malfunctioning somehow?? I just unplugged mine (wastegate) on Wed., and I can run it up over 30psi on a WOT run.
How did you do your install?? Turbo on or off truck?? What other upgrades are you running??

 

Big Dave,
Is your wastegate hooked up or not?

 

I installed my WW about 2 weeks ago, no problems, no change in boost, just diff. sounds....

 

yeah guys, i disconnected the wastegate about a week after I bought it 2 years ago, I did the install with the turbo out of the truck and took great care to follow the instructions to the letter and make sure everything was lined back up correctly on reinstall. I'm running the 100hp diablo predator programmer, open air intake, 4" inch turbo back exhaust, and of course the wicked wheel. I don't make a living turning wrenches, but I do all the work on my truck myself so I know there were no shortcuts taken on anything. Like I said, I had no problem pushing over 30-35 psi before the install so something is not right.

 

I thought that due to the new noise i was hearing that I may have a leak somewhere, but i'm certain I don't, I checked everything too many times for that to be the cultprit. When I deactivated my wastegate, i put a ball bearing inside the plug and reattatched it to the wastegate stud. Maybe when I took the turbo out the ball bearing fell out and the wastegate started functioning again????? I'll check but I doubt it. Anyway, i'm slowly running out of options to check. I would hate to have to remove the wheel just to see If I can get my boost back......I'm glad however to know that the the secondary whistle i'm hearing is somewhat normal, I was having nighmares that I had screwed the shaft or wheel up on installation.

 

Hey man - I think ya got something there. I see you said you've had you're wastegate unhooked for some time now - so if it started working again it sure would seem like something's wrong and that would certainly account for your boost loss!! Try unplugging it totally and then test drive - bet that's it!!

 

That's not neccessarily a bad thing. 35psi is well above the stock wheels compressor map, and really starts to get inefficient above 30. Mine works the best right around 27-28 psi. I also lost 1-2 pounds of boost with the wicked wheel. It really isn't supposed to make more (or less) boost, it just remaps the compressor to produce approximately the same boost at a different turbo rpm (out of the surge range). You should probably put your aftermarket intake back on as the WW isn't as good at moving air at lower rpm's and needs all it can get down there.

It is mechanically driven (sort of), the heat and pressure of the exhaust are driving the wheel more so than straight line velocity. It should get progressively louder as it winds up, but I've never noticed the tone changing, just higher and higher pitched. You might have gotten a wheel that wasn't correctly balanced, but I think it's more likely that you may be developing a problem within the bearing cartridge. That may or may not have resulted from the WW, making turns for 35 psi is really cooking. Obviously this is worst case speculation, you might just not be accustomed to the normal sounds of the wheel.

Could be a bunch of things. I would start by putting your other intake back on and see if that helps. Another thing you could try as an experiment is plug the wastegate back in and see if your max boost changes any, it may need to ba tightened up a bit if it dosen't change.

Might also be a good idea to remove the intake and inspect the blades....just in case something got in there.

 

told ya I type slow , you guys are already on top of it.

 

I know that the max boost pressure you should see is around 35 or so. My truck seldom ever ran that high, but I could make it do it if I wanted to. I included that information solely to illustrate that something is wrong, different, or has changed as i cannot reproduce those boost levels now even trying to??

I sure hope you are not right Cookie about the bearing cartridge, that would confirm my worst nightmares. There really is no concievable way I could have damaged it. Not with the amount of care i used doing the install, it would have to be completely coincidental. It does concern me though that you don't experience the change in turbo tone at higher boost levels as even with my novice ears there is definately a tone change, but then again Cat man can account for the noise as well. I will be ****ed if I got a bum wheel, i mean to tell ya. I wonder what the recourse is if thats the case?? I'll keep you guys posted, and thanks for the info and advice..

 

35psi is way higher than you should ever push a stock turbo. Garrett's published limit is 25 psi, I figure they built in a safety margin , but still 28-30 is really as high as you should push it, IMVHO.

On the sound of the wheel. Yes, it does get progressively louder and higher pitched as it spools up, but I interpreted your discription of it as a distinct change from one sound to another. I very much hope it is just the normal whine, and just a misinterpretation on my part.

Don't worry too much about the bearing cartridge. It's more than likely ok, unless it gets progressively louder, or starts smoking when it's not supposed to.

I've often posted that it is unneccessary to get the turbo balanced after changing the wheel, and I still strongly feel that it is not, but in my arrogance I've failed to consider a machined in defect, which would definately effect the balance. Every product, no matter how good, puts out a lemon once in a while. Perhaps you should contact the vendor and discuss the possibility.

I apologize for all the doom and gloom, but realisticly you should see roughly the same performance, with lower EGT's and marginally better throttle response from the new wheel. If that is not the case then you must consider the possibility that something isn't right.

 

Yea I'd say mine is a progressively louder sound with the W.W. - but with my straight piped exhaust I really can't hear clearly untill the turbo really starts to sing at high psi.
BigDieselDave - did you find anything yet?? Play with the wastegate?? Talk to vendor about possible bad wheel?

 

Wanna talk about loud? I put my ball bearing turbo on this morning.......mercy! By comparison the the Wicked wheel is silent as a church mouse.

I've also had some time to inpect the stock turbo, and I am more convinced than ever that the assembly does not need to be rebalanced after a wheel change. With 94,000+ total miles and more than 70,000 of those with the WW installed it is still in very good shape, suprisingly good in fact. Only about .002-.003 thousandths of radial end play and no axial movement at all that I could detect.

 

It's kind of ironic thing here isn't it. I replaced my turbo this week with a re-man from Garrett, and I am definately showing I have lower boost than before, but I seem to have much better throtle response, power, acceleration etc.... Hard accel. shows 15-18 psi while before it would whip up to 25 with sluggish response. Punched I hit 32psi, 35 psi when I blew it up. Also, I plugged my ebpv in now, but will remove it again to see what difference I notice. There is a line in the y-manifold that has a t-fitting that was old brittle and probably leaking, and broke when I removed the turbo. Those have been replaced, but what do they do? Could this be bigdieseldav's problem?

 

hey guys, I checked the wastegate line, I completely removed it and plugged it off on the harness at the intake Y. It did not solve my problem. I'm going to once again tomorrow remove, clean and tighten all my intercooler lines and see what happens. Do any of you guys know if the PCM will set a code for low oil pressure to the turbo?? My thinking is that I may possibly have a foul seated O ring after the reinstall and upon higher turbo speed loose performance of the turbo, thus the noise i think i'm hearing and loss of boost? Is it even possible for that to be the problem without already frying my turbo??

Anyway, i'm going to hunt and peck some possibilities for the rest of this week and If I cant find a solution, I'm going to remove the wheel and see what happens.

On the boost issue, i really don't mind the loss of boost if the performance of the truck was similar, but seat of the pants she lacks the power she had before the install. having said that, the surge and stall is gone. At this point it looks like I traded one problem for another . Keep em coming guys, I'll take all the advice you can give me cause its a pain to put aside 4 hours at a time for these installs and uninstalls. Ok maybe 5