V3 GC8 Sti Issues

[Passtheacid]

Hey guys,

Recently picked up a cheap Sti (uh ohh) and naturally have had some teething problems.

- It gurgles. Brief visit at winger sublab henderson revealed the diagnosis of a air lock in the heater core, they bled it out, topped up coolant, job done... 20 min later back to it's gurgly self. BHG? Temp gauge rises and falls like oil prices. Often rising on hills, going down on declines.

-It spools up, but doesn't accelerate? 50:50 accelerating well : not moving at all quickly, boost leak? or boost being lost out of head?

-In addition to the above, it has started hesitating under boost, and surging under boost. both symptoms started just today, hooray!

Any suggestions? for about 6 days it was great.

[slystiguy]

check coolant is still topped up? Could be a slight leak somewhere.

Unsure what you mean by hesitating? And what do mean surging under boost?

Common faults on those old cars is plugs/leads/coil pack, afm, fuel pump, bad earths, vacuum leaks from split intake pipes and lines not hose clipped ect,clogged solenoids

also checked your codes lately?

Edited February 6, 2016 by slystiguy

[Passtheacid]

I topped it up this morning, after having Winger top it up yesterday, it's leaving the system somewhere but I dont know where.

By hesitating / Surging; I mean the turbo is spooled to full boost but the car isn't accelerating at it's usual speed, it feels much slower. Or in the case of surging, it'll spool and pull, then slow down, then pull all under one pull.

God what a list!

[slystiguy]

Well there's a few places it could be leaking from.. Any obvious puddles on ground? Any smoke coming from bonnet vents? Oil in water?

What turbo are you running? vf23? top mount intercooler?

checked codes?

[Passtheacid]

No obvious puddles anywhere, no smoke, no water in oil or vice versa.

It's a VF22 and stock top mount

Checked codes, nothing.

I took it for a drive now, acceleration seems to be back to normal. Could it have been contamination on the MAF that has now cleared, or similar?

[itsmitchlowe]

Could be your intake manifold gaskets? Just at a guess.

[Passtheacid]

Forgot about this, turns out was prev owner had put in some head gasket fixer to mask the issue, a pull had blown this out and was losing coolant and boost through a cylinder.

Final outcome full rebuild, happy days