Oh my god this horror won't end. So I dumped my shade tree mechanic that i had working on the car and I'm taking it to a pro garage on tuesday. I have it now to where it will run but it's not hooked up to the exhaust also it won't ever reach boost. I'm hoping to god it's a major vacuum leak and something more major like bad turbos. Basically I rev and it never hits boost, the engine just drops off until I shift. Any ideas?

 

You have a FMIC or stock side mount? Check all your couplings for boost leaks, I freaked out when I first took my car out after the motor swap. I forgot to hook up a coupling and the car ran like crap

I know what you mean about nightmare swap. I had to pull and drop my motor 4 times, problem after problems. It still doesnt run right, only thing that came out of it is I can pull my motor out within 4 hours if I wanted to. Im not sure if thats a good thing cause I tend to rush things and things never end up the way I want them to.

 

First thing is make sure you have no boost leaks then check the turbos but try that 1st

 

If you never see positive manifold pressure at all then most likely it's a turbo problem.

 

okay this is going to sound stupid but what is positive manifold pressure? I can sort of feel boost trying to kick in but then it just suddenly dies off. Like out of the blue just no boost at all

 

Boost= positive pressure
Vacuum = negative pressure

 

Maybe a wastegate issue. Check to make sure it is functioning properly.

 

Alright I'm going to try all of these things tomorrow as soon as I wake up. I also need to ask what gauges are must haves? I'm sure boost and Air Fuel, what else would you guys recommend?

 

wideband and ditch the air fuel guage

 

Check the manifold to make sure all the hoses are connected and are not brittle that happened to me. One of the hoses loves to pop off during boost.

Good luck

 

Sorry to hear that. Hope you figure out what it is.

 

Check your Idle Air Control Valve its on the backside of your Intake Manifold, it could be stuck open and that would let out the pressure and would try to make boost and maybe even a pound or 2 but not much.
good luck it sounds like a boost leak but maybe some bad turbos.