i was wondering if ya guys can help me trouble shoot. i believe i have a bad actuator. my turbo is internally gated. and it is running pretty much normal hg level... i dont believe there is any boostleakage, but, when i press the gas i hear the turbo spool, a rush of air from maybe the intake?? but the boost will not build and my car starts to kinda bog. i am wondering if my actuator is bad and cannot hold the flapper shut on the wastegate... or what it could be? i just don't wanna take it apart if there is other stuff i could check. any ideas?

 

Have you done an actual boost leak check?
There is a rubber hose that goes like this, wastegate actuator-bcs-turbo compressor housing.
To check the wastegate, remove both the hose going to the bcs (you should still have that hose connected to the wastegate and turbo compressor housing). Now remove one of the hoses because you'll need toconnect the wastegate to the compressor housing. Now go boosting and get back to us.
BTW, that rush of air from the intake is normal?

 

no, how do i do it if, i have a big 16 g, the house that you refer to that goes from the compressor housing is not on that turbo so i had to reroute it differently. the rush of air is not normal... it may be because the aounds like it is spooling to very high rpm's but the thing doesnt produce boost. maybe the bov went bad? but i dont think thats it. so how else would i check the wastegate? or the boost leak... i do have an aftermarket boost guage... to check if the hg is different at different spots in the vacuum lines. the bcs is null and void since i now have a 16g on there.now if i disconnect jus the hose from the actuator and it does the sam thing what does it mean? i can do that but i wanna make sure before i do it what i am looking for. maybe it is a bad bov... i dunno. i will actually do the little check thing on the actuator and let ya knnw if i get diff rezults. but any other ideas? i will repost tonight.

 

connect the hose from the compressor housing to the wastegate. If its not on the compressor housing then its on the J pipe. and for a boost leek test use this and soapy water
http://www.slowboyracing.com/more.php?id=6014&

 

well. i think i can rig something up that will work just as good. it will take a day maybe but it will save me 30 bucks. i really wanna fix this cuz it sounds bad. oh, and i disconnected the hose from the actuator to check the hg... now this may not make sense but... before it started running like this (it was an instant change when it happened) my hg level was at like 17-18 around that... now when i run it it is at about 21. but when i took the hose off the actuator and let it dangle the hg dropped to 10. now why would it go up when this problem occured... but lowers when i let the boost leak? could that mean their is no boost leak and it is something else that is wrong?? just thought i should throw that in forgot to add it before. i will make my own checker but this may answer my problems a little better. thanks guys !

 

you gotta have a major leak somewhere. my 1g BOV got stuck open and i had a similar problem. my next mysterious leak ended up being the aftermarket J pipe coming out of the turbo. my bolts were too long and bottomed out before it was tight.

 

i gotta show you guys a picture of my pressure tester, consists of an old 87 f-150 original valve stem... and a baby bottle with a hole drilled in the bottom for the valve stem. i pressurized the system and it was the hose right after my intercooler, would only leak when pressure got over 5psi on my compressor. so i fitted it back on better and tight and voila the problem is fixed. thanks for your help guys!

 

For future referrence, just know that boost leaks are a turbo car's constant companion and should be checked at least every other week if you're boosting mildly and every day if you're boosting high a lot and of course it's a "know your car and how it runs in a normal state" judgement call the rest of the time.
Issues like yours is a big reason why most folks suggest a boost leak test as their first troubleshooting process. Also, did you try and BLT it up to what you're supposed to be at according to your boost gauge?