To make a long story short my old 16t was using oil pretty bad so I picked up a 16t out of a 2004 volvo that supposedly had 55,000mi on it. The 2004 turbo looks good, no indication of oil usage or anything like that. Turbine spins freely and so on and so on.....

(The old one is on the left, the new one had some odd wear marks but the impellers are perfect.)



So after the switch everything works as its supposed to only I cant break 5lbs. Checked all the vacuum lines twice and went so far at to replace the waste gate actuator and other actuator located on the intake side with the known working ones from my old 16t. Still only 5lbs.


Car was holding 9.5lbs with the old turbo and spiked around 15 sometimes.

Could it be possible that I have the waste gate and other intake side's actuator vacuum lines crossed?? The turbo builds boost quickly but does not spike, just sits at 5lbs and holds steady.

Any Ideas??

 

And intercooler hoses bad/leaking?
Maybe the hoses are crossed from the EBC.

 

So I disconnected the bypass valve and made plenty of boost very quickly, so I quickly realized I did something stupid during the install. I looked at my vac lines again and finally saw that the waste gate and bypass valve's vac lines were swapped. Swapped them back and now its running like it should, with a steady 9.5lbs.

Too many vac lines to keep track of...

 

Glad all is good now!