Green Diesel Engineering stage 2 turbo kit nightmare

fnordmorph · **Posted:** Wed Mar 23, 2011 7:33 pm

I'm hoping someone on the forum will have some insight on this. 2005 crd sport, bought new, 100k odd miles, have a shop working on getting a stage 2 turbo kit working. Extensive contact between Kieth at GDE and the shop, but can't get the tune right, lots of smoke at low throttle Despite backing off on fuel to the point where it makes and nowhere near the power it should have. Kieth thinks its am engine problem but no codes thrown. Maf clean, newish turbo hoses, crd trained mechanic says injectors ok. Running at 6500 feet elevation, Kieth says this shouldn't be an issue. Egr replaced at 16000 miles. Timing belt at 100k., belt alignment checks out. Suncoast and gde tcu shouldn't (?) Effect tune. Any ideas kieth may not have thought of?

LibertyCRD · **Posted:** Wed Mar 23, 2011 8:30 pm

Fuel system/pump clogged or not working properly? Turbo control solenoid failing? Are you certain the hoses are 100% fine?

fnordmorph · **Posted:** Thu Mar 24, 2011 12:38 pm

Turbo hoses are new-a-few-thousand-miles-ago Samco's, they don't appear to leak. Appears to be getting too *much* fuel for the air (lots of black smoke) at least at the low end (?), but will ask about fuel pump. Will have to find out if the turbo control solenoid gets replaced with the turbo upgrade... Thanks for the reply.

Radman · **Posted:** Thu Mar 24, 2011 2:54 pm

If the turbo actuator is not properly adjusted or installed you may not be generating enough boost to burn the fuel. I know on VW TDI's this can be an issue, however not sure how the CRD turbo actuator is designed?? If running off vacuum make sure it is connected properly.

ibedonc · **Joined:** Mon Feb 12, 2007 2:40 pm **Posts:** 236

Gde turbo has a Electric Servo for the Turbo for those who do not know

it is electronic , not vacuum

hopefully your installer connected the wires correctly

nursecosmo · **Posted:** Thu Mar 24, 2011 4:00 pm

The air to fuel ratio is easy to monitor with a scanner. Compare the MAP signal to GDEs specs.

dkenny · **Posted:** Fri Mar 25, 2011 7:49 am

I thought excess fuel caused black smoke not excess air?

I agree with the other poster on check the fuel system.

what about the air filter? is it clean? changed recently?

-dkenny

JCDuke · **Joined:** Mon Feb 07, 2011 8:54 pm **Posts:** 6

I would make sure it is not a mechanical issue. Is the turbo spinning like it should be? if not is there a fitment issue that would cause it to bind? Just a thought. If you are seeing black smoke and the tune is working correctly then you are not getting enough air. Good luck with the upgrade. Let us know how it turns out.

JL Rockies · **Posted:** Fri Mar 25, 2011 1:23 pm

Sorry dude.... really.

Has anyone ever seen GDE and JBA in the same place at the same time?

flman · **Posted:** Fri Mar 25, 2011 5:04 pm

Agreed, black smoke is too much fuel, or not enough air for complete combustion.

nursecosmo · **Posted:** Fri Mar 25, 2011 5:35 pm

And just to be clear. The smoke is black and not blue right? As in oil being dumped into the turbo charger.

fnordmorph · **Posted:** Fri Mar 25, 2011 6:59 pm

I appreciate the suggestions; will follow up on them.

I gave up on the shop that was doing the work for me and picked it up today (after throwing some money into the pit). I don't think I'll patronize that shop again; the guy seems to be a decent 4x4 specialist, and I think they did the transmission work fine, but once the new turbo failed to 'just work', I should probably have taken it to a diesel shop. He charges too much anyhow. (If anyone wants to know which shop, email me for details; I don't want to defame them publicly until and unless I figure out they were actually incompetent or dishonest -- same with GDE for that matter, but something isn't right here and the solution hasn't been forthcoming.)

Definitely black smoke, not blue, and fuel now dialled back from the original GDE stage 2 tune to the point where I don't think its making stock HP/torque. No CEL. Keith was concerned about previous mods to the motor, but the only modifications from stock are things the dealer did to it under TSB's, and a fixed flex fan. With all the unburned fuel and lack of power, i have to think its not getting boost, so considering starting with adding a boost gauge, after I check the intake as far down as I can get with my skill set. Also considering decapitating the exhaust system above the cat to see if backpressure is killing the boost. If no joy there, I have to wonder if there is something just broken with the turbo, turbo controller, or something like that. Keith checked the connections by photo. They did an injector bleed-down test which was a little off on the front cylinder but not enough to cause these problems. Its an 05; are there any other 05's out there with GDE stage 2 turbo's, or only 06's? If I don't get anywhere with any of the above, considering taking it to the shop that does all my Duramax work and see if they can debug it, or making a detour to Wixom, MI next time the wife wants to visit family in Wisconsin.

I hesitate to throw good money after bad on this project, but I really want it to work, given that the only other choices in 'real' 4x4 diesel suv's are German manufacture and I couldn't get into one for twice what I have in the Jeep (well, maybe an 07/08 CRD GC, but that has its own set of problems).

vgpwr · **Posted:** Fri Mar 25, 2011 9:43 pm

How to found the solution....

-Buy ELM327 obd plug 35$
-Run scantool software ( it is free)
-Now you can read : Fuel pressure from Cp3 injection pump, boost pressure from VNT, MAF flow
-If you dont find problem from those value, and as you dont have CEL the next step will be crank sensor and timing belt aligment.
Bad aligment from cam (jumping one tooth timing belt) give those effect, no power and black smoke.

désolé pour mon anglais, le but premier est d'aider a trouver le probleme

racertracer · **Posted:** Sat Mar 26, 2011 3:08 pm

vgpwr wrote:

How to found the solution....

-Buy ELM327 obd plug 35$
-Run scantool software ( it is free)
-Now you can read : Fuel pressure from Cp3 injection pump, boost pressure from VNT, MAF flow
-If you dont find problem from those value, and as you dont have CEL the next step will be crank sensor and timing belt aligment.
Bad aligment from cam (jumping one tooth timing belt) give those effect, no power and black smoke.

désolé pour mon anglais, le but premier est d'aider a trouver le probleme

aucun problème, votre faisant bien.

Thanks you Microsoft translator.

fastRob · **Posted:** Sun Mar 27, 2011 11:52 am

I personally have found Green Diesel to be above reproach.(darn Good Fellas!)
If the guy who was too expensive and not quite competent did some damage are you going to be able to say so?
Sounds like a whole lot is going on and things are confused.
Have discussions with Green Diesel broken down or are we being used to apply pressure on that firm?
Please keep us up to date on your problem. I hope you are polite and trying to be patient, we are only human.

DynoPax · **Posted:** Sun Mar 27, 2011 12:47 pm

vgpwr wrote:

How to found the solution....

-Buy ELM327 obd plug 35$
-Run scantool software ( it is free)
-Now you can read : Fuel pressure from Cp3 injection pump, boost pressure from VNT, MAF flow
-If you dont find problem from those value, and as you dont have CEL the next step will be crank sensor and timing belt aligment.
Bad aligment from cam (jumping one tooth timing belt) give those effect, no power and black smoke.

désolé pour mon anglais, le but premier est d'aider a trouver le probleme

Excellent suggestion, I keep forgetting using mine more often, unless the CEL bugger light :furious:

comes on!

BTW, ton anglais est très bon et parfaitement compréhensible, don't worry :wink:

audiboy86 · **Posted:** Sun Mar 27, 2011 3:42 pm

There are atleast 10 turbo kits that i know of atleast a few 05s and a few 06s and none of them have had any issues. If you could get it to Kieth i would i am sure if you schedule a weekend with him he would be more then happy to work side by side with you.

No translation here

fnordmorph · **Posted:** Mon Mar 28, 2011 11:32 am

Good to hear that there are some 05's running the turbo kits. That eliminates one potential problem. I was worried about the timing belt sync, since that was recently replaced, but it was checked and appeared to be correct. Also good to hear no bad experiences with GDE; that perception on this forum was part of the reason I decided to go ahead with that kit. My point in posting here was not to put pressure on GDE; Keith has been helpful throughout (except when I think he was out of town). I am planning on working with them,hopefully until I can get it running with the original stage 2 tune instead of the defueled version i have now. Just looking for ideas of what could be wrong with the motor that would lead to this set of problems. Will post if there's any progress. Again, thanks for the pointers.

nursecosmo · **Posted:** Mon Mar 28, 2011 12:28 pm

Did you check what your MAP, rail pressure, etc are showing on a scanner yet?

changingtime · **Posted:** Tue Mar 29, 2011 2:50 pm

yeah, keith has been great to work with. you'll never get that level of support from any vendor.

Green Diesel Engineering stage 2 turbo kit nightmare

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