Definitely think the HFCs could be a culprit. And a reasonably easy thing to check.

Yea, no CEL so far. I'm going to see what options I have for the short time being. It can be simply HFC, or test pipes and HFC in the x-pipe area like the 3" TDX setup.

Here's the condition of the passenger side turbo. That oil feed location has been "moist" since day 1. My techs torqued it a couple times in the past year or so and noticed the bolts needed more torquing than the driver side turbo. It doesn't appear moist further above it.

I'm going to have my tech look at it again tomorrow while doing the oil change. If you guys have suggestions for stopping this leak, please don't hesitate to advise me.

Thanks!

I'm still leaning toward a fried cat.

I just talkd to Tony@F.I. I think he's pretty amazed it took 30k miles for the cats to finally fail. Test pipes will be ordered first thing in the morning. Hopefully that'll remedy this issue and keep me going for while. Then eventually I'll switch the x-pipe out with one with HFC to cut the fuel smell. That will buy me some time before I can save up for the 3" setup and tune in about a couple of years... this house stuff pretty much eats up all my hobby funds lol.

I think that's going to take care of it. Cats that close to something as hot as a turbo is a recipe for failure.

Yea, it was a known issue. Nothing short of one off custom from Tony would resolve the issue at the time of installation since I still wanted cats. That's what lead to the design of the cats getting installed further downstream with the 3" TDX exhaust setup. Tony says he can fix me up with a 2.5" x-pipe with cats whenever I'm ready.

I love my 3" catted fi exhaust.

I'd like a 3" straight pipe. No catback :)
I got the Gtm 3" exhaust

I'm jealous. Two things I wished for... one of it was to wait to do any of this stuff knowing how awesome F.I. is hands down. I was the first to get a hold of the TDX 2.5" exhaust. Haha he calls me #1.

Pretty sad... TIAL EWGs sitting in a box all lonely.

Okay, test pipes ordered. It'll be a 3 week wait, but I might not drive my car as much till then. Turns out there's a 1 month wait at the body shop to get my car fixed as well.

It's making quite a bit of sense now after doing some research: sporadic engine start and idle problems, overheating last year when ambient was above 90F, sluggish response (still exists), slight raspy noise at idle heard echoing against a nearby object, and now barely any boost at times. I've not driven the car hard, but only for emergency at half throttle. Looks like I've been dealing with this for almost a year and now just noticing it.

So hopefully nothing's damaged. My tech will check the turbo exhaust side once the HFCs are pulled.

Thanks, all! Will report with status in a few weeks.

You could take off the cats and hollow them out for the time being.

Looks like the test pipes will be shipped out this week at the soonest.

I'm not exactly how much power this will free up since I'm currently sitting around 450 whp at 9 PSI, but I might dail down the boost controller and take it to a shop to get the AFR checked out as I dail it back up to about 9 PSI.

Any of you guys still running the 255 pump?

The walbro? Yeah. Works well enough.

Any plans to switch to Aeromotive 340 lph pump, Chuck? Are you still runnng the Bosch injectors as well?

When it comes time to start chasing more power, I'll swap to the aeromotive. I'm pretty content for now. I've got whichever injectors gtm ships with the stg one kit. Since its a daily driver, I'm not trying to make stupid power. I'm sure I'm in the 425-450whp range. That's good enough until the car becomes a weekend toy.