Boost leak or turbo lag?

[contourious]

I recently had a custom turbo kit installed on my Ford Contour, but I think it has a boost leak. I cannot get boost in first gear, and not easily in other gears.

Please view this YouTube video for a video of the problem
http://youtu.be/Ke5UEVTfEnE

Is this boost lag, or something wrong?

Suggestions and tips are appreciated! Thanks in advance!

Additional Specs:

Master Power turbo (T3 turbine)
.50 compressor A/R (48 trim)
.63 turbine A/R (83 trim)

[Got Insulin?]

Have you tried boost leak testing the car yet? ALWAYS start there, and continue on. What is the car being tuned with? Do you have some sort of logger set-up so that we can see what is going on?

[contourious]

Originally Posted by Got Insulin?

Have you tried boost leak testing the car yet? ALWAYS start there, and continue on. What is the car being tuned with? Do you have some sort of logger set-up so that we can see what is going on?

Hey there, thank you for the reply. The installer said that he did a boost leak test after installation, but the symptoms just seem like a leak to me. However, this is my first turbo project, so I'm not sure what to expect, or what is considered normal.

Also, the car was tuned using Sniper software, which I unfortunately do not have access to. I purchased a "Sniper bullet" from the installer, who had a special OBDII cable connected to his laptop. The only real monitoring I have is the boost gauge and the air to fuel wideband. I was just curious if this was normal characteristics for this size turbo on a Duratec 2.5L? Or does this "lag" seem excessive? FWIW, the engine has secondary intake plenums ("secondaries," which uses an IMRC to control the multi-path intake manifold, so that there is heavier and more direct air flow at higher RPM), which may possibly play a role in the RPM range of 1st gear boost. This just adds more variables to narrow down .

I was also told to have the vacuum system and exhaust gaskets (including wastegate gasket) checked. So I was debating on bringing my car to Krazy House Customs in South Brunswick. I was told that they have access to the Sniper software that was used by the previous shop.

What do you think?

Thank you!

[Got Insulin?]

I don't know anything at all about your particular application, but the leak test is always the place to start in my experience. Unfortunately because you don't have a logging ability, it's difficult to see what is actually going on. 50- and 60-trims tend to be a bit laggy, so that could play a decent part in what you're experiencing, too. KHC knows their stuff, so I'd confidently put my car in their hands...