When I first got the car, it would only show 8.5 psi of boost on the primary turbo, and revving it above 4500 rpm would cause lots of blue smoke to come out of the tail pipe. So I thought that I had a boost leak in the y-pipe coupler (I did find a crack in the coupler), and that the compressor in the secondary was on its way out. So I bought a Efini y-pipe, a downpipe, and a set of "low mileage" set of '96 N3C1 turbos, and spent this past weekend installing them. I also ordered some silicone vacuum hoses to replace all the rubber ones. So far I only replaced the rubber hoses connected to things like the actuators near the primary turbo, the CCV, and the CRVs.

Upon starting of the car, lots of smoke came from the turbos in the engine bay, which was expected because they were sort of coated in oil. It pulled 16-17 mmHgs of vacuum in neutral, just like before. After the smoke dissapated I took the car for a drive, boost gauge in hand, to see if the turbos were boosting properly.

Long story short, they don't boost at all. Under WOT at ANY rpm, no boost is built. The gauge reads zero and stays there all the way up to redline. All that work for nothing; actually worse than nothing because now the first turbo isn't even spooling.

So I'm thinking maybe the wastegate is stuck open. Not the case here. I pulled the turbo control connectors right next to the vacuum chamber to see if I could get the 7-7-7 pattern but still nothing. So I decided to see if it was maybe the line that goes to the wastgate actuator; so I pulled the hose off and ran it and still no boost. And to top it all off, I still have lots of smoke coming out the exhaust when revved over 4500rpm. Below is a link to a video showing the smoke, and some funny "whooshy-whistley" noise that the car is making.

TL;DR, I installed a new y-pipe, downpipe, and a complete set of '96 N3C1 turbos and am getting no boost whatsoever. Did I just get a bad set of turbo, or is there something else?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPXjXKgn7iw

 

99.9% chance the turbos are good and you just left something unhooked somewhere. I would check all you bolts/nut/clamps starting at the y-pipe to turbo connections as I believe you left something undone.

 

Solved the no boost problem for the primary. The intercooler hose blew off somehow. Now I'm just stuck troubleshooting the second turbo problem, which probably has something to do with all the hoses that need to be replaced. Still dumps smoke out the tailpipe above 4500-5000 rpm though. I squeak type noise can be heard at about 5000rpm, which I'm guessing has something to do with the transition to the second turbo.

 

On the smoke, it was hard to tell in the video but does it smoke above 4500 rpms while you still have your foot on the gas or only on decel? In the video it looked like it was during decel or when the rpms were coming down? Is this correct? The whining sound is usually a clamp that isnt fully tightened(same thing as you piping coming off) or one of the metal gaskets on the Y-pipe to turbo flanges. These if one of the bolts is not all the way tightened down on the flanges it will cause the metal gaskets to make a whistling/buzzing sound at higher rpms or under boost.

 

It only happens on the decel, and it does it on the decel while driving too.