Sounds like a little bit of both. They are slower than some cars with the same amount of power but I think that is mostly because of how heavy they are.

 

It's a heavy car with a pretty awful OEM tune. Get a reflash and pick up 40whp and 80wtq without modding anything else. Even Stage 1 feels like a different car.

 

get a boost gauge and see what psi you are hitting.

2 adjust the wastegate actuator conservatively

car should be just as fast as you dad's volvo stock. about the same weight and about the same hp.

 

Yea I was planning to get a BRTcc tune and then run it on a dyno to see if I'm hitting the tuned PSI, not to mention to see what numbers I'm hitting Would the stock clutch be okay on that much torque gain? I know it starts to get iffy around 300 torque.

 

Plan on your clutch going sooner rather than later. I just did my clutch at the same time as my 19T turbo upgrade. All you need to properly track boost pressure is a boost gauge. Not terribly expensive and fairly easy to install while downright invaluable for diagnosing boost related problems.

 

I formerly owned a Scion tC...and this car is MUCH quicker than that. The powerband is a bit wonky though. A tune will fix that...but I'm not convinced thats your problem if you're thinking that the tC is faster.

 

I formerly owned a Scion tC...and this car is MUCH quicker than that.

I can tell you without question that at stage 2 my car was faster than my 2003 G35 which was not an underpowered car to begin with.

 

My Scion tC had a CAI and CBE, so its throttle response was a lot quicker and it weighed less. In my Genesis, when the turbo actually kicks in, it's of comparable speed to the tC. But when the turbo doesn't kick in (which feels like most of the time), it has almost no pick up. I might try running it back up to the dealer to see if the can check it out.

As far as a boost gauge goes, I was really hoping to save that until later when I can afford an A/F gauge to go with it and a nice gauge set up installation. And I don't plan on getting an A/F gauge until I upgrade my down pipe, which I don't intend to do until I get some of my money's worth out of my warranty.

Now for the clutch, how many miles do you think "sooner than later" is. I don't want to get the tune, then my clutch die on me shortly after and I don't have enough money to get it fixed. I suppose I could take the ECU back out and say the clutch died on its own and get it replaced under warranty.

 

I can tell you from experience that you want a boost gauge ASAP, particularly if you're not feeling consistent boost. Our small stock turbo is about as close to instant spool as you can get with turbos. It spools well below 3000rpm without issue. When I had my Stage 2 tune I had no idea my wastegate actuator wasn't adjusted properly until I installed a boost gauge and saw that I was peaking at 15psi instead of 20psi.

 

a clutch is a wear item .that really isnt covered under waranty unless defective

 

The previous owner had a K&N SRI, but the dealer said it was causing a boost leak so they replaced it back to stock.

how exactly does an SRI cause boost leak? Me thinks the dealer was blowing smoke up your butt.

if you really want to figure it out, take it to a respectable performance shop and have it dynod, its only around 80$

from there you get power curves, boost numbers and AFRs, then post the results here; we'll do what we can to help pin point the issues.

1. if there is any boost issues, you'll see it

2. if there are any fuel issues, you'll see it.

3. if there are any ignition, spark plug , or other issues, you should see it.

Make friends with that performance shop guy and he will be good to you

Hopefully the garage guy will have some ideas as well.

 

I think the car really is just a turd. My wrx was quicker with low compression on one cylinder. It's the weight that kills it I think. But it has lots of potential and is still fun.


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Stock tune, slow for sure. But it doesn't take much to open her up and my stage 3 build gives my neighbors STi a hard time

 

car is slow stock, but not terribly slow.

get a boost gauge, even a cheap one from autozone will work for now, and make sure you are getting to 14ish psi. if you are, then get a tune and it will be much different. if you arent, take it to the dealer and have them fix the boost issue.

 

Okay once I get my tune (2-3 weeks) I'll get it dyno'd and show you guys the results.

But do you really think the clutch won't be covered under warranty? I've read several posts here where people have had their clutch replaced multiple times under warranty.

 

A clutch is a wear item. The OEM clutch is perfect fine for stock torque levels but its longevity will be greatly reduced once you get a tune.

 

depends on the dealer and the warranty. my dealer/warranty covered the clutch for the 1st year or 12k miles, whichever came first.

And im still on my stock clutch and im over 300whp/300wtq for the last 2-3k miles. I have just now started to get some slippage going into 3rd when i spin the tires through 2nd.

 

ive used a $30 gauge from autozone when i was in a bind and my electronic boost gauge took a dump on me. as long as you install it correctly, it will work fine

 

look at my mods list. with only that, my clutch slips like 500-1k RPM's whenever i give it 60% or more throttle.

but what everyone is saying is true, the car feels sluggish stock, but add a stock tune and it really wakes up.

also, getting rid of the cats frees up some horsies and spools the turbo quicker

 

Have an android phone?

Cheapest, and quickest way to see you boost, along with other pids is get an OBDII bluetooth module ($20 on amazon or ebay) and the torque app. Boom!

You get to see all your gauges on your phone (except a few and no wb afr unless you can find the custom pids if they exist).

-- here is one page of my current setup.

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can't see afr if you don't have a wideband o2 sensor installed...:door:

 

Ive had a boost gauge installed on the left of the gauges for going on two years now.

It is white when my lights are off and when I turn the headlights on it flips to blue, matches almost perfectly!

 

an intake won't cause a boost leak...that's bullshit...if anything, an intake with an air bypass (like on the 3.8) could cause the MAF to read a lower amount of flow and not adjust fuel thus leaning out the mixture to overcome the rich factory fuel tables, but if I'm not mistaken the 2.0T uses a MAP and doesn't even have a MAF sensor.

There's not a chance in hell that even in stock form a TC is quicker. it's got an extra 4 lbs per horsepower on the genesis, and I doubt it's got more aggressive gearing. I chalk it up to you being in your head. a catback and an intake isn't going to make up the 50hp difference between your genesis and a tc.

Furthermore, a v70 should not be quicker either....the 2.0T makes 210 brake on 91 octane and I believe had a 3.93 final drive at that point (correct me if I'm wrong) versus 204 brake on the volvo, an extra hundred pounds and a final drive of 4.00...9 hundredths of an extra final ratio isn't going to make up that difference. Bottom line...the 2.0T is slow as ****...get a tune for a few hundred bucks and it'll be significantly quicker. Go with BTRcc or TurboXS for the tune on the turbo IMO. And no, your clutch will not be covered under warranty. It's a wear item so you have 12 months or 12,000 miles. You bought the car with 13,500 so it's a moot point. In all likelihood your clutch is just fine anyway. Unless your car is bucking and revving and then rev-dropping with no clutch input your clutch is fine. I doubt anyone abused your clutch to the point in 13k miles that it won't hold the measly 220 lb ft output of the stock motor.

 

Thanks for the insights. I'm not concerned about my clutch as it is now, it seems to be fine. My worry is that when I get the tune that the stock clutch would go shortly after. But I'm hoping that the ~280 torque it's going to be pulling won't be too bad for it's performance and longevity. Think it could make it to 30k miles?

 

I still think there's something wrong with your car. My tc also had intake, header, exhaust...the gen is a much faster car.

It's either your head or something really wrong and the dealer is trying to get out of paying for it

 

is it a automatic? lol

 

It's a manual. I can only imagine how bad the automatic must be

 

Does sound a lot like a boost issue. Like everyone else said, monitoring boost would be my first step. Also a fresh set of plugs with proper gap. Spark blowout on a 100% stock car can sound and feel slow rather than actually noticing a problem.

 

I ordered my BTRcc Race Spec tune last night. As soon as it arrives I'll put it in, get it dyno'd and see if we can spot any issues that way. Thanks for all the help so far.

 

Are you running Premium?
Is the car up to temperature completely before you are trying to beat on it?

 

I have been running Shell's V-Power for a couple weeks and it feels a little better than before, but nothing too noticeable. And yes, the car temperature is up. I know that it won't kick in when it's still too cold, but this is well after it's warmed up.

 

I notice the car is slower too. Only faster car I had was a Cobalt SS Turbo with 260hp but this is weird. It seems fast on low rm but then around 4000 it just seems to die and after 5500 it's no boost.

I would also suggest a tune as it should fix it up a little. If not, go all out and put a new turbo on the car lol.

 

There is still boost being built in the upper end of the rev range and a properly tuned car will definitely feel a lot stronger than a stock tune car but the small factory turbo definitely falls flat up top. The first thing I noticed when I got my 19t turbo upgrade was how much stronger it felt in the upper end of the rev range.

For comparison, I believe the oem turbo on the Cobalt SS flows a good bit more than our stock 13T which is why it would feel stronger throughout and particularly up top. Cobalt might be a lighter car as well (too lazy to check right now).

 

I would check for boost leaks, even though the dealer said they already checked.

most dealer mechanics never really deal with turbo'd cars, unless they a specialized.

 

Read this again, because it seems OP is missing the real point. That is, you should be checking boost before doing anything like ordering a tune.

There could be something wrong, and slapping a tuned ecu in before checking is just asking for some unknown to come up and wack you in the head.

That was the reason i suggested the torque app. Yes, it can poll slow, no you have no afr, but you can check it now for like $20!

Piece of mind in these cars is worth way more than that!

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It all goes back to monitoring boost. That's the first step. Anything else is just pissin' in the wind