Lacking Serious Power

[Halon]

ok i just got back from giving my car a half hour test drive. All though it does have much more power than it did before, it still isn't 100% up to par. if i gun it at a low rpm in say 2nd, then through all of 2nd it won't have a lot of power. But if i hit it when im at like 3500rpm, it'll go pretty nicely. 1st feels great from a stop, but 2nd is really slugish if you punch it from like 2k rpm. It'll be slow throughout the entire gear. I'm guess timing is somehow being pulled. I dunno, I have to go to bed. Thanx again for the help everyone is giving.

[CVD]

This seems to be on par with what my lifter tick was like. Before it got really bad I could get out of the throttle and jump back in it at mid rpm and there would be more power there.

[Halon]

cool, so ill do that seafoam thing you did. But what exactly am i looking for? Like can I get it at autozone? What exactly is it called? I don't wanna get the wrong stuff. thanx

[CVD]

Its in a red and white metal can. Its called "Seafoam" and the counter guys ought to know exactly what you're talking about. Put it directly in the oil, I always use a lot since it's only going to be run in there for about a minute or two. Its thin stuff, like water, so I cant vouch for it being safe to use, but it works wonders on lifter tick.

*edit* I hear that ATF also works as a detergent for the motor/lifters. Its thicker and probably safer, but I'm not sure how much of that you're supposed to use or for how long.

[Halon]

i will try that after work. I gotta lot of crap to do after work, hopefully i can get this done too. thanx

[Halon]

ok im really getting frustrated here. Well my new throttle body fixed my idle surge. But today it's back. And now this power lacking issue is worse than ever. I wasn't able to do jack to the car today because I worked late and we had to clean up around the room. But I did let my buddy borrow my car. He said he didn't think it was runnin too hot. So I took her for a quick spin. I drove to Autozone real quick on my lil test drive to pick up that seafoam stuff, but they were closed. So I drove back home. Well on this drive that took about 25 minutes, I backfired 3 times (twice shifting into 4th, once shifting into 3rd). So that's a new lil symptom. Also when i punch it I had the windows down, and to me it really sounds like there is a boost leak. As the boost rises, you will hear the nice whistle, but then you'll here a more wooshing sound, like maybe the air(and it sounds like a lot of air, not just a lil whistling leak, but a whoosing kinda sound) is escaping from somewhere. But during the trip, there were maybe 2 times where i did a 3rd gear pull from like 3k rpm, and it pulled ok all the way to 6k where i shut her down. So that seems real weird, because if it were a leak, wouldn't it leak all the time? I don't know, this is driving me off the wall. I'm pissed cuz my time got ate up by work so I didn't get to work on it. I wanna do the seafoam thing cuz that'll take no time, and if it doesn't fix it, then atleast that's one less thing it can't be. hopefully tommorrow I'll get to do that seafoam thing, and also get a boost leak test done.

[CVD]

Still sounds like something is tripping your knock sensor and pulling all timing. The whooshing air noise is pretty normal for that too. From all of your descriptions I would be pretty surprised if it were a boost leak.

[Halon]

ok i took the rest of the day off pretty much. Now between shifts, the car bogs down really low, stalling sometimes. One thing I guess that totally didn't even come to mind was the fact that the BOV is venting. I bought it like this, and don't have a recirc hose. I'm gunna run to a parts store and see if i can't get some sort of flex hose that i can use as a recirc hose. Also i am starting to think that it is the timing being thrown off by something. The engine doesn't make any actual knock sounds. I don't have lifter tick. The idle is all jacked up now for some reason. Idle surge will be there, then it'll be gone, then back. I dunno. So many problems at once it seems, and right before I'm going home, go figure.

[Kracka]

Get that hose on the BOV, ground your ISC and adjust your BISS so the idle sits at 750 rpm, do a boost-leak check, and if possible hook up a datalogger to see if the ECU is seeing knock.

[Kracka]

Originally posted by CVD@May 12 2004, 03:02 PM
*edit* I hear that ATF also works as a detergent for the motor/lifters. Its thicker and probably safer, but I'm not sure how much of that you're supposed to use or for how long.
Same method as the Sea Foam. Drive or rev the car just enough to get it circulated. Don't put the car under heavy load whatsoever. Some MCCC might help you out too, search around on the VFAQ and Talk/tuners and you'll get pleny of info on that stuff.