my car is a pos
 

I'm sure a few of you heard me saying last night at KK that my car was running kind of fucked up. Well its gone to a new level. I can't drive faster than about 45. It feels like its getting bogged down by something. I have pretty much no power at all and I'm fairly certain I don't have a boost leak. I'm going to do a test later tonight.

Re: my car is a pos
 

check the shaft play on your turbo

Re: my car is a pos
 

Boost leak.

Re: my car is a pos
 

I did that then realized that the spark plugs I was running had a - 11 or something which was intended for cooler cars or something. In other words, It caused a rough / bogish ride 3k +. Might want to check that. Boost leak is another strong possiblilty.

Re: my car is a pos
 

Yeah, by "I'm pretty sure I don't have a boost leak" what I meant to say was "Who needs couplings connecting their intercooler to the piping when you can have A HUGE GAPING HOLE!"
I know you sickos like huge gaping holes, dont lie!

Re: my car is a pos
 

Sounds like what happened when i either blew my Turbo, or crankwalked my car, they both happened within a month so i cant remember which one had which symptom.

Re: my car is a pos
 

I could have told you you had a boost leak. same thing happend to me on my way to work one time. the car in 5th gear could only go to 55.it sucked balls. and it was all shitty.
Mike

Re: my car is a pos
 

See but I was really thinking I didn't have a boost leak because I had just changed all my couplings to some nice silicone ones.

Re: my car is a pos
 

Maybe your timing is way off. That would make your car seem laggy and slow ass hell. Check your timing marks, you may be in for a surprise.

Re: my car is a pos
 

yup and that would randomly change without throwing the belt
:confused: j/k
My bet would be a boost leak, turbo failure, or spark delivery issue.

Re: my car is a pos
 

Yea actually timing can be thrown off without breaking the belt... it happened to me. The belt just skipped a couple teeth...

Re: my car is a pos
 

At KK we all told you "boost leak." Good job listening.

Re: my car is a pos
 

Yeah, at KK I KNEW I had a boost leak cuz my lower coupling had a hole in it. So I came home and replaced it and then it continually got worse. (Because the replacement coupling was falling off)

Its still fucked up :( , just not as badly anymore :)

Re: my car is a pos
 

Just because you may have never seen it does not mean its not possible. I have seen it happen first hand and some cars will run fine with two teeth off but will have little to no power under boost. Very hard to diagnose.

Like I said first thing I would do a boost leak test. Just because you put new couplers on doesn't mean there isn't a leak from something like the intake manifold/throttle body ect.

CRAIG

Re: my car is a pos
 

They won't usually run fine when 2 teeth off, but they will run about 75% while one tooth off. It can also happen randomly. Usually it is an older belt (or a cheap one) or the tensioner or something is weak. A piece of foreign material jumping into the belt can also do it aka. a rock, piece of plastic or a midget. :)

Re: my car is a pos
 

So as far as plug gap is concerned is it best to have them at .28? The manual says .28 to .31, whats the difference? When I checked them they were all gapped almost exactly to .28
Its a lot better now that the coupling is fix but it still does this weird thing where it kinda stutters at full boost in 4th gear and feels like stuttering when I'm on the highway going about 70 in 4th or 5th. I wish I could explain it better, Cher was with me one night at got to see it first hand...

Re: my car is a pos
 

.28 is fine for plug gap.

Re: my car is a pos
 

Well I guess I never thought about it just skipping a tooth. It could happen, but it would be more likely to happen during install versus only jumping 1 tooth and then recatching itself. I'd start with the boost leak test first as well.

Re: my car is a pos
 

More likely yes... a stretched belt or tension got loose is what happened to me. This was quite a bit after a redone timing belt. Maybe 10000 miles +. I believe it skipped on startup, when the belt loosens a tad and then when I started the car, the force somehow popped it a couple teeth back. The car ran pretty shitty and knocked like mad, logger and eventually loud enough to hear...

Anyway so yea. The stuttering could be your plugs or spark plug wires. I had the same stuttering under boost issue and it was the wires.

Re: my car is a pos
 

I hope you're not gapping your plugs to .28, that's about a quarter inch. Try .028 instead. :D

And the -11 on your plugs is the same plug with a larger gap, just squeeze it down to .028.