Hi guys. First post over here so go easy on me Well, I went to test and tune night yesterday at Sacramento Raceway, CA. It was a lot of fun and there was barely anyone there so I got lots of runs BUT I was disappointed in my times. My best quarter mile time previously was 13.528 @ 104.890 MPH with a 2.183 sixty foot. My car was bone stock except for the drag radials then. Last night, my best was 13.470 @ 104.717 MPH with a 2.076 sixty foot running the mods in my sig. So basically, with an improved sixty foot and the addition of a lid, I picked up less than a tenth I would have attributed that to the outside temperature since it was significantly hotter outside yesterday than when I ran before EXCEPT for a couple of factors.


1. When I was doing my brakestands, my car would NOT rev very high at all. Like 2.5-3k rpm max, even with the pedal to the floor. I GUESS that might be normal but I seem to remember being able to rev pretty high while doing burnouts in the past. I tried it in drive too and it didn' even shift, just sat there below 3k. My tires were sitting there screaching away... not doing the smoky burnouts that I could easily do last time.

2. My gas mileage has been complete crap lately. I used to get 200 miles on 3/4 of a tank with mixed freeway/city with my foot relatively into the pedal. The last few tanks, I have driven like a grandma to confirm my crappy mileage and I've only been getting around 140 miles out of 3/4 tank!!

The car SEEMS ok when I'm just driving around but I know something is wrong somewhere. Next week I am going to change the fuel filter (even though it was changed 4k miles ago,) the pvc valve, spark plugs, oil, and run some injector cleaner. I'll also be getting a Predator next week to diagnose any codes, messed up sensors, etc. My car has 22k miles on it. Any help you guys can offer would be very much appreciated!! I'm going to dedicate a day to this so if you have any suggestions let me know Thanks in advance!

 

I don't have any advice or suggestions, but I do have a question.

I'm going to be running some Fuel Injector Cleaner and would like some people's input as to the best one to run.

 

Dude, I'd say your lucky you got the times you did if it was signicantly hotter that day.

You don't really have any mods... (if anything you now have a little more weight with SFCs...)

There is probably nothing wrong at all.

Tommy

 

NO,
I think something is a miss, the gas mileage,
and no full turn up is a tell tell sigh. I gave you some info last week on the pred. I think doing some drive testing with live mont will show so thing a miss. welcome to this board. see ya on both

 

Thanks for the responses guys Yes, something is not right with the car for sure. I'm going to try all of the things I mentioned earlier and will definately use the live monitor with the Pred. Just wanted to see if anyone has fixed something like this before. Thanks again

 

forget the ET. The MPH tells you how the car is running. The MPH is fairly close even though the temp went up (the extra HP of the lid may have been offset by the temp). Also- did you let the car cool down between runs? Was it more humid out, was the barometric pressure lower the 2nd day? All this stuff adds up.
When I go to the track I keep as much info as possible- temp, humidity, baro pressure, and take notes on cooldown time launch RPM, shiftpoints etc. You'll be suprised at how many vairables will effect the trap speed. This saves a lot of time chasing ghost problems.
The mileage is troubling though. Before you freak out- Are you dividing miles by the # of gallons added at each fill or eyeballing it based on the gage?

 

What can atttribute to you not being able to keep the RPMs high during burnouts is most liekly torque management. It reduces timing when it senses "abusive behavior" during shifts. So put the gear selector in "1" and burn away...

 

Ok, I got a chance to hook up my new Predator and get some data the other day. There was a lot of traffic around town and on the freeway so I couldn't get on it too much but at WOT my o2s read about 930 and appeared to be rising a bit more before I slowed down and I had no knock. BUT when I was driving around town, I was getting all kinds of knock retard. Starting at about 1500rpm in 2nd and third gear, I normally got 1-3 degrees. One time I got 7! It usually happened when I accelerated from a stop light or if I gave it gas while I was already cruising along (not a lot of gas, just driving normally around town.) Any suggestios? I did not install the Predator tune since I don't want to cause anymore problems. I'm going to be doing all of the maintenance things I mentioned in the first post hopefully on Tuesday. Any input is appreciated!

 

Your mph seems fine to me since you don't have any mods. Your ET should be a bit lower, but that's no big deal really. There are tons of factors involved there...especially weather. I see your on drag radials. You should be heating the **** out of them. Your 60' should be in the 1.8 range at least. That'll drop your ET significantly. You'll be in the low 13's for sure.

The gas mileage thing is a problem. I would suggest taking it to the dealer. I'm sure you have warranty left since it's an '01. Let them deal with (and pay for) the problem.

"Next week I am going to change the fuel filter (even though it was changed 4k miles ago,) the pvc valve, spark plugs, oil, and run some injector cleaner."

While you're at it, change the PCV too.

PVC = Poly Vinyl Chloride
PCV = Positive Crankcase Ventilation

I had to do it since your a newbie. :p

I hope everything works out for you!

 

Good idea

I'd like to avoid having to take it to the dealership if at all possible. All of the dealerships around here manage to screw me over everytime I go in for some work. For example, they fixed a clunk coming from the rear of my car about a month and a half ago. It took them a week to diagnose and fix a bad sway bar bushing (the sway bar was polished from rubbing on stuff but apparently they didn't notice that when they took off the entire rear the first day!)For some reason, they went into my spare tire well and decided to tear the weather stripping around my hatch and detroy those plastic screws. I've gone back 3 times to have those replaced and everytime they either didn't really have the part (after they told me they did) or they ended up ordering the wrong part... It's still not fixed and this kind of thing has happened before. Sooooo, I'd like to avoid taking it to them if at all possible.

I think I'm going to run some sea foam through it before I change the oil. Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

 

This may sound a little stupid, but have you checked for leaks in the gas tank itself? I had an escort (ya, i know..an escort) that had a leak in the tank. Also, what octane are you running?

 

Thanks for the reply. Hehe, I'll try anything to fix this so nothing sounds stupid Definately don't have any leaks though. I'm running the best gas you can get in Cali... 91 octane

 

You might be better off posting this problem in the Fueling and Injection forum.

 

When you installed your TSP lid did you do the timing tricker mod that bypasses the IAT sensor that mounts in the rear of the lid? This is either a module (like SLP) or a 4.7kohm resistor. I have noticed when this is done it causes knock around 3-5 deg max around 15 deg at heavy pulls.


What I believe is happening is the PCM is detecting a fault and putting the transmission into fail-safe mode during your burnout. But no lite no codes so we'll move on.

Have to make sure so have to say, make sure the TCS is off. Sorry, Now...
Check for a vacuum leak at the intake manifold.
Next
Try this. Disconnect the MAF sensor connector. This puts the vehicle into Failure Mode and Effects Management (FMEM). In FMEM mode, air flow is inferred by using rpm and throttle position instead of reading the MAF sensor. In addition, the BARO value is reset to a base/unlearned value. If the symptoms go away, the MAF sensor is probably contaminated and should be replaced.

 

Cat - Thanks for the reply. I did not do the IAT tricker and traction control was definately off. I tried unplugging the MAF today but I was still getting knock so I guess that rules that out. I'll have to check the intake manifold still but wouldn't a vacuum leak cause lots of other problems?

I realised today that the knock is temperature dependant. It is much worse when its hot outside (which makes sense.) Thanks for the help so far guys

 

Did you ever log your car's KR before this started happening to you?

For the hell of it, you might as well adjust (lower) your fan temp on/off settings with predator. Even with a stock thermostat, it helps.

These are the settings I use:
Low Fan on: 209 off: 200
High Fan on: 219 off: 210

Good luck.

Tommy

 

Tommy - Thanks, I'll give that a try. I'd imagine that will help since its temperature dependent but it does still do it when its cold, just not as bad. My plugs should be here on Tuesday (couldn't find iradiums locally...) so I'll change them and everything else on Wednesday and report back Thanks for all the help so far

 

My car was doing the same thing on burnouts you need a line-lock my rear brakes were grabbing to hard and even floored it stayed at 2000 rpm's go do a burnout and when it sits at 2 grand let off the brake just a lil and watch the rpm's jump.