No Grunt

[Eircamae86]

Having trouble with the new JDM Levin, when I was buying it the 1st thing I noticed was that it was well down on power. I didnt buy her to wreck her so I just thought, Powers steering, Aircon & cat converter are prob sapping most of the power but its starting to annoy me.
Heres the symptoms, no power off the line, rev to 4-5000 release the clutch & the car drops to about 800rpm before slowly picking up, goes fairly well above 4000 rpm. The car is unable to complete a dounut from a 6-7000 start.
So far, I have checked the timing, used injector cleaner, cleaned the air filter, changed the plugs, removed the cat converter.
Did notice a touch of oil on the dizzy tonight but I will attend to that.
It drives like a car that has big cams except it has standard ecu & pulleys it idles/runs like a standard lump.
Whats next,
Check the fuel pressure, check the injectors, check for a vacuum leak (cant see one).
Compression test even though there is no smoke & it drives well.
Stick an F20c in :worried: as if

[70XIN]

"rev to 4-5000 release the clutch & the car drops to about 800rpm before slowly picking up"

^this bit had me curious, is your clutch in any good shape??

but yeah, your dizzy/dizzy cap could be fairly fried (especially if you have aftermarket headers and no heat-shield), coil/ignitor could be on its way out, timing could be off

not many other things it could be imo, i think when rob's fuel pump started dying it had similar symptoms

compression test is always a good idea, but i really don't think that it's the problem in this case

[Eircamae86]

Im hoping its something easy like the fuel pump or even a clogged filter after the tank, the oil in the dizzy is minor but I will sort it asap, she seems to be firing well. The clutch is fine, driving up hills is a bastard just no torque.

[70XIN]

ahh yep i see. definitely definitely change your fuel filter, especially if its a jap car (some of the small towns over in japan water-down their fuel, unfortunately this rusts the shit out of everything and in turn clogs the pump and/or filter)

robo's fuel filter had a good teaspoon of j-shit come out of his filter when we first changed it

:)

[Eircamae86]

ahh yep i see. definitely definitely change your fuel filter, especially if its a jap car (some of the small towns over in japan water-down their fuel, unfortunately this rusts the shit out of everything and in turn clogs the pump and/or filter)

robo's fuel filter had a good teaspoon of j-shit come out of his filter when we first changed it

:)

Will do, theres one back near the tank also? on a JDM car.

[70XIN]

dont think so man, as far as i remember there's just the one in the engine bay, and the little filter-bag thing attached to the bottom of the fuelpump (inside the tank)

someone with a better memory than mine will have to confirm

[NIZLAH]

my mates bigport is like this also... very slug like till 4-4500 rpm then it pulls well, we havent worked out what it is though yet..... (he really couldn't be fucked as he is planning a motor swap soon)

So I take it you threw that exhaust on mate? did you put it on as is or get that dent fixed?
(not saying it has anything to do with your problem) Did all bolt up fine and all?

[Eircamae86]

my mates bigport is like this also... very slug like till 4-4500 rpm then it pulls well, we havent worked out what it is though yet..... (he really couldn't be fucked as he is planning a motor swap soon)

So I take it you threw that exhaust on mate? did you put it on as is or get that dent fixed?
(not saying it has anything to do with your problem) Did all bolt up fine and all?

Got the dent fitted but its about 3 inches short of all the mounting points, bizarre. Must get a section welded in.

[Clinton]

mine is a slug before 4500rpm too. like 4ac speccin' soon as tvis opens up it runs normally, i noticed it heaps when i aold my bigport 71 the day that i picked up an 86, i was thinking to myself "wow this engine must iof had a flogging". but comp is good, timing is good, spark is good. the only think i havent checked is fuel, and i guess that will be good tomorrow. so i have no clue what is going on, maybe they are 1st gen 4age?

[ae71]

ahh, i also had this with my 1ggue..

it was surgsested to take the intake manifold off and give it a good scrub and clean with carb T/B cleaner. will need another intake gasket. also make sure that the tvis is actually working properly. maybe jammed or sticky.

[NIZLAH]

Got the dent fitted but its about 3 inches short of all the mounting points, bizarre. Must get a section welded in.

hmm that is quite strange....
Do you like the note of it?

------------ > Yeah my mate and I believe its a tvis issue.. just haven't been fucked enough to play around with it yet.

[70XIN]

a completely open/completely closed TVIS would still make the car "go alright" below 4000rpm, i really dont think it's that .. worth a try though i guess

[NIZLAH]

yeah that's what I was saying to old mate... its really strange though, as soon as it gets to that tvis range it opens up sweet and pulls strongly...below though it just has no response or power.

[Eircamae86]

yeah that's what I was saying to old mate... its really strange though, as soon as it gets to that tvis range it opens up sweet and pulls strongly...below though it just has no response or power.

Thats exactly how mine feels, ya, the exhaust sounds the job.

[Eircamae86]

The car had a shit attack this evening in indooroopilly, all of a sudden it developed a massive miss, sounded like a rally car with anti-lag, pulled over while I was now having a shit attack thinking the head gasget was after failing. checked as much as I could with no tools, did notice a split in one of the leads. Started her up again & drove her home without her missing once.
Bizarre,,,,,, New leads & a dizzy cap in the morning me thinks.
Then when I get the exhaust sorted Ill bring her for an expert opinion.

[TE27]

my 4age is doing a similar thing. below 4k its almost like its missing or running on 3 cylinders but once it gets past 4k (roughly) it just takes off like a rocket. mine does have some big cams but last week it wasnt doing this so the cams arent to blame.

i did have a problem a few weeks ago where the TPS wasnt working properly and the car just died in traffic, luckily i spotted the loose wire and managed to tape it in place in the middle of peak hour traffic and she was fine after that. im pretty sure the problems arent related but that could be something else for you to check.

im going to investigate thoroughly this weekend so ill let you know if i find the problem.

[Eircamae86]

I have done the below & still no good.
New plugs,
New Leads,
New Dizzy Cap,
Swapped Map sensor
Swapped temp sensor @ rear on head
Swapped ECU
De-Cat pipe incase the cat had collapsed
Compression test very good
Fuel Pressure very good
Had timing checked professionally as the belt is >5000km old, bottom marker, top dead centre etc,etc all spot on.
Checked T-Vis & replaced actuator

I think thats about it,, once again t
Car smells a little rich but that could just be the new exhaust as I got the wrong gasget & didnt have any cement so it is blowing a touch in the middle. The symptoms again, no grunt/power esspecially low down. No toque, wont complete a dounut from 6000rpm without clutch kicks

[Nikkojoe]

What's the ignition timing set to (not cam timing)? It sounds like when I retard my timing to 5deg, has no torque down low but as soon as 4-4.5krpm comes along it revs well.

Setting timing to 15-20deg advanced without TE1 and E1 connectors bridged should give it loads more low down

[marvis]

Maybe I should come over and I can try yelling at it?

[Killswitch]

Bump.

Anyone have any more ideas about this? My car is doing something very similar (Bigport ADM ECU) 4500~ rpm you can feel a kick and it actually starts moving. Below that its fucken slowwwww. Also is using a fuckton of petrol. TVIS is definetly working as when disconected it runs even worse in the lower revs.

Similar to Eircamae86 the motor seems healthy enough! comp test/fuel/ignition and timing etc. No error codes...

Annoying!

Cheers

[NIZLAH]

Well my mate who was having the same issue has just replaced the dizzy cap and rotor, new spark plugs and adjusted the timing to 5 degrees advanced and it has improved it a shitload........ still not perfect but way better than it was before....

[Rice86]

yup try 5 deg and if its still like a sLut, even go to 10 Deg, but what you do is your own risk, ive tried both on one of my average conditon motor, 10 seems to work really well but is pushing the reliability....

[Killswitch]

My dizzy cap is a bit sad... but haven't been able to source one for a reasonable price and without confusion yet...

I thought 10º BTDC was what you were meant to run, set in diagnostic mode.

Changed from an ADM ECU to a JDM ECU today, seems to go a bit better all over... but still lacking in the bottom end. The cross over at TVIS seems less of a power kick/difference now though.

[Rice86]

^

lol really?...never knew, guess i found out that on my own now

[Rayner]

i used to have the exact same issue as you guys....

until tonight that is...my timing was set at 5degrees...now its set at 20degrees and it flys in comparison...

just run the car on 98ron fuel and you wont have problems...mine doesnt ping set at 20 either...

[Rip it]

i used to have the exact same issue as you guys....

until tonight that is...my timing was set at 5degrees...now its set at 20degrees and it flys in comparison...

just run the car on 98ron fuel and you wont have problems...mine doesnt ping set at 20 either...


Thats big!!