4age-popping excessive flames and fluttering

[James86]

hey guys,

im just wondering if you could help diagnose a problem im having with my car.
its recently had a 4age conversion (ae86) and it runs a VL turbo fuel pump.

at the moment its making a fluttery noise on throttle but sounds fine idling and in neutral, on declaration it pops flames, not just on the odd occasion but all the time. looks cool :P
its also making a little less power and is a little less responsive

im thinking its either an exhaust leak or my fuel pump is on its way out? only reason im doubting fuel pump is because it was bough brand new 6 months ago. the extractors do hit the firewall at higher RPM so maybe thats caused a crack or leak somewhere but i cant explain why that would make it pop excessively?

any ideas?

any help appreciated.

cheers

[driftism]

exhaust leak most likely, get your extractors fixed... but keep the flames :D

[James86]

i love the flames, not a fan of less response and it sounding likle a 1970s bug though.

[Konakid]

Definately sounds like an exhaust leak, probably from where the extractors join onto the rest of the exhaust. Noticed a loss of torque? Could also be a crack in the extractors or loose exhaust manifold.

Run the motor dude and feel with your hand on the first flange, should feel the exhaust gas coming out somewhere around it. Mine did this after a while, took it in to get fixed and it didnt even have a gasket there! :blink:

The leak will make it pop flames even at low rpm due to oxygen mixing with the exhaust gas. Once you fix it, no more flames :(

[James86]

yea has less torque for sure, wasnt game to put my hand close to it, will try that tomorrow morning when its cold, its goin to ET's to have the extractors fixed anyway as they hit the firewall at higher rpm. which is probably whats made them crack or leak.
and yea pops at any rpm at any time.

only reason i thought fuel pump was that on a couple of occassions it hasn't started and thren started hours later, and it gets surge even with 1/4 of a tank.....but that could be a seperate problem i guess.

[Gilly]

get someone to hold a rag over the exhaust pipe (use a shoed foot to hold the rag :P) while the engine is idling

you will easily be able to detect the exhaust leak now as it will be very audible from the leaking area

;)