5/31/10 My car issues with datalog updated!!!!

XxSlowpokexX

Registered User
I have my other thread where Im rying to figure out what is going on with my car.

Basically its like I have no power uptop and it occasionally stumbles on tip in throttle I have no check engine light

I have checked

1) Alternator/battery
2) Fuel pressure
3) Coil pack
4) TPS
5) ECT/ACT
6) chip/tune
7) plus/wires
8) A/F ratio

When it does its lil snap crackle pop the a/f goes way lean like 20 plus..That may just be because of the pop..Fuel pressure doesnt do anything funky when it occurs

So I am left with what? EDIS? MAF? Crank sensor? Computer?

I think maybe a MAF cna cause funny things like this to occur but I figure Id hav ea check engine light. EDIS? no idea what teh symptoms could be. How do I test it? Cna I take it off and have an autozone check it? Crank sensor? I just thought I never checked balancer...I gues...Never know. Computer? Wont it throw a CEL?

Boost seems to be ok. Can it be a boost bypass issue? Hell I dont know

WHat do you all think. Its really burdening me...As in Im starting to not give a crud.

Thanks all for your help/ideas
 
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Something to try that Don (Lube 70)clued me in on a few years back. Take the MAF connector off...use contact cleaner on both the male and female ends and use dielectric grease to reinstall it.

I chased an intermittent lean issue for like 2 years and this fixed me right up.
 
Find a buddy that can come over and swap both a EDIS and a maf. To be honest, I still don't have a clue of how your car is behaving as you haven't provided a clear description.

i.e. you say
When it does ...

when what does?
 
AH geesh.

I dont know how else to descripe the snap crackle pop then just that. Thats what it sounds like..WHEN IT DOES HAPPEN..On tip in liek I said.

Then the total lack of power up top whee it feels like I have lost 200rwhp or so. No breaking up..just a total lack of power. Fuel pressure is fine. Nothing cuts out as though t here is a short. Dont know how many different ways I can explain this seriously
 
The best way to describe it as though you are describing it to someone who isn't sitting in the car or driving it. I.e. draw a picture of sound and behavior with words. I.e. say things like "When IT happens" as that begs the question, ~~~ is "IT"? We need complete sentences, or maybe more accurately, I need complete sentences.

Is this a custom tune? How far from stock is it? Do you have a stock BIN for that motor? If so, load it up and compare it.(BE will let you see what all is different between two tunes) Make sure something isn't wonky. Have you ensured the chip is sitting properly on the J3 port?

The bits and pieces I've gotten point to something odd, thus look at the things that could cause something odd... i.e. chip not seating properly, incorrect code burned to the chip.
 
The problem is a recent one. It was tuned last year. I reloaded the tune and the same thing. I cleaned up the seating surface where the chip slides in for the chip.

Here are symptoms in a chronological order of how they occured

1) Occasionally I will get a hard start
2) Upon acceleration on tip in throttle it will hesitate, buck, pop, snap crackle or what have you, then clear up
3) If I punch it it may do that snap crackle pop or not....Either way it will be followed by a total lack of power.
4) Occasionally it feels like it has power or is trying to have power.
5) Symptoms seemed to have gotten worse and worse till its where it is now
6) The power loss feeling up top has been there for awhile. The snap crackle pop started to occur later-on.

Basically the car was running fine for some time untill this started happening. No change of my setup has occurred. Everything is the same part wise since it was tuned and the same tune is in the car as well. I even reloaded tune as I said.
 
You need to get the stock tune for your car and compare it to your current one. Or have Dave or Fraser take a look at it. It's a fueling problem or a timing problem.
Fueling could be related to mechanical issues:
FPR, throttle position sensor, MAF vac leak.
Timing issues:
spark plugs, wires, coil pack, EDIS.

So either your EEC is trying to do something it shouldn't which leads to your #2 issue. or some mechanical issue is causing #2. You have verified fuel. Have you verified the TPS is progressive across it's range of motion?
 
Let me answer these the best I can

FPR: Its around 32psi at idle and goes up to around 60psi under boost. I would figure that rules out fuel as in pump o rregulator..Allthough I can be wrong

TPS: Via a volt meter it's set correctly (.95v) and doesnt peg at 5v. Is it progressive? I guess thats kind of hard to tell without datalogging it

MAF: I have yet to check.

Plugs: Look fine. I may change them just to rule out a bad plug

Wires: Didnt see an issue there

Coil Pack: I swapped it out with a known good one

EDIS: I need to check but I dont know how to check



The tune was done by Dave Dalke last summer and as I said is the same tune untouched. As I also said I reinstalled tune to make sure something wasnt lost.

I am most likely going to go through the lets swap parts this comming weekend and see where I end up.

I would like to rule out an EDIS modual or MAF.

I know that the symptoms are either spark fuel or timing related but it doesnt seem liek ther eis a.."Oh yeah..It appears to be this" answer.

I'll just keep plugging away till I give up!
 
Dave has verified your tune? I.e. if possible he should look at the file you loaded to make sure some bytes are not incorrect. Do you have SCT?

To check the TPS sweep, you need a Analog Multi-meter. With those you can watch the needle sweep across the scale as you move the TPS. It'll show any hitches in the resistance.

Have you tried pulling the spout plug? If you do that, it takes the EEC-IV out of the loop on ignition timing and sets it to a hard 10degrees BTDC with the EDIS Taking over all control. It won't have much power, but I'd be curious if it removes the sputtering at tip in.

I believe the tip in sputtering is the thing to focus on first. Once that is fixed, then see what is left.

I assume you are certain with the cam sensor element positioning? It couldn't have moved?

Apparently the MegaSquirt guys have developed a way to bench test EDIS modules using a programmable VR sensor output.
http://www.bgsoflex.com/mjl/mjl_edis_stim.html

Maybe if you dig around on google you could find someone that built one and see if they feel like testing your EDIS module. Most of those guys are engineering types.
 
Damon..

There was a guy up here a few years ago that had the exact same symptoms you are describing, and his also got progressively worse over time. He spent tons of time trying to figure out what the problem was, and eventually sold the car for pennies because he could not get it to run properly.

The next owner took it to the local dealership, but even they couldn't figure it out. Finally, he ended up replacing the Harmonic balancer and Crank sensor and Voila!.. problem solved.

Are you still running an OEM balancer in that SC? If so, my money is on that as the faulty part.
 
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Dave has verified your tune?

Maybe I should ask him to send it to me if he still has on file

SCT

Racer package yes

To check the TPS sweep, you need a Analog Multi-meter.

I should have thought of that duh!

Have you tried pulling the spout plug?

Good idea I will try that. Thats actually a wonderfully great idea. Even if power was down (cant be any worse then it is now) it would tell me something which is more than nothing

I assume you are certain with the cam sensor element positioning? It couldn't have moved?

The snout bracket for the autorotor actually would prevent it from moving. I did check and it didnt appear loose

Ill try the spout connector tonight
 
Damon..

There was a guy up here a few years ago that had the exact same symptoms you are describing, and his also got progressively worse over time. He spent tons of time trying to figure out what the problem was, and eventually sold the car for pennies because he could not get it to run properly.

The next owner took it to the local dealership, but even they couldn't figure it out. Finally, he ended up replacing the Harmonic balancer and Crank sensor and Voila!.. problem solved.

Are you still running an OEM balancer in that SC? If so, my money is on that as the faulty part.

Yes I still am...Wouldnt that be a son of a gun. It has low miles and looked to be in good shape when I did the cam but I should check.

what sthe best way to check to see if it slipped if it still looks good?
 
I mentioned balancer in your other thread and thought you checked it. That's what the Cougar did when it started to go. Check to see if the bolt is there first, then look for wobble.
 
I will not feel bad for you if its the Balancer. You should know better. I tossed the stock one a long time ago. And when i was putting the 35th together I even doubted i was going to use a BHJ because of the cost as I though it was working fine when the car blew the HG. But while taking the balancer off the outer ring was on there, but it was not even glued on to the elastormer, it slipped off the rest of the balancer with just a finger push.
 
I mentioned balancer in your other thread and thought you checked it. That's what the Cougar did when it started to go. Check to see if the bolt is there first, then look for wobble.

I checked as it it looks ok and doesnt wobble. But you know I should have looked more deeply into it being I was comming up with nothing. I swear I'll kick myself
 
Check the bolt first, and since the car can run without the accessories, you might want to pull the crank pulley to check the balancer's movements. That might be over kill, but it would give you better visibility.
 
Plugs

http://www.sccoa.com/forums/showthread.php?t=114195

I had similar symptoms recently with my car. It also was doing the "snap crackle pop" act, with a/f going very lean when ever the engine acted up. I pulled the plugs and they all looked great, ofcourse they did, they were only about 1 year old. But when I bench tested them there was 1 hard fouled and 3 others that were on their way out.
One simple and costless thing you can try is closing the plug gaps a little then give it a try. Good luck.
JJ
 
If the keyway is working out of the balancer you usually can pull it off the crank by hand. I had a na 3.8 stang years ago that the balancer went bad/ keyway was twice as wide, it never popped but it definatly had no power. Took forever to figure it out. I went to pull the timing cover off to check timing chain and I put my hands on the balancer and pulled it right off.
 
Also in regards to a balancer. The vane is attached to the outer ring. The hub is attached to the crankshaft. As the elastomer deteriorates, the outer ring can move different than the inner hub, leading to timing issues.
 
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