Making a bit of headway here...

I pulled off the check valve in front of my transmission, and checked it out.. when you blow into the triangular end, then suck out, there is a valve in there that should close, and it wasn't closing.  So I replaced the check valve with a new one and replaced the old tubing down there.  I haven't driven the car yet, but it doesn't slam into reverse anymore! Yes!

Beside the turbo issue, the car has been having some other issues lately as well.  It has been slamming into reverse (hopefully I just fixed that).  It has been starting in 2nd gear a lot lately..  like when I come to a stop light, I have to put it into 1st gear manually with the shifter, or it will try to move forward in 2nd gear for a couple seconds, then decide to downshift into 1st by itself and take off quickly.  It is slower than stock right now, as said in the TGP vs. other cars section.  Also, anything vacuum operated hasn't been operating correctly in the car.  The air will barely come out the intrument panel vents, and the cruise control works, but it loses 1 MPH about every 5 seconds.  So I thought I was looking for a major vacuum leak..  I checked out all my vacuum lines, and they appear to be alright, so I went and checked underneath the car, to make sure that the vacuum line was hooked up to the vacuum ball....  The vacuum ball is GONE!!  There is just a vacuum line open hanging there and the ball is completely gone :laugh:  I guess this explains my mystery flat drivers side front tire last week.. ball must have fallen off, then I ran it over :laugh:

I'm going to run to the JY now and grab a vacuum ball, hopefully this fixes some of the car's issues.  Wish me luck!

sorry, but I kinda laughed when I read that... I never heard of the vacuum ball falling off, should be an easy find though... lol
that will fix a majority of your problems more than likely

Blink blink........I had a left REAR flat a few weeks ago........I wonder if my vacumn ball fell off too!  hahahah.

Ken

    WOW  :icon_eek:  unbelievable

thats kinda crazy

Yeah it was.. I just kinda looked under the car and it was gone!  It was too funny to be mad about. :laugh:

I ran to the jy today and grabbed one outta a 95 GTP for $2.  Plugged it in and the car runs and drives much better.  Trans is acting completely normal now and the car runs much better.

Also, the humming noise that I thought was the turbo going bad has now disappeared.. it doesn't make any noises anymore.  This car is crazy :laugh:

It doesn't want you to buy a Ranger.

Thats too bad, I just bought one today :laugh:

Oh well.  It does what its told.  Afterall, I put the lotion on its skin.

Sweet nick glad you found the problem(s)!!!  It is amazing what a vac leak can do to these cars.  My cruise control vac line seems to melt every few months even with heat wrap....I think I need to relocate it.


Six banger stanger rematch now?  I would double check your turbu to be sure, check the thrust and radial pay.  It should barely move by feel.   

Ken

It has a tiny bit of play in it, but that is when its cold, which I've been told is pretty normal of turbochargers with these bearings.

Quote from: TGP Nick on July 22, 2008, 10:32:00 AM
Making a bit of headway here...

I pulled off the check valve in front of my transmission, and checked it out.. when you blow into the triangular end, then suck out, there is a valve in there that should close, and it wasn't closing.  So I replaced the check valve with a new one and replaced the old tubing down there.  I haven't driven the car yet, but it doesn't slam into reverse anymore! Yes!

Beside the turbo issue, the car has been having some other issues lately as well.  It has been slamming into reverse (hopefully I just fixed that).  It has been starting in 2nd gear a lot lately..  like when I come to a stop light, I have to put it into 1st gear manually with the shifter, or it will try to move forward in 2nd gear for a couple seconds, then decide to downshift into 1st by itself and take off quickly.  It is slower than stock right now, as said in the TGP vs. other cars section.  Also, anything vacuum operated hasn't been operating correctly in the car.  The air will barely come out the intrument panel vents, and the cruise control works, but it loses 1 MPH about every 5 seconds.  So I thought I was looking for a major vacuum leak..  I checked out all my vacuum lines, and they appear to be alright, so I went and checked underneath the car, to make sure that the vacuum line was hooked up to the vacuum ball....  The vacuum ball is GONE!!  There is just a vacuum line open hanging there and the ball is completely gone :laugh:  I guess this explains my mystery flat drivers side front tire last week.. ball must have fallen off, then I ran it over :laugh:

I'm going to run to the JY now and grab a vacuum ball, hopefully this fixes some of the car's issues.  Wish me luck!

I have never heard of a vacuum ball falling off, but I think thats pretty funny

Update

The car has been running pretty well since I found my vacuum leaks and fixed them.  It has been feeling somewhat weak during heavy acceleration though.

Did a bit of work on the car today.  I pulled the Hot Tune chip out and put in the stock chip, to see if it would make any positive changes, but it didn't, so I put the Hot Tune back in..

I did a fuel pressure test today and I had ~36 PSI at idle, and a wierd thing happened.  When the engine was off, key on, it would prime, but then the fuel pump relay would click and it would stop.  I was reading ~7 PSI at the rail with just the key on.  So I replaced my fuel pump relay with a good one and it would prime up better, but then it would click soon after, and the pressure would spike down to 7 PSI.  I had my neighbor looking at the pressure gauge, so I don't know how high of pressure it built.  So he was thinking that I might have a bad ground around my fuel pressure relay since it was clicking and not building pressure.. or if that is normal to click like that, he thinks that my fuel pressure regulator may be bad/leaking and sending too much fuel back to the fuel tank.. or maybe my pump is going bad..  I am not sure what is up here.  I did pull the vacuum line off the FPR and it was dry.. no fuel is leaking into the vacuum lines.

I took the scan gauge out and went for a drive with it.  My 1-2 shift is very good, nice and firm but not jarring, and it looks to shift pretty consistently at 5,120 RPM, the highest I saw was 5,300 at the beginning of the drive.  My 2-3 shift however is not good.  It will rev out to ~5,050 RPM, then sit there and stutter like it is hitting fuel cut.. I have to let off the gas a bit for it to shift 2-3.

For you tuners out there, I have some questions for you.  My block learn moved around.. is this normal?  It was 128 for a while (which I thought is normal), then it went up to 131 for a while, then down to 125, then to 121.  Also, I went to Knock Retard count on the gauge and it sits at 0* during regular driving, but when I gave it full throttle and went into full boost, it started reading up to 10* and higher.. IIRC it went over 20 once too... I dont know if this is right or not, I was thinking it would go in negative numbers if I was getting knock.. I don't quite understand how that works.  Everything else that read on the gauge (that I understood what it was) looked to be okay.

I also did a few 0-60 runs, and I timed a couple of them with a best of 6.6 seconds.  It was very humid out with kinda wet roads, and I lost traction for 1-2 seconds and squealed the tires.

The car seems to be running decent, but it just feels weak when you start getting up there in RPM's.. like it isn't getting enough fuel or something.  It is very quick if you drive at 1/2 throttle though.  What do you guys think?

I should also add that the car has been starting REALLY hard lately- it usually takes 5 cranks or more to get it to fire up.

I still say fuel pump Nick...hopefully others will chime in.

You got new injectors so the only thing left is the fuel pump might have an internal leak and is not holding pressure.  Key on fuel pressure should be around 40 psi.  Turn the key off and it should hold that pressure for at least 2 minutes and only lose like 2 psi or less of pressure.  If it is reading 7psi at key on then you got a leak in the fuel system or the pump is bad...

Let me ask you this if you start it up after driving around it starts pretty good but if you let it cool off or sit overnight it takes forever to start?  If so this is more ammunition to replace the fuel pump.  Time to get the walboro 255 my friend!

Ken