low power and noise from top end of motor?HELP PLEASE!!

[nube90]

Hey guys, I just bought my 3rd DSM the guy said the clutch was burnt but the floor mat was just blocking the pedal from going all the way down, and he was talking about it not having that much power. So I took it for a short drive and well its OK but not like it should be and it seems like it dosent wants to climb above 4500rpms. Theres a noise from the top end of the motor like valves, lifters or something. The car dosent smoke at all.

They previous owner also said it wont go higher than 80mph but I havent had the chance to take it very far (it dosent have tags yet)

Could it be off time like a tooth or so he put a cheap Autozone belt in it.

 

[nube90]

Also a leak around injectors.

 

[kenamond]

What kind of DSM?

 

[nube90]

A 90TSi AWD its in my vehicle profile.

 

[kenamond]

The leak around the injectors is a fuel leak or a boost leak? You can fix either. The upper injector o-rings on the fuel rail (if fuel leak) end are pretty cheap. So are the lower seals/insulators on the head-end (if boost leak). Both are easy to fix, and you have to pull the fuel rail and injectors to fix either, so you might as well fix all of it while the rail's off. There's a fuel system tech article on this site describing the procedure.

On a 2g, if the timing belt is off a tooth, you'd have bad idle. Not sure about the 1g. If it's off by too much, you'll have other major problems that you don't have. I'm not sure if folks have had problems with the Autozone timing belts or not.

Lifter tick is common on both 1g and 2g DSMs. Does the tick improve as oil pressure raises? You can do a number of things to improve/fix lifter tick. Search the forums to find out more, but you can pull the lifters out and clean them manually (kind of involved) or run an oil flush additive to the oil before an oil change to help free them up and clean them out (much easier). You can also upgrade your lifters and fix the problem for good on a 2g - not sure about 1g, but others will know.

I'd recommend the normal maintenance things. Clean air filter (check on the K&N cleaning process - it's special). Check plugs/gap, wires. Boost leak test. Check turbo shaft play (just to find out if it's in decent shape).

The symptoms are too general for me to come up with much more, but if you find nasty plugs, wrong plugs (use NGK PBR6ES gapped to 0.028), big boost leaks, clogged air filter, etc., that'll help narrow it down.

Since you have 3 DSMs you might want to invest in a PDA and get set up with a logger. That would help out.

 

[nube90]

The leak around the injectors was a boost leak, and the guy said he put new o-rings in them but it didnt help the plug wires look pretty new and I need to check the plugs.

On idle it does skip and idles a little rough.

As for the noise I can hear it while im driving but not really sure if it improves with rising oil presure.

The turbo is brand new installed at a local shop the guy said.

He said it had low compression in one cylinder but his dad said it didnt so I think I need to do a compression test also. Thanks for the help my first day off from school and work is Saturday so ill do all that I can.

Anyone else have ideas?

 

[oooVOLcomOOO]

does the clutch seem as if it is slipping when you accellerate? to check the clutch try having the car running in neutral and pressing the clutch in only till its about an inch or two off the floor then shift from first and reverse,, it should just barly shift, if it doesnt your clutch probably isnt releasing properly.. as for the lifters,, try using some CD2 you can find it at autozone or something, dont use the whole bottle at first, use little bits at a time,, if that clears it up then the only thing is dont leave that CD2 in there for too long the detergent in is not good on the engine it cleans it too much...if it doesnt fix it??? new lifters maybe??? i would have to have alittle more info for more help,,, goood luck

 

[kenamond]

The leak around the injectors was a boost leak, and the guy said he put new o-rings in them but it didnt help the plug wires look pretty new and I need to check the plugs.

On idle it does skip and idles a little rough.

As for the noise I can hear it while im driving but not really sure if it improves with rising oil presure.

The turbo is brand new installed at a local shop the guy said.

He said it had low compression in one cylinder but his dad said it didnt so I think I need to do a compression test also. Thanks for the help my first day off from school and work is Saturday so ill do all that I can.

Anyone else have ideas?

If the guy changed the o-rings and not the insulators, he wasn't changing the right thing. The o-rings seal between the injector and fuel rail (seal agains fuel pressure). The insulators seal between the injectors and the head (seal boost inside the intake ports). The insulators aren't o-rings. Maybe he meant insulators. They're like a thick rubber washer that seats into the head, and the injector seats inside the hole in the rubber. If it's leaking boost, maybe he didn't install them correctly, there is a score on the injector or head, or the fuel rail isn't holding the injector tight to the head.

Do a boost leak test. See where else you're leaking. I'd describe it, but it's covered about 2135897235 on the forum. Fix the leaks.

Get a compression tester and find out for yourself what the compression is while you're checking the plugs. Here's a good link for the test and the specs for 1g and 2g DSMs (warm up the motor first - that's not mentioned):

http://www.geocities.com/dsmgrrrl/FAQs/compression.htm

 

[dsmspike]

How does the car actually climb the rpm band? Sounds like you definately have missfires in it. I'd do a compression test and see what you can come up with. Also, does the car have a stock exhaust? Does it have a cat converter? If so the converter could be plugged up since you say the car won't rev past 4500. If you got good compression all accross the board and have a converter in your exhaust you could check the converter easily. You could either take the 02 sensor out and install a backpressure gauge it it and let it idle and there shouldn't be anything really for backpressure, very close to zero. Another thing you can do is just loosen up the downpipe and take it for a ride and see if it responds better. That's more than likely the easiest way to do it but I just had to add in the guage thing. Just make sure that you loosen the exhaust before the converter or it won't do anything.

 

[nube90]

Thanks for all the replys. What is CD2? Yes the guy just replaced to o-rings he's not the sharpest tool in the shed because he thought the clutch was burnt but the floormat was just in the way. I'm planning on changing plugs and doing a compression test tommorow.

As for the car climbling in RPM it climbs good until around 4500 then it seems to be straining or "wound up" and dosent act like it wants to go much higher. The car does have the stock exhaust, but I have a full 3in catless that needs to be welded then installed.

Whats the best oil for curing lifter tick? Im pretty sure thats what it is because it kind of sounds like my 1st DSM on start up after replacing the Cylinder Head. I dont thinks its internal major becuase the oil pressure is around 55 on idle and goes up to about 70 under acceleration and the pressure is very stable.

 

[kenamond]

Thanks for all the replys. What is CD2? Yes the guy just replaced to o-rings he's not the sharpest tool in the shed because he thought the clutch was burnt but the floormat was just in the way. I'm planning on changing plugs and doing a compression test tommorow.

As for the car climbling in RPM it climbs good until around 4500 then it seems to be straining or "wound up" and dosent act like it wants to go much higher. The car does have the stock exhaust, but I have a full 3in catless that needs to be welded then installed.

Whats the best oil for curing lifter tick? Im pretty sure thats what it is because it kind of sounds like my 1st DSM on start up after replacing the Cylinder Head. I dont thinks its internal major becuase the oil pressure is around 55 on idle and goes up to about 70 under acceleration and the pressure is very stable.

Try running 1/2 pint of SeaFoam in your oil for a few days and change the oil if you're close to an oil change.

You can clean them out by hand if you don't mind pulling the VC off. Here's an article from vfaq:

http://www.vfaq.com/mods/lifters.html

That's probably the best way to get them really clean.