no power and 9psi of boost

[93whitelaserrs]

ok, my car is running extremely rich and has hardly no power. as i get on it my boost gauge will go up to 9 psi, but as soon as i hit 5 grand the car quits pulling, and thats as far as the rpm will go, as it hits 5 grand the boost gauge goes down to about 4 or 5. i have did a boost leak test(nothing) did a intake leak down test (nothing) can anyone give me a clue as what it could be, any suggestions would be helpful, thanks

 

[alex99gst]

Somehow your air/fuel ratio is messed up either by leaking air or too much fuel. Did you do a boost leak test and use the soap and water? What is your vacuum like at idle? Have you tried simply turning the boost up a little? Do you have a logger? You could check and make sure your fuel pressure regulator is still working.

 

[93whitelaserrs]

I put soapy water around all the connections and nothing happened. As of the vaccum not extacly sure because i hooked up a vaccum/fuel gauge up to the egr solenoid, and it pounces around because of idle surge, but i would say in the neighborhood of about 15. Can't turn the boost up because I don't have a manual boost controler. And i aslo don't have a logger either, the car is competly stock. I haven't checked the fuel pressure regulator yet, but I'm pretty sure it's fine though.

 

[ddavisaf]

Do you have a Check Engine Light?
How long did you hold 20 psi during your boost leak test?
How old are your plugs and wires?

 

[93whitelaserrs]

No, I don't have a check engine light on, I left it hooked up long enough to walk upstairs fix me a sandwich and talk to my buddy for about a min. about his car knocking. And i just replaced the plugs and wires trying to fix the running rich problem and neither one seemed to fix the problem.

 

[alex99gst]

Do you know you are running rich because of crappy gas mileage or you can smell unburnt fuel in your exhaust. A lot of times if your O2 sensor dies, then the car will resort to running super crazy rich so that nothing bad can happen to the engine. So what is your basis of the car running rich?

 

[93whitelaserrs]

Well for the running rich part I have really bad gas milage ( like 1 or 2 mpg) second, tons of black smoke comes out the exhuast. I have replaced plugs, wires, injectors, and o2 sensor. I also did all the test that the book says to do for the wiring on all the things I replaced, and the parts I put on also. The car is running so bad I also beat the guts out of my cat.. I also checked the timing on the timing belt, and the ignition timing. The funning thing is when I hook up a timing light and ground the pcm (like the book says to do), and time the ignition, I have to turn the cam angle sensor all the way to the right, to make the marks line up on the crank pulley to the timing cover mark BTDC. If I put the bolts on the cam angle sensor in the middle of the sliding slots the car won't make it up make driveway. Isn't that be where the cam angle sensor should be( in the middle of the sliding slots)?

 

[alex99gst]

Thats where mine is at. Your timing should be set at 5* BTDC. Have you done a compression test at all? Has anyone/any shop/previous owner done anything to the timing belt that you know of?

 

[93whitelaserrs]

Yes, the comprssion read 145 to 155 on all of them. The head was off sometime before, because the bolt on the bottom bracket to hold the intake up was not on it. And when I spun a bearing there was little pieces of a roller rocker in the pan. I took the vavle cover off and all the components were brand new lookig. And yes I put the timing belt back on right I've timed around 20 of them; mine, my buddies, and my buddies buddies. I even triple checked my to make sure! I don't mean to act so rude it's just alot of people have been trying to tell me that the car is out of time when I know it isn't.

 

[alex99gst]

I guess a manual boost controller should be on your list anyways, so it wouldn't hurt to hook one up and turn the boost up a little and see if it helps at all. I'm fresh out of ideas.

 

[93whitelaserrs]

Could a computer going bad cause my car to run like it is? I had a guy, from a repair shop hook up a snap-on scan tool to see what was wrong with my car, and no codes (new codes) came up, the only code that came up was a vss, and I have replaced and fixed it. That was why I was wondering if my computer could be going out in my car.

 

[airkingmt]

I would check your ECU. I mean it couldnt hurt since you have checked everything else. The capacitors could be leaking and causing your problems. my car ran like crap because my ecu was bad, but then i gave it to steve and he fixed it. goodluck

 

[93whitelaserrs]

I took my computer out and it looked fine, but I changed it with another that my buddy had in his parts car. The car ran a little worse with the other computer though. Is there anything else that could be wrong with my car, i'm out of ideas?

 

[93whitelaserrs]

Ok, problem is fixed, the oil pump pulley nut came off and let the timing belt jump a tooth. The funny thing is that I have never taken that pulley off.