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vehicle sat for winter now problem

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UNDR PSI

15+ Year Contributor
97
0
May 6, 2004
Plainfield, Illinois
My car has been sitting in the garage since mid october. Pulled it out today, and it is very sluggish, little power between 10-20psi. Then it finally hits 25psi where is has always been, and it kind of studders. Watching my EGT's they sky rocketed to 1600 and just passed before i let off. I couldnt get past 5K RPM before the EGT's got to high. Does it sound like the fuel might have gummed up cause it to run lean? The car ran perfect last year and i didnt touch it at all over the winter. Like an idiot I did not put fuel stabalizer in this year though. Dont know why, just didnt. Any thoughts?
 
forgot to mention that the battery went dead over winter too. Sat all winter with a dead battery and I have S-AFC that controlls my fuel, could that have lost its settings. there supposed to have a memory even if your battery dies, but who knows. Maybe the dead battery played with the ECU???
 
I would defently check the safc to make sure it has retained your settings but it could very well be just your gas. They put so many aditives in the fuels now that they start to seperate very quickly, its something like a month and it can go bad. I would siphon out the old fuel or just take it easy till your finished that tank and put in some fresh stuff & see if that helps. Might take more then one tank as well.
 
NewB2dsm said:
Did you put new gas in it or is this the gas thats been in there since you last left it?
Click to expand...


ran that old tank dry, was low on gas anyway. Put new gas it. Thinking of getting some fuel injector cleaner. maybe that will help and clean the filter too. As far as the ECU, think it needs to be reset?
 
Talked to craig at slow boy and he said that it sounds like I still might have some bad fuel, and it doesnt have the octane it should. He said it sounded like the ECU is pulling timing because it is reading knock and throwing the EGT's up there. Sounds possible, just dont understand why new fuel would still cause it.
 
Wouldn't hurt to pull the inj's and have them professionally cleaned. When storing a car for the winter if you cannot start it every couple of weeks and allow it to reach operating temps I would pull the battery but you knew that. www.rceng.com has a good cleaning and flow test service. Mark
 
sweet97 said:
Wouldn't hurt to pull the inj's and have them professionally cleaned. When storing a car for the winter if you cannot start it every couple of weeks and allow it to reach operating temps I would pull the battery but you knew that. www.rceng.com has a good cleaning and flow test service. Mark
Click to expand...

If you do want to clean the injectors I would recommend www.cruzinperformance.com They were less then half the cost of RC when I had some injectors tested plus they had amazing customer service and were very knowledgeable :thumb: .
 
Like I said before, Im beginning to think what Craig from Slow Boy said might be true. It makes complete sence. Any thoughts on that???
 
Did you expect to just pull it out and beat on it? If i were you I would have just done some normal maintenance. Took it easy for awhile. When I pulled my car out after 4 months, I changed the oil, put fuel injector cleaner in, let it run for a good amount of time before i started driving it and i drove it nice for a few days. If your battery was dead for a few months I would imagine your SAFC didnt retain your settings. They have backup batteries, they dont last forever. It was designed to allow the driver to unhook the battery to do maintenance and then have the battery hooked back up and still keep settings. Good Luck.
 
asexton6969 said:
Did you expect to just pull it out and beat on it? If i were you I would have just done some normal maintenance. Took it easy for awhile. When I pulled my car out after 4 months, I changed the oil, put fuel injector cleaner in, let it run for a good amount of time before i started driving it and i drove it nice for a few days. If your battery was dead for a few months I would imagine your SAFC didnt retain your settings. They have backup batteries, they dont last forever. It was designed to allow the driver to unhook the battery to do maintenance and then have the battery hooked back up and still keep settings. Good Luck.
Click to expand...


AFC settings were saved, talked to Apexi and the S-AFC I & II can hold there settings for up to a year with no power source.
 
hook up your datalogger and watch for knock its that simple, sounds like your airflow reading is incorrect, you are probably running to rich, maybe you could change your throttle points and adjust your afc so your fuel trims are at 0% and start from there
 
im going to try switching the files on the AFC and see if maybe they got switched somehow. I have one file tuned for lower PSI, and one tuned for 25psi. Will try that in the morning.
 
well that didnt work. talked to the manager at Gas City tough today, where I buy my 100 octane. She said that there tank hasnt been filled in months, and there 1800 gallons of fuel in it hasnt been used. Sounds like thats where my problem is. I am going to turn the boost down and run 93 and see if it cures.
 
Have you reset the ECU yet. When you get a bad tank of gas (yes gas goes bad if it sits in your tank for long periods of time) your ECU will continue to pull timing even after changing the tank. That is why DSMlink has the "octane reset" feature. If you dont have dsmlink, you have to manually reset it by resetting your ECU. BTW, craiger doesnt always know best...
 
Turbocharged said:
Have you reset the ECU yet. When you get a bad tank of gas (yes gas goes bad if it sits in your tank for long periods of time) your ECU will continue to pull timing even after changing the tank. That is why DSMlink has the "octane reset" feature. If you dont have dsmlink, you have to manually reset it by resetting your ECU. BTW, craiger doesnt always know best...
Click to expand...


Yea, I know I have to Reset the ECU, and I know gas in a tank will go bad. Also, I know nobody knows everything, but Craig seems to be a knowledgeable guy. What he said makes perfect sence. I thought that it might have been pulling the timing because of the lean mixture before he mentioned that anyway. I logged it just a bit ago, and the timing curve is way off. Sounds like the issue to me. Thanks for the replies!


Also, you deal with craig alot or just know the slow boy team?
 
Ok. So I ran the car dry on gas, filled it with Fresh gas, changed the fuel filter. i disconnected the battery for about 25 minutes to reset the ECU and then test drove the car. Nothing changed. I cant think of anything else that might have went wrong just sitting in the garage over winter. Do I need to reset the ECU for a longer period of time? What else could it be? I checked the AFC, and the settings on the AFC havent changed. Any other suggestion? Thanks
 
How about changing the plugs and ignition wires? Wires can deterioriate with time also right? I like NGK blues but at this point any decent wire will be better. It;s worth a try. mark
 
sweet97 said:
How about changing the plugs and ignition wires? Wires can deterioriate with time also right? I like NGK blues but at this point any decent wire will be better. It;s worth a try. mark
Click to expand...

That was my next step. I just dont understand it. I logged another run, and now my timming curve is good, O2's are good. Just weird. Its like it will have power, then cut, power then cut. and so on.......in and out of power.
 
I think I will have the alternator tested for efficiency while im at it. Maybe there isnt a strong enough spark
 
Did you look at the plugs? Maybe they corroded after not being used for so long.
 
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