lacking serious power

[me612]

My car is a 91 TSi AWD. Pretty minnimal mods. Just a mbc, gauges, uic pipe & tb elbow, crushed bov, emissions removed, egr blocked off. That's the main jist of it. Anyway, while acclerating, the car will sometimes acclerate just fine, and other times it'll be slow as a dog. Like slower then a moped it feels sometimes. The boost will be up at like 15-16, and the engine sure does sound like it should be going fast, but the car is just sluggish as hell. I have brand new accel wires, fairly new plugs (replaced maybe 2000 miles ago), has a new ISC, and new Throttle body. I first did a quick boost leak test, found 2 leaks. One where the bov and flange meet, and another from the hose that goes to the pcv. So i fixed those leaks. Problem is still there. So now I'm thinking timing or ignition or sumthin along those lines. I went and rechecked my timing belt, all the timing marks are still dead on. So now I'm thinking maybe my CAS is off. Well I don't have a logger yet so I can't give you any readings you might get from one. But I read a vfaq on how to use a timing light on our cars on www.plymouthlaser.com . Well sure enough, my car does not have the lower timing belt cover so i do not have the lil timing grid thing that you would use to adjust the CAS so timing is like 5 degree advance (that's the number i believe is where you want your timing to be, i could be wrong, please let me know if im wrong). Well anyway, we're going to try and throw my buddies lower timing cover on and check the timing from there. I'm a little confused as to where exactly 5 degree is on the lil grid. I see a nice big 10, and some dashes before and after it. So which one is the one I want the lil timing mark to be at everytime the light flashes on it. And if anyone else has advice as to what else could be causing this problem, then please lemme know. thanx

 

[ronny]

sounds like boost-leak!

 

[95blackGsTurbo]

sounds like boost-leak!

Read the whole post before you post. He fixed his leaks.
You have what sounds like heat soak. When you boost hard, and a lot, all of the hot air going through the intercooler eventually takes over it and lowers it's ability to cool the air going through it.If it can't cool the air, then the car has to pull timing and your car feels slow. Feel your intercooler right away in the morning and then again after your car starts to feel slow again. it will be fairly warm. You can help this by removing it and flushing it out with gasoline or something along those lines. Even aftermarket IC's can heatsoak the piping. It could be the timing but I doubt it since it feels like it has power to start with.

 

[steve]

Ah guys the original post is over 2 years old.
Thanks for trying to help but not exactly the best way to spend your first post.

Steve

 

[me612]

Oh wow, yes this thread is ages old. This is a knock problem that I am still troubleshooting to this day. It's gotten better, but it's not gone. I'm 99% sure it's not REAL knock as race gas did not effect it at all. My new lifters should arrive this week. If that does not fix it, I will be at a point where I don't know what else to do. I have done the MCCC cleaning, checked timing a good dozen times, Cleaned my current 1g lifters, New knock sensor, tried a dozen differen torque settings ranging from damn near loose, to nice and tight, I have tried 2 ECU's. It's getting to be ridiculous.

 

[Siral3x]

IF this helps you at all..since nobody has a 100% workin solution to this issue this is how my car is acting up:

"while acclerating, the car will sometimes acclerate just fine, and other times it'll be slow as a dog." It started happening to me last week....when my clutch started sticking on the floor! Defenatly not HEAT related because I live in a 20F zone right now
Didn't find a solution yet, but I think the problem is clutch related!
I'll keep everybody up to date since I'll have the whole DRIVETERAIN system brand new in 1 week!
PS: Please hook me up with more details abt the behaviour of your car...like mine sometime has a 0.3sec hesitation at WOT, then it just launches like a rocket(and no it's not while I'm shifting, I'm talkin in the same gear ..4th) IT's crazy...I'm serious it does this think and after the small hesitation it's just like pushing the NOS button..

 

[Boost95]

My car is a 91 TSi AWD. Pretty minnimal mods. Just a mbc, gauges, uic pipe & tb elbow, crushed bov, emissions removed, egr blocked off. That's the main jist of it. Anyway, while acclerating, the car will sometimes acclerate just fine, and other times it'll be slow as a dog. Like slower then a moped it feels sometimes. The boost will be up at like 15-16, and the engine sure does sound like it should be going fast, but the car is just sluggish as hell. I have brand new accel wires, fairly new plugs (replaced maybe 2000 miles ago), has a new ISC, and new Throttle body. I first did a quick boost leak test, found 2 leaks. One where the bov and flange meet, and another from the hose that goes to the pcv. So i fixed those leaks. Problem is still there. So now I'm thinking timing or ignition or sumthin along those lines. I went and rechecked my timing belt, all the timing marks are still dead on. So now I'm thinking maybe my CAS is off. Well I don't have a logger yet so I can't give you any readings you might get from one. But I read a vfaq on how to use a timing light on our cars on www.plymouthlaser.com . Well sure enough, my car does not have the lower timing belt cover so i do not have the lil timing grid thing that you would use to adjust the CAS so timing is like 5 degree advance (that's the number i believe is where you want your timing to be, i could be wrong, please let me know if im wrong). Well anyway, we're going to try and throw my buddies lower timing cover on and check the timing from there. I'm a little confused as to where exactly 5 degree is on the lil grid. I see a nice big 10, and some dashes before and after it. So which one is the one I want the lil timing mark to be at everytime the light flashes on it. And if anyone else has advice as to what else could be causing this problem, then please lemme know. thanx

If you fix your problem and the thread is not closed, PLEASE post what fixed it so people searching will have another thing to try out