89hybrid

Heres the story. I have an 89 hatch with a 93 si motor. The car also has a greddy turbo kit. When acelerating it just feels like It hits a wall. Then when you let off it dies. Afterwords it smells like gas big time. The tail pipe is wet with raw fuel. Also when I try to start it. It is very difficult to start. When I finally am able to get it to run it will not idle and will not accelerate well. The car seems to run better if I ease into the throttle as opposed to just flooring it. Any help would be greatly appreciated. My idea is that perhaps it has a bad TPI.

LudeEFv2.4

What have you done in terms of tuning?

89hybrid

Thats a great question. Something I neglected to mention is the car was stolen a few years back. After I recovered it I had to replace the head. Do you think it's possible that its maybe off a tooth. I mean it really has never ran the same since I put it back together. I haven't time it in quite some time. Although it does have new plugs.

dephtone

I think what he meant is has the ECU been tuned for running said turbo kit on the car? Are the injectors the same as the ones you had on the old head? Or did you buy bigger ones?

If everything is the same then I would start at checking the timing making sure thats on par as you said it hasn't ran the same since you put the new head on it.

89hybrid

Ok I got it. It is not chipped. Nor does it have after market injectors. I will check the timing soon. I've been a little busy as of late.

sanman000719

full throttle and untuned dont sound like a great idea to me man

EFPhilly

Hell yeah you havent heard lean is where you make the most power LMAO

racebum

i'm constantly amazed at how many people bolt on turbos and expect the stock ecu to somehow make the car run right

EFPhilly

hahah There must be some typo in the manual that says bolt on turbo and drive around to tune it by itself. There is just way too many of these daily The Op should be asking why is my motor trying to save itself before being blown up.

I remember driving untuned, going to pass a 35 mph guy in a 55 and gave it gas. The map read it and freaked out. I thought it was gone then and was freaking out, but it was fine. People do this on the daily and arent freaked out at all afterwards (like the OP), and just wants to know why cant he boost. Hm maybe because of Chemistry and a little property called stoichiometry and the law of conservation of energy. If the molecules have of oxygen have lack fuel to attack, where do they go. Hmmm how about they go into creating heat and blowing that f^&*% up I love boost...tuned boost.

89hybrid

Ok ha ha you guys are great. Its a greddy kit with 5lbs. of boost. It does not need a hondata.

racebum

so you come in asking what the problem is

we tell you

you don't believe it and tell us that the factory ecu is fine

okay

enjoy

AllShowNoGo727

iTrader: (1)

Take all your turbo stuff off. Put a header on. Call it a day.

89hybrid

Ok yeah the car ran fine for years before it was stolen. It has a greddy kit. I emphasize kit. Meaning it was made to bolt on and run. But hey thanx for all your help gentleman.

AllShowNoGo727

iTrader: (1)

If the only thing you changed from when it was running fine until now, was the head, id be inclined to check anything that involved the head first. Timing belt, IACV, all that good stuff. But with a car that was stolen its tougher I guess, you dont know what they did to the car while you didnt have it.

racebum

you mean like pulling the greddy e manage off when it was stolen?

89hybrid

Thank you for some advice I do appreciate it.

89hybrid

No I still have the e manage. Look I raced the car for 2 years. It ran Fine. If it had a problem Before it was stolen. It definitely would have showed itself.

racebum

EFPhilly

I thought it was when in doubt pull it out^
hmmm


Compression check is not going to tell you as much as a leak down test. Timing is crucial with these cars. Glad you have E-manage....It is really hard to just guess what you car has in the first place (should have said it first post hoss).

Why was the head replaced?

LightningTeg

racebum

mmm kinda sorta, i mean a leak down can provide more useful information but i can almost promise you a leakdown of 20% will have really low compression numbers as well. in short both would reveal a bad cylinder

EFPhilly

But low compression in any cyclinder can be caused by carbon buildup or a chipped valve. The comrpession tester can be used to see this stuff but you have to know how to read it properly. A leak down test will show you where its leaking and by how much, because you can take off the oil cap to see if the air is slipping out the top, dipstick to see if bottom end, or exahaust to see if exahust valve

I personally run a compression test, wet test, then leak down if problems show up

sanman000719

psssst stop with the guessing get it to a shop and let them tell you exactly what the issue is

problem solved

89hybrid

WEll it turned out to be a faulty vacuum actuator. I'm still learning. I can admit that. Although it seems some of you cannot.

boostedBLUfg2

doesn't make you any less of a dumbass for boosting a car w/out tuning.

$0.02