Alright guys. As most of you know, my GSR has been out of commission for a while. I decided to build the engine starting Christmas 2007 and it is still sitting at the shop. After going through issues with getting the manifold, starting problems and so forth, i'm now stuck with a mechanically perfect car that doesn't run well. Here's the breakdown:


1999 GSR
B18A bottom end (9.8:1, Eagles, etc)
Stock P72 head
Chipped P28 with new basemap for setup directly from my tuner
PTE 1000cc injectors
E85
Walbro 255lph
GM 3bar
**The rest really shouldn't matter**


So...what is happening is this: The car will start and run ONLY if you hold the gas pedal. Once you let up, it stalls. This alone isn't a big deal; however, it will only rev to about 3-3500rpm before choking out and falling off.


We've taken all of the accessories off the intake manifold and checked for vacuum leaks, but nothing changed. It still ran like mentioned above. All of the wiring for the 3bar has been checked and double checked. The injectors are in the right order and wired to a resistor box. I dont think the resistor box could go bad and I assume my injectors need a resistor box. That's probably a dumb insecurity at this point, but i thought i should mention it. That's about all i can think of right now. All the grounds are good and we just cannot figure out the problem.


If you have any insight or thoughts, please feel free to comment. I will be back on here to check up periodically. Also, i believe the guys from the shop will be stopping in to see what has been said. They are at a standstill...


I have to give a big thanks to TintMasters in Fargo. They're the ones stuck with my car and they've been VERY accomodating and helpful. Great guys

 

has the car ever been to a tuner? sounds like a simple crap map.

 

^ agreed. Why not try a stock ecu, stock map, injectors... etc and see if she runs ok

 

do you have any datalogs of the car during this?

Once the car fully warms up what does your A/F look like?

 

That sounds the same as when I had the map and the iacv plug reversed. It would start and run if I floored it, then bog and die.

 

ok, it is not hard to see what is wrong. This:
Plus this:

Will equal this:

It sounds like the car just needs to be tuned. E85 hates lean conditions if it is not tuned correctly, so that would be your problem.

 

I have seen symptoms like this occur when the actual ECU has died or malfunctioned. I'm quite sure the car is mechanically sound with all of your hoses and lines checked (I think I know your history pretty well). Best bet is to

1) Check those lines and hoses again, with specific detail to the Map and iacv plugs.

2) Switch to another ECU entirely, don't "chip" and throw in the stock injectors, stock MAP running regular fuel. if the car starts normally, you know its the ECU. Go back to the tuner and remap with the larger injectors on PUMP gas for right now until you can make sure that the rest of the system is working properly.

 

Take a few steps back, and then move forward one step at a time. I would go back to the stock MAP sensor and a basemap for stock map first. Chances are that is your problem. once that is done, if it's still acting up, I'd replace the injector resistor box, just to make sure there was no wiring issues (hell those things are free at a junk yard).

How do the plugs look?

 

and yes, I agree with Shodan. go back to stock EMS, then figure out what went wrong from there.

 

I dont think basemap and E85 should be in the same sentence, the stuff has been out for a while but I doubt people have accurate basemaps for it at the moment, most of the gas basemaps suck and people have been making them forever.... Get him to send you a basemap using Gasoline, and then try everything else listed in this thread if that doesnt work.

 

it's either the basemap or the iacv wiring or the plugs are switched.

I put my money on it it's the map and needs way more overall fuel trim. possibly up to 30%.

and yes resistor boxes can fail i had one fail on me, but i got a check engine light that said i had a injector problem.

 

Shot in the dark, but it might even be a problem with the TPS sensor? Check the wiring or the adjustment of the TPS. It's worth a shot.

 

TPS gives CEL codes

 

Tow the car to your tuner, he will figure it out in 5 minutes.

 

Not when it is only mis-adjusted.

 

Needs tuned

 

Ok guys. I just read through this whole thing. I am going to try switching back to a stock MAP, stock injectors, pump gas and a stock ECU. If that works, i can drive it to the tuner and work this all out. I'll also check to see if those two plugs were switched on the IM.

The basemap i got was directly from my tuner and was apparently from a car nearly identical to mine. I have a feeling this is something other than the chip though. The car ran the same on another basemap and showed no changes when i got the new one. The next step is back to stock for the aforementioned things and i'll report the changes. Cross your fingers for me

 

I have done plenty of E85 cars, NA, Turbo, Supercharged and all of them were different. the ;ast one would actually fire up on a regular pumpgas map but would not rev, as mentioned above. watchin thru the logging i could see what the issue was, vacuum threshold was apparently very quick due to the cams and intake manifold and was revving in a spot where most averag NA cars dont, 45% fuel adjustment fixxed the issue and we wnet from there on to tuning.

no matter what you do, your not gonna be able to make an adjustment anywhere near this amount without ahving some form of tuning setup.

as John Vega said, tow the car to your tuner and let him start the car up, he can see all the parameters and whats going on with it, you cant. all you could be doing is potentially hurting your car.

Ive seen your post count my buddy, you knew the answer to this before you even posted didnt you

 

Had shane at db performance burn a base map on e85 for my single slammer. Boy, the car ran like crap. It will stall on me and idling out of the question. Lucky getting it to my tuner and let him work his magic made the car ran like a brand new car again.

 

Its definately a hit or miss I guess with E85 basemaps, the basemap evans tuning sent me for my setup on E85 was horrible as well.... my motor was practically jumping out of the engine mounts it ran so bad. I opened up my RTP and loaded a stock P72 map and added 25% overall fuel and my car fired right up and purred like a kitten.

 

^^^^yep it's easy to figure that out if you have a wideband.

 

I am going thru the same issues(minus e85)right now. So keep the thread updated if you figure it out.

 

Like the others said just take it to your tuner. He can probably diagnose it in no time.

 

Thanks for the help everyone. I'm going to give Tintmasters a call tomorrow and have them replace the aforementioned parts. I should have known that was my next avenue to try; however, my car has been on the fritz for so long, i dont even know if I'm right anymore. Its easy to give help to others when you're not in their situation i think...which is why i like helping on here. Now, it was finally time for me to ask for help. I'll keep you all posted with any news.

 

I'm sure it is something simple and you'll get though it quickly. on keeping a higher CR boosted motor. I'm anticipating the results as well since I believe the solution has already been posted.