So I got caught in a heavy rain coming home the other day and while at a stop light the car shut off and it took several minutes to start back up and I made it to the garage. I had gone through 2 large puddle before the light(there was no other way to go) and the car starts up fine so I dont think hydrolock occured because the engine sounds fine and idles fine but once I start to drive and give it gas I go lean and the car dies, I can drive around the parking lot with no problems but once I give it a decent amount of gas it goes lean. It will restart with no problems and I have checked for moisture under the distributor cap and have pulled the spark plug wires out to dry for several days. I even had a spare MAP sensor and the same thing. Do you guys think the spark plug wires got moisture and are now bad- they are msd wires. Or maybe the coil pack got wet? Just trying to see what everyones opinion is before I start replacing things. My setup is a fully built b16a with garret to4e running on Neptune. Any help would be appreciated I just got this thing tuned and was starting to enjoy it. Thanks in advance

 

Nobody? Just got off of work and thought for sure I would have a reply at least one of those stupid comments or something. Appreciate the looks though.

 

no codes?
what about just revving the engine?

 

Make a test on the ignition coil.Can it produce 25KV?

 

No codes, gonna check the just revving in the morning cant really rev past 5500 due to the two step. Will definitely check the coil tomorrow. Don't really feel like dropping the car off at my mechanics to start racking up bills. I do think that I'm gonna just buy a new coil and spark plug wires to try and eliminate those options.

 

Another question,how do you know that you are running lean?Do you have air/fuel ratio guage?

 

Yeah I have an AEM wide band gauge.

 

Compression test.

 

the engine only has about 200 miles on it after a rebuild. you think something got messed up with the rain? The car starts up fine and idles with no problem and is not making any weird noises. The more I research the more I think its the coil. I read this thread on bad coil pack symtoms and this guy had the same things happening. Just ordered a new one couldnt find one locally. Havent gotten to the garage yet to test the coil pack voltage.

 

Is there an air filter on this? It may have gotten soak and now doesn't let enough air pass through.

Its not going to be your wires (if they failed you would be running rich) or anything spark wise.

 

I thought so also but then I thought about the coil not able to deliver the the proper voltage under the boost/load,the motor runs reach and ECU compensates by leaning out the mixture.Blocked air filter will make it run rich also.I was thinking also that it could be just a coincidence and the next step would be monitoring the fuel pressure at the moment of trouble.I would also check the map sensor.

 

Thanks guys, gonna get to the garage in the morning and check the filter and the new coil will be here in the afternoon. I've swapped out the map sensor with a spare new one that I had- same scenario.

 

Don't change parts for nothing.Test them before!Can you plug a scanner to it and monitor the fuel trims?

 

So yesterday I went ahead and pulled the air filter started it up and drove around the parking lots for a while and was able to get into boost without the car shutting off. I didnt have anyone with me so I didnt want to take it on street yet in case I needed to push it to the side. I went ahead and hooked the laptop up and datalogged while I drove around, Im gonna send it to my tuner to check everything out. So it seems the water and oil mixed and caused the filter to be clogged, but I checked the filter when the issue 1st arrived and it didnt seem wet and I could see plenty of light through it. Anyway I'm gonna take it on the road today and test it out some more, I'll let you know what happens. Thanks for all the input guys.

 

Oh yeah needless to say I am cleaning and recharging the filter today.

 

When you say that "it seems the water and oil mixed and caused the filter to be clogged" you mean what exactly?Did you correct the problem or you are assuming?Theoretically if you have a film of oil on the filter thick enough to block the filter,the water wouldn't change anything.

 

A clogged filter will not cause a lean or rich condition condition....

 

It will cause a rich condition.The only thing it really gotta be blocked.

 

Incorrect. It will only cause a rich condition on a carbureted vehicle. It will not alter fuel trim at all on a modern fuel injected vehicle.

 

Alright guys, so it seems that the problem goes away when I pull the air filter off and drive like that. I cleaned my K&N with their recharge kit and put it on the car today and took it on the street. Once I gave it some gas it leaned out and died, now it doesnt misfire just calmly shuts the car off. I pulled over to the side and pulled the air filter and after 2 tries the car started and off I was. It ran normal all the way back to the garage- meaning it was not leaning out when I gave it gas or went into boost stayed right around 11.5 on my wide band. So now I'm really confused as to what is causing a clean air filter to lean the car out. Im gonna get another one tomorrow and see what happens. There seems to be numerous conflicting opinions on all the forums regarding what a clogged air filter does to the a/f ratio. I didnt have time to really drive the car today but I plan on taking it around town for a while tomorrow just to make sure the problem is gone.