Fellers,

 

Last few mornings my '97 OBW has been starting with a very high idle (~2700 rpm). Today I go to run an errand and have the high-rev startup and when I start out of the driveway I have very little power at all! The engine shakes much more now at idle and when I rev it. What do ya think this could be? i'm hoping it's just some sensor or something. I had the headgasket, water pump, and timing belts done at 192k and now i am at 221k. Any ideas appreciated.

 

tdog

Is Your Check Engine Light On?

check your MAF. unplug it. if nothing changes after a minute or two of just idling, then you know you might want to try borrowing a good one or replacing it.

Well, I did the ole ALT-CNRT-DEL for my car. I disconnected the battery terminals for about 15 minutes and the car runs fine now? I recently put in a Tornado unit in my air inlet line to see if the thing worked and thought perhaps the MAF may have to reset itself? BTW, i've been driving 4 hours down to Nashville, TN and had 2 very good identical comparasions with the Tornado. W/o I got 24.4 mpg all highway and this last trip I got 25.6 mpg all highway with the Tornado unit. I got it for $42 shipped off of ebay so i figured it was worth at least a try. But, after this latest episode I wonder if it messed with the MAF?

any suggestions?

 

tdog

what is this tornado thingy?

I am very sceptical of the "tornado". The thing is stuck too far away from the place it might have any benefit: the intake ports. A serious swirl on the intake air will create a more uniform air/fuel mixture in the cumbustion chamber, and produce a more uniform explosion. But the tornado won't make this happen.

Careful design of intake port, valve and fuel injector placement are the factors to consider here.

 

Remember when Honda launched the car based on their fantastic new CVCC engine? Stratified charge was what allowed them reduce the amount of fuel fed by the carb, the mixture was far more uniform and therefore runnning rich become a thing of the past. It was good intake port design that did it - not a propeller in the intake stream :-)

 

Your varying mileage could be attributed to wind, humidity, and temperature differences as well.

And that's just on the move, consider that gasoline's density varies quite a bit with temperature and you can't be sure that you are filling the same amount in the tank despite the same pump reading the same volume of gas.

Gotta agree that the tornado probably isn't helping your engine run better.

 

I hope that it didn't hurt too much when they set the hook!