Where's the power?

[bison]

Get a wideband data logger to tune with.

 

[TURBOELKY]

Yikes...are you related to the Navy Dentist who pulled my wisdom teeth?
That guy jacked me up! Took him 4 hours to get my right side teeth out. It took a month to heal and I refused to go back in to have the lefties done.

So....I've dropped fuel tanks in other cars before and kinda know what to expect when swapping my fuel pump, but is injector swapping pretty straight forward?
All I've ever messed with are carbs on V8's and even working on those still scares me a little.
How about swapping the fuel regulator for the adjustable?

when you get the old injectors out, put the new ones in with a little grease on the o rings so they dont get pinched. I use white litheium grease. Put the injectors into the rail, then seat them in the manifold, make sure you take time and line them up and push on them softly all around until they seat properly. Your new regulator should come with new o-rings. Good luck bud.

and on the dentist part, I'm not him, too young to have been your dentist back then I too had a dentist pull one wisdom tooth. The bottom left side, he tortured me. He injected me so many times, my head was numb, and I could'nt feel my face, but that tooth hurt like hell!!! they kept calling back asking when I wanted another appt. for the other 3, I said f-that, god said " let there be wisdom teeth", so i'm religious now

the gas tank has 3 hoses on the sending unit, going to some hard lines on the underside of the body. Make sure you put those back the right way. What I do is make sure the tank is empty of course, and let it down about 4 inches or so. Pull off the clamps and hoses, then let the tank drop. Make sure you unplug the sending unit so you dont damage it, or the sending unit. Good luck...

 

[meanchicken]

Email sent. Read up.

Remember, the power additions are the LAST things you should add. First is always security, to keep it in your posession. (alarm, insurance, column locks etc. etc.) Then you address reliability, (scanmaster/guages, body bracing, inlet bell oil tube and throttle body preheat blockoff, coil pack etc. etc.)
Then air in, (solid MAF pipe, air filter etc. etc.) Air out, (dutt neck, good exhaust etc. etc.) Fuel, (pump/hotwire, afpr etc. etc.) Then suspension, (new shocks/springs, sway bars, etc. etc.) You can change up the air in, air out and suspension order however you like, but be sure to do the security first, the reliability second, and the power adding stuff LAST. Ive seen many people not do this, and end up with either a stolen car, or a blown engine. Don't do it.

When your car is secure, solid, and running how it's supposed to be, THEN, lastly, start lookin at stuff like turbo, injectors, stall converter, intercooler, alky injection etc. etc. Until then, don't messs around, or you're going to ruin something. These cars ram air pretty dam fast and hard. If somethings out of tune, you're going to know it reeal fast. Good luck, and welcome to the world of Buick. The leaders in speed and luxury.

Thanks for this and the e-mail with all the great info linked in. I appreciate it.
Only reason why I'm going after the fuel pump, injectors and chip now is I look at them as steps in my troubleshooting process.

Now that I've fixed a few of the issues with the new plugs, wires and coil pack, I'm trying to get to whatever causes me to have more power at 3/4 throttle than at WOT. I think I'll find it when I change the fuel pump and/or injectors. I also want to replace the chip because it's an unknown qty. All I know is it's some aftermarket chip the guy put in there several years back. He doesn't even remember which one it is.

I am also chasing the vehicle security stuff in parallel.

when you get the old injectors out, put the new ones in with a little grease on the o rings so they dont get pinched. I use white litheium grease. Put the injectors into the rail, then seat them in the manifold, make sure you take time and line them up and push on them softly all around until they seat properly. Your new regulator should come with new o-rings. Good luck bud.

and on the dentist part, I'm not him, too young to have been your dentist back then I too had a dentist pull one wisdom tooth. The bottom left side, he tortured me. He injected me so many times, my head was numb, and I could'nt feel my face, but that tooth hurt like hell!!! they kept calling back asking when I wanted another appt. for the other 3, I said f-that, god said " let there be wisdom teeth", so i'm religious now

the gas tank has 3 hoses on the sending unit, going to some hard lines on the underside of the body. Make sure you put those back the right way. What I do is make sure the tank is empty of course, and let it down about 4 inches or so. Pull off the clamps and hoses, then let the tank drop. Make sure you unplug the sending unit so you dont damage it, or the sending unit. Good luck...

Thanks, man.
I appreciate the detailed guidance. It'll keep me out of trouble.
I'll be at SEMA over then next few days, so hopefully once I get back, all my boxes will be here.
For whatever reason, Full Throttle still has not shipped my ScanMaster...maybe they're out of stock.
Are these ScanMasters reasonably plug n' play?

 

[TURBOELKY]

yup, very easy. a power to an open ign. on the fuse panel, a ground, and a spade connector into one of the pins in the diagnostic plug under the ash tray. I believe its the top row, second from the left. Good stuff man.

 

[Lee_Burough]

....snip....Now that I've fixed a few of the issues with the new plugs, wires and coil pack, I'm trying to get to whatever causes me to have more power at 3/4 throttle than at WOT.....snip.... I also want to replace the chip because it's an unknown qty. All I know is it's some aftermarket chip the guy put in there several years back. He doesn't even remember which one it is.

While you are spending the big bucks and ferretting out the cause you mention above, you may as well purchase a fuel pressure gauge that you can see while driving, they are sold by several vendors you see on the banner ads.

I'd hook that up before I did anything else in terms of modifications to establish a baseline fuel pressure....Low fuel pressure, with the symptoms you describe, seems like an almost certain possibility to me.

That, and a known modern chip, are good bets as you continue your search (meaning your education about TR's).

You mention doing one fix/modification at a time....Continuing to do one thing at a time will save you a lot of headaches....

 

[Turbo6Smackdown]

while doing your searching, you have to have all 4 gauges in place, along with your scanmaster. record what parts you have o the car, and what all the gauges say, and the scanmaster. change ONE PART at a time, and record again. it may be your valve springs, or cat converter too. maybe KR who knows. with the gauges and scanmaster, you'll figure it all out very quickly :0

If not we will for ya.

 

[chris]

Fuel filter

Make sure you change the fuel filter and check the ground wires on the pass side rear engine at the trans dip stick tube.

 

[meanchicken]

Installed the new Walbro today.

It made a very noticeable difference at WOT. Now the car only pings a little...mostly at shift points...and I think I feel just a minor stumble still. So to sum up...the plugs and wires helped a little, the new coil pack helped a lot, and the new Walbro helped a lot more.

Still some room for improvement, so next I'll install the ScanMaster 2.1, AFPR, and the Hotwire.

Once those are in, I'll install the 60lb Injectors and the TurboTweak chip.

Question: Any harm in installing the TT chip first, and the injectors later after I booty dyno the chip swap? They are a matched set from TurboTweek, just curious to see if the chip alone makes a big difference.

Thanks!
Tim

 

[usetaboost]

the chip and the injectors are matched, so no. If you are still running a stock chip, there will be a big difference on the butt dyno, at least there is on my car.

 

[TurboMonte 2]

DO NOT run the new chip w/o first installing the new injectors--as the new chip was sized/matched for your new injectors--not your old ones. You'll just be asking for potentially BIG trouble if you do...

Perhaps usetaboost misunderstood...

 

[Junior Samples]

Tim,

its prolly them old stock injectors thats giving you 90% grief...yank em

 

[meanchicken]

Cool.
Was just curious.

I'll probably do the injector and chip swap next weekend. It's the wifes b-day today, so I'm not allowed to work on or drive the cars today.

Tim

 

[84BuickGNYorkPA]

I just read the whole thread from start to finish, and wanted to say that you are doing it right. But it sure is hard to stay out of it... congratulations on your car. By the way my signature is up to date and I got 22 mpg on my trip to BG in the spring.

Chuck

 

[usetaboost]

No, I understood. Just sloppy with my post. THanks for cleaning it up for me

 

[meanchicken]

I installed the TT chip, AFPR and 60 lb injectors yesterday.

Car has more oomph now....but...

It knocks n' pings much more at WOT and even a little at 3/4 then it did with the stock inj, FPR and the old school chip.

I set the fuel pressure at 43 (hose off) and it falls to abou 38 hose on at idle.

The engine seems to idle higher now. Slightly over 1000rpm if I trust the OEM tach bar.

I will install the Scanmaster in there next so I can get some readings.

Still need to install my Fuel pump hot wire kit too.

What should I try, look for, etc?

 

[Junior Samples]

get that fuel pump and hotwire on asap

 

[84BuickGNYorkPA]

get that fuel pump and hotwire on asap

X2

You are out of fuel, and what you hear is detonation/preignition. This will destroy your motor in short order.

Chuck

 

[SPOOLFOOL2]

Hook up the scanmaster so you can see what it's doing. Get someone to help if needed.

 

[TURBOELKY]

x10. you need to stop driving that car till you get the fuel pump in!!! !!!!! !!!!! and that scanmaster! and dont trust that factory bar tach or boost gauge. Did you get a boost gauge in it yet?!! man, you need to meet up with somebody local to you and get schooled. sorry for being so blunt man, but a rebuild before you get to have fun will quickly deture you from the buick.

 

[meanchicken]

Thanks, guys.
I know a few of you want to give me five across the eyes by now.

...the Walbro fuel pump is already in....I did that last weekend (scroll back a few posts) and it made a very big difference in the performance. The hotwire, however, is not in yet. I ran out of time on both weekends.

I'll install the hotwire and scanmaster before I do any more driving. Initially, I wanted to install these before the injectors and TT chip...but I suffered from cranial flatulence on Saturday morning and before I snapped out of it, I already had the fuel rail out of the car.

It just surprised me that the pinging/knocking (my foot cpomes up as soon as I hear it) seemed to get worse after going to the new chip and injectors...or maybe I shouldn't be surrpised...bigger injectors need more fuel.

Beyond all this, I'll probably take it over to Lou after I do the hotwire and Scanmaster so he can do some of his tuning magic...he's only 10 minutes from my house.

Each change I've made so far has been an improvement in some way. The plugs and wires got rid of some of the popping under the hood and reduced pinging. The coil pack got rid of the rest of the popping and gave me a little more power. The new Walbro got rid of most of the knockatapinging and gave me much more power. The 60lb injectors and TT chip gave it more power, but the knockatapinging did get worse.

Maybe this is bass ackwards, but new gauges just aren't in the budget yet....but they are on the Christmas list.