never-ending lean condition: fuel pressure low? bad pump? VOODOO CURSE?

[Galanttuner10]

hmm started when you went turbo and has been hot and running lean since then no matter what you do.. i would look at things that have always been there not things you changed.. the pump might be bad after many miles.. you say it pulls like shit now.. does it misfire at all??? or just no power at all???

heat issue might be radiator or thermostat, but these little engines do run really hot.. are all ur fuel lines stock or steel braided? as you might have a leak somewhere idk im stumped

[peanotation]

nah i've checked for leaks, everything's bone dry. i'll try to recheck tmrw with a lighter, hahahahahaha

i think the heat issue is because it's running so lean. i'll be changing the thermostat this week, and the radiator is brand new, 2000miles on it.

it just doesnt pull at all, and the motor is only 115K miles with great compression. keep changing the plugs every month cause they get so white.

going to inspect pump and recheck for leaks tmrw. check in-tank seals too. going to resolder the ecu and see if i can get the afpr installed

[mko]

i just pulled my plugs today - white as snow....wtf......I guess I was running really hot.

[peanotation]

worst feeling in the world ^. you running NGK copper regulars or NGK V Power?

for some reason all the VatoZones here don't carry the regular ones, just the v power ones. they're like oh yeah we have regular NGK copper plugs for your car; come back to the counter 5m later "oh we seem to be out of stock, but we have V power" UGH. i just want normal spark plugs

[mko]

I use $2.50 spark plugs from Walmart. The last set lasted an year w/o a problem, but I have some NGK turbo ones for when go turbo.

[Galanttuner10]

i just dont get it man.. you took out the fpr when you took off the turbo i presume and you put ur old one back in i take it.. um.. it might be the regulator.. but this happened when you were turbo as well so idk im still confused

[peanotation]

so idk im still confused

yeah, tell me about it

[peanotation]

0psi

i installed my aeromotive afpr today with the gauge. turned the car on. gauge reads 0psi.

has to be a faulty gauge, right? i'l be going to see if i can get a new one tmrw.

the car feels about the same and the narrowband o2 reads about the same, maybe a little more rich.

but now the fuel pump is making a new whirring noise thats on a different frequency than it's standard operating noise. W...T....F....

[DOHCstunr]

did you ever replace that fuel pump strainer sock?

You know there is a way to eliminate the fuel pump o-ring all together?

you cut just above the socket where the fuel pump outlet and oring slide into.

so now there would be just a straight tube on the fuel pump assembly.
Now you just get a 2" piece of fuel hose and clamp it to the pump outlet, and then to the hardline that you just cut.
done. never again will you have fuel pressure drop after you turn off the car.

[Blue Ice]

I'm kind of thinking about what Kevin said with the wiring of the MAF.
Did you ever change ECU's when going turbo?
Did you do any rewiring of the injection system?

I feel the problem lies somewhere in the ECU telling the Injectors to open up more for the air that it is reading. Possibly you may have a faulty MAF that is causing the sensors to read less air than you actually have. Maybe you can get a replacement MAF form a JY just to see.

Or yyou could have a leak in your intake system that is post MAF. What type of intake pipe are you using? Does it have any holes that aren't hooked into the system that might be sucking in air? Are there any cuts in the couplers? Do you have a good seal where the intake pipe meets the throttle body? Throttle body to intake Mani sealed perfectly? How about Mani to the block? Did you get all the bolts in? Maybe do a leak test?

Are most of the intake parts the same as when you were boosted? It's Possible you damaged something minor while you were boosting. The leak was so small, you could adjust for it with the AFC2, and now that you don't have a managament system, the regular ecu won't compensate.

[peanotation]

did you ever replace that fuel pump strainer sock?

yup, replaced that. my old one was filthy...

You know there is a way to eliminate the fuel pump o-ring all together?

you cut just above the socket where the fuel pump outlet and oring slide into.

so now there would be just a straight tube on the fuel pump assembly.
Now you just get a 2" piece of fuel hose and clamp it to the pump outlet, and then to the hardline that you just cut.
done. never again will you have fuel pressure drop after you turn off the car.

i've thought about that since the pump started making this new whirring noise last night. IDK wtf this thing is doing, so i want to eliminate as many things as possible

I'm kind of thinking about what Kevin said with the wiring of the MAF.
Did you ever change ECU's when going turbo?
Did you do any rewiring of the injection system?

never changed ECUs. i rewired the injector harness to use the resistor pack with the 450cc injectors. since wiring it back to the oem injectors, i've resoldered the harness straight to the clips, oem setup.

I feel the problem lies somewhere in the ECU telling the Injectors to open up more for the air that it is reading. Possibly you may have a faulty MAF that is causing the sensors to read less air than you actually have. Maybe you can get a replacement MAF form a JY just to see.

already got a MAF from another 7G at the junk yard, using it atm.

Or yyou could have a leak in your intake system that is post MAF. What type of intake pipe are you using? Does it have any holes that aren't hooked into the system that might be sucking in air? Are there any cuts in the couplers? Do you have a good seal where the intake pipe meets the throttle body? Throttle body to intake Mani sealed perfectly? How about Mani to the block? Did you get all the bolts in? Maybe do a leak test?

oem intake pipe. no holes, i've checked it a million times. the seal at the TB is foreskin tight. TB to intake mani has a brand new OEM gasket. mani to block has brand new OEM gasket.

leak test is a good idea.........

Are most of the intake parts the same as when you were boosted? It's Possible you damaged something minor while you were boosting. The leak was so small, you could adjust for it with the AFC2, and now that you don't have a managament system, the regular ecu won't compensate.

all that i used when i was turbo was the maf, everything else was different and since has been removed or replaced.

thanks for all the advice everyone, i feel like i'm real close to getting this fixed, keep the ideas comin'.....

[peanotation]

soldered the wires on the ecu harness that were spliced or cut&twisted from the afc2 days. also got a new fuel pressure gauge and put it on the apfr, dialed in factory fuel pressure.

nothing's changed.

it just hit me i'm using dohcstunr's 60mm TB still. going to swap my original 56mm back on, but i still don't think that's it. at this point there's not much left to do....

[mko]

56mm? its more like 48mm

Man, get an accurate reading if the A/f ratio.

What kind of intake do u have - stock, ram or cai. Usually aftermarket intakes make your engine run lean, cuz they heat sink.

[peanotation]

OEM intake. everything is OEM. everything. well, except for the fpr now, but i think the aeromotive is a step up from the oem.

i could throw in my wideband again, just means i have to get a bung welded into the downpipe. i'm really tired of blowing money on this thing; i'm tapped for cash right now so it will have to wait.....

hopefully the throttle body fixes it a little bit. i'm about to borrow a grand from my girlfriend and just drop it off at the stealership......

[Galanttuner10]

OEM intake. everything is OEM. everything. well, except for the fpr now, but i think the aeromotive is a step up from the oem.

i could throw in my wideband again, just means i have to get a bung welded into the downpipe. i'm really tired of blowing money on this thing; i'm tapped for cash right now so it will have to wait.....

hopefully the throttle body fixes it a little bit. i'm about to borrow a grand from my girlfriend and just drop it off at the stealership......

DONT BRING IT THERE!!!! lol cuz when you get it back that problem will be gone but something else will be wrong

id really want an accurate reading before i go all crazy as narrowband is inaccurate, but my narrowband can peg rich with a heat soaked short ram so somethings up... do you still have the original ecu or did u get 1 from a 96 2 match? i dont think there is a difference for the fuel cycle but you never know

[peanotation]

nah, still on my weak-ass mysterious obd1.5 94 ecu. i wonder if the afc2 permanently screwed it up, because no matter what i dialed in, the wideband a/f never moved on a wot pull. EVER. i could crush everything -50% or go +50% across the board, do a wot pull, and the wideband never budged.

[evil-G-nius]

Take it to Arthur...he is a lot cheaper and you know you can trust him! Stay away from the stealership. Borrow the grand anyway though. If you think its the ECU...I have a 96 ECU sitting here. You can borrow it to see if it will help. Pay me for the shipping and you can have it. If it works...keep it. You did a lot for me with helping with my swap its the least I can do!

[mko]

He has to swap many pins to get the 96 ECU working in 94 car

[peanotation]

yeah i'm on the hunt for a 94 ecu right now, fed spec. that's the only thing i havn't replaced....lol....building a brand new car at this point

[peanotation]

well i officially made the car worse.

up until this post, i had been running dohcstunr's 60mm GS throttle body. the more i thought about it the more i was like DUH! way more air = way more lean!

so i swapped the significantly smaller (original) OEM sohc throttle body onto the car, transfered the blockoff plate over (cause i hate the iac and fiav valves), double checked the vacuum lines.

before, the narroband a/f gauge would cycle a little bit into the rich.....now it doesn't even touch the rich side, and is more biased to cycling through the lean side. there is a definite difference, and the gauge is shower a much more lean condition.

i'm taking it in on thursday, i'm officially out of ideas. anyone wanna buy a kidney so i can pay for the bill? lol