I think i just blew up my car with my new mongoose kit....

SilverBullet00

New Member
Jul 5, 2004
1,150
0
0
Wichita, KS
Ok, so without going into a whole bunch of details, I got my kit put on over the week/weekend. You can reference some pictures here. I started it up in the garage with the tune tim provided me, and it ran like a champ in the garage. took it around the block, and it drove like it was stock! Took it out on the street and EASED on the boost. MAN it was awesome. I only hit about 5psi. Turn on the next street and get on it again, everything feels great air/fuel is 12.5 @ wot @ 4500rpms and then the car just shuts off.

I pull onto a gravel road and try to start it.. Nothing. I give it a little gas and it idles @ 200rpms REALLY rough with tons of smoke out the tail pipes. I checked all the vacuum lines and all the intercooler piping, MAF, IAC, IAT, and I cant figure out whats going on. Any suggestions?

I guess this was a bad idea on my daily driver :(
 
Any knocking...or just rough idle? What kind of plugs are you using? You may have burnt off an electrode on the plug. You should be running 2-steps colder with no wider than .038 gap. Check the plugs and if that doesn't work, try reloading the tune and see that happens.

...and yes, 12.5:1 is too lean for a blower car. Especially up top. You want it ideally around 11.5-11.8 across the board and if it's going to get rich anywhere, make sure it's up top where you're going to be putting the most load on the engine.
 
its deff not the IAC I checked all the lines. I will check the plugs in the morning. They are NRK BR7EF's gapped @ .035. I Spent some serious time on this, I have 29 hours invested over the past 2.5 days. I will dig into it tomorrow, but any suggestions, tips, ANYTHING, would be greatly appreciated.
 
did you check all of the connections to the bypass valve? what bypass valve are you using?

i assume you have a flash tune, but if you have a chip, make sure the chip is inserted in the computer properly and taped down so it does not come loose.

do you have a check engine light?

have you reset or reflashed the computer since the incident?
 
no check engine light, its the stock fuel pressure reg. I have the tune on an xcal2, i will try and reflash it tomorrow.. I already tried unhooking the battery and restarting the car.

Im running a vortech maxflow bypass. its hooked up to my fuel pressure sensor vacuum port as is my boost gauge. at idle was around 45lbs of fuel pressure.
 
Does it smoke like a rocket ship every time it's running, or only occasionally? Also, what color is the smoke? If you check over all of the plugs, vacuum lines and hoses and everything else, do a compression test. I just went through this on a Supercoupe, and it happened to be a head gasket. The car ran great when we ran it for a second, after draining all of the coolant out.
 
it smokes pretty bad when its trying to run. It was so cold today you could see the exhaust making smoke rings out the tail pipes, and then form into a big cloud...

Take some pics/vid of the smoke. Go pickup a compression tester in the morning - if you've never done a compression test before make sure you test each cylinder 3 times and take the average per cyl. Disconnect the fuel pump fuse or the harness on the FPDM (you will throw a code if you do it that way, but xcal2 can erase it heh) and all the plugs on the cops.

If you have bad compression (big variance between most of the cylinders vs one or two of the cly) then you need to do a leakdown test, which is a bit more involved but no more complex.

Honestly, it just sounds like you blew a coupler, clamp, or something... you might want to do a pressure test on the whole IC setup - who knows you could have blown a hole in the intercooler (if it is a real cheap one). If that's not it, you either have complete failure on multiple cylinders or a blown head gasket.
 
First off, use the Xcal to read codes - see if you have any. Next, as other suggested, do a really good physical inspection of the system - I'd unbolt (I assume you are running T-Bolt clamps as they hold better) all the couplers and tubes and remove them and look at them really close, then, put them back on carefully. Next, check vacuum at idle - should be 18-22 or so. Then run a compression check.

If that doesn't work, use the Xcal to datalog some things that may give you good info - I'm sure Tim can tell you what to log.

12.5 A/F is too lean, but honestly, it should not have hurt anything - usually for a combo llike that anywhere from 11.7-12.0 is targeted. People who want max power for strip cars run 12.4 sometimes. It's on the edge but it should not have hurt the motor, just one time at that low of an RPM, unless of course the motor was hurt before you put the kit on.

I'd also lower the plug gap to 0.028-0.030. The car CANNNOT have an adjustable fuel pressure regulator because it has a returnless fuel system unless it's been converted. Fuel pressure is not really important, what IS important is pressure drop across the injectors - and it should be 39-40 or so. You can log this with the Xcal - I'd also log fuel pump duty cycle.

Good luck! Hope it's something minor!

Don
 
no check engine light, its the stock fuel pressure reg. I have the tune on an xcal2, i will try and reflash it tomorrow.. I already tried unhooking the battery and restarting the car.

alright. just wanted to make sure it wasn't something with the adaptive learning.


Im running a vortech maxflow bypass. its hooked up to my fuel pressure sensor vacuum port as is my boost gauge. at idle was around 45lbs of fuel pressure.

can you check to see if the bypass is working properly and isn't stuck? 45psi is very high for idle. i've had the Focus pump and the GT pump and neither ran that high at idle. what are you running for a fuel system?

it smokes pretty bad when its trying to run. It was so cold today you could see the exhaust making smoke rings out the tail pipes, and then form into a big cloud...

white smoke usually means oil, black usually means fuel.

i'm assuming you are getting black smoke because it sounds to me like the car is running extremely rich. this could be because there is an air leak somewhere or a fuel system issue.

if it's a fuel issue, your engine should be fine as long as you solve the problem soon. too much gas in the cylinders will eventually harm the engine tho, so try to avoid running the car as much as possible until the problem is found.
 
The color of the smoke is VERY important. If it was black, then your running rich most likely. If that's the case, a pipe is loose and or blew off. Blue smoke means the car is burning oil somehow, possibly through valves or piston rings. 12.5 is pretty lean for a boosted car. Get that car TUNED before you start boosting again!
 
im wondering the accuracy of my wideband. before I got the blower on, for no reason at all, it would go all the way lean and stay there for 1 min or so.

BTW I have a focus fuel pump and an AEM wideband. I am going out to take a look. How can I tell if the bypass is stuck open?
 
im wondering the accuracy of my wideband. before I got the blower on, for no reason at all, it would go all the way lean and stay there for 1 min or so.

BTW I have a focus fuel pump and an AEM wideband. I am going out to take a look. How can I tell if the bypass is stuck open?


the focus pump should be at 20-25psi at idle if i remember correctly. 40 @ wot.

take the bypass valve off, take it apart and check it out. it's just a spring and valve. nothing complex. just make sure the parts move.