[waimser]

Havnt been able to get past 100kph all weekend and have been hearing a loud sound coming from the engine bay right in front of me. So I have been driving carefull and freaking out till I got home. Finally on the way home I hit a familliar patch of highway and was able to get a real good comparison of performance.

Turns out she has plenty of poke up until half throttle, but as soon as I went past half throttle she would actually slow down. I figure either the trans is on its way out and is slipping under load, or I have a timing problem.

So with this in mind, I popped the hood today and found this

http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/5283/pa251441.jpg

http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/9891/pa251440.jpg

EGR modulator has melted.

I thought no probs ill grab the spare one I have sitting there.
After replacing it, off for a test run I went. 500m down the road I hear a pop and discover the spare has melted as well.

So any way after a long night of research I believe my ecu has gone into limp home mode. This is possibly making the exhaust gas hotter than usual and doing the damage.

Unfortunately it means I have a problem somewhere that needs sorting out. Fun day ahead of me tomorrow by the looks

[royce]

blocked muffler?

[waimser]

That is on my list of possibles. Either the muffler or the cat is stuffed and making some rattles so it could be that.

Did find the vacuum pipe to the egr valve was blocked too. So that could have done it.

I will also sort out my blown tail light globe, and the blown reverse light globes that I found last night as some threads sugest they can cause strange things to happen.

Probably gonna be waiting a while for the part now too so Ill get a volt meter onto all the sensors as well, see if any of them are dodgy.

Oh the fun and games you can have with a modern car

[joeblow]

you're body earth wire has melted through it. go over all you're earthing points.

[christover1]

I'm with Joe, checking earths is worthwhile.
I had a Moke that earthed thru the choke cable when motor earthing broke.
Almost set fire to me Moke.

[waimser]

That wire in the pic was actually from a clip at the base of the dizzy. The heat from the air coming out of the modulator actually melted the clip on the wire, probably caused it to come off initially too. I dont think it actually shorted on anyhing.

I will check through my earths though thanks. I want to try and get everything sorted as good as possible before I have to take it anywhere.

[losfer]

100000 % collapsed/blocked catalytic converter, i did the same myself on a swift a few years ago , replaced a buggered egr with a brand new one which lasted all of about 20 kms , the cat had collapsed ..

[zooker]

losfer wrote:

100000 % collapsed/blocked catalytic converter, i did the same myself on a swift a few years ago , replaced a buggered egr with a brand new one which lasted all of about 20 kms , the cat had collapsed ..

x2. Same happened to me and was a collapsed cat converter

[DarkHorse]

Straight-thru FTW!

[waimser]

hey thanks guys. it really helps to narrow things down when someone has had the same thing happen. Did the modulator melt through for you guys or was it the egr valve that was dameged.

I intended to get a new cat pretty soon anyway as I think its still on the original, 270000km old:P guess ill be doing it a bit sooner.

[waimser]

BAAAHAHAAHAA! Local exhaust shop wants $600+ for a new cat. Seriously wondering if they havnt updated thier books in 10 years

Think I will be going somewhere else. Damn its no wonder this town is failing.Businesses here are just not realistic

[SuziBlu]

http://www.modyourcar.com.au/exhaust-ca ... rs-cat9_65

[waimser]

Ok so this is where im at at the moment.

Im not so sure my cat is blocked after all, although it remains a possible part of the overall problem.

Found that the EGR pipe that runs under the manifold to all the ports was blocked solid. 80 psi would not pass any air through, not that id get the full pressure cause i couldnt really hold the thing in place that long.

After finally finding these pics(the 3 showing underside of the manifold, right at the bottom of the page) http://www.kick-fix.com/EGR.html#Stall

I was able to get a very thin piece of cable down there to loosen up some crap. Then sprayed some carby cleaner down the pipe and cabled it again.

Then unplugged the brake cylinder, plugged everything else and pressurised the manifold from the top. This just managed to clear a little bit of an airway.

So I then filled the EGR pipe with carby cleaner, put all the top plumbing back in place and revved the engine a little to get the vacuum to suck the carby cleaner through the egr system. Fill pipe with cleaner, rev engine, repeat.

I now seem to have a reasonably clean airway through the erg so I have put everything back together, disconnected the battery for a cpu reset, and will take it for a cruise shortly to see if it helps.

Hopefully the cpu will start working again. Fingers crossed.

Over the next few weeks I will take the egr valve off and spray more carby cleaner in the egr pipe and rev it every few days. Hopefully with the end result of completely cleaning out the pipe.

If it works...definitely beats pulling the manifold off

[steak_knife]

Subaru upper cylinder cleaner eats all, best cleaner that is sensor safe I have ever used..

[waimser]

hmm nice one. I will try find some. Do you get it online or just from repco etc?

Luckily what im doing at the moment shouldnt get anywhere near a sensor.

I thunk what Ive done has helped. Not sure if the computer is all the way back to normal yet but I have got some of my power back. Well at low throttle at least. It still doesnt like full throttle, seems to get to 4000rpm and then just stumbles and cant rev higher. Though I can go well past that no worries at under half throttle.

Multi meter is going onto the TPS in a minute and im gonna stick the air compressor jet down the fuel line as well.

[steak_knife]

$20 say's the bottom pulley has flogged out the key way..

[waimser]

Dont say stuff like that. I dont want to have to deal with something like that

Funny you should mention the need for more work though. Before I started this morning and considered...I already had the radiator mostly disconnected. I could have kept going and started on the front seal.
Decided I didnt know wtf I was doing with that though, so decided it was better left until ive researched it:P

[LittleJeep]

steak_knife wrote:

$20 say's the bottom pulley has flogged out the key way..

this happened to my brothers engine. however it had different symptoms to that of waimser's. the engine was gutless down low but would go like hell in the top end.

cheers

[steak_knife]

LittleJeep wrote:

steak_knife wrote:

$20 say's the bottom pulley has flogged out the key way..

this happened to my brothers engine. however it had different symptoms to that of waimser's. the engine was gutless down low but would go like hell in the top end.

cheers

Yours was stuck with the cam timing retarded, it possible his is advanced or even still moving..

[jonno_racing]

christover1 wrote:

I'm with Joe, checking earths is worthwhile.
I had a Moke that earthed thru the choke cable when motor earthing broke.
Almost set fire to me Moke.

my old tin top did the same thing!

[LittleJeep]

steak_knife wrote:

LittleJeep wrote:

steak_knife wrote:

$20 say's the bottom pulley has flogged out the key way..

this happened to my brothers engine. however it had different symptoms to that of waimser's. the engine was gutless down low but would go like hell in the top end.

cheers

Yours was stuck with the cam timing retarded, it possible his is advanced or even still moving..

yeah but if the crankshaft keyway is flogged out it will force it to become retarded because of the rotation of the crankshaft. it can not force it to become advanced unless the engine turnes the other way which it doesnt! (sorry if i am incorrect but this is how i see it)

[steak_knife]

It will rattle back & forward & could lock up in either advanced or retarded, but rattle from adv to ret it surly will.....

Smart arse...

[waimser]

But wouldnt it not be able to rev high if this was the case? cause I can still get full revs if while stationary if I keep it below half throttle.

[LAY80N]

The motor will free rev fine, but as soon as you load it up it will produce no power.

Layto....

[waimser]

Well who wants to see who gets the points for being right



Well it was any who said the exhaust was blocked. The cat to be more precise.

The internals had come completely adrift and broken up. The largest chunk had worked its way sideways and was resting over the pipe at the back of the cat. It had warn away in a way that a good portion of it was actually jammed well down the pipe. I guess this is why it ran ok at low throttle but bad at high throttle. Under load, it looked like would have made a pretty good seal

So new cat on the way and I cant afford to go anywhere for a while

In the meantime though she makes an amazing sound straight out of the extractors

[losfer]

littlejeep is correct , a flogged keyway will always make cam timing retarded , ive seen a hundred or more flogged keyways and whilst the left side of the keyway is damaged the right side always remains undamaged.

also like i said i was 100000% sure it was the cat , because thats the only thing that can increase the temps high enough to melt the egr.

ohh by the way , i dont know what exhaust shops you going to to get quoted that price on a catalytic converter , but dont go there again , i got a magnaflow spiralcore cat fitted to my racecar (when it was road registered) for $350 , i asked for the the best cat they had , you can even fit a el cheapo commodore cat which should come in under $200 fitted .

[waimser]

Yeah I only went to the local shop to get a rough idea on a bolt in cat. Our policy is to never go to him but I was bored.

After I found the egr system was blocked I was sure that had to be the cause but when I still had problems after it was cleared then the cat was the only thing that made sense, so thanks for that.

I need to head to the city in the next week or so anyway so I will probably either take the old one with me and have a new one set up to bolt in, or if I cant borrow a car Ill just put the old one back in for the drive there and get one fitted.

Shouldnt have any trouble getting a high flow for around $200 or even a cheapy bigger one for less. Kills 2 birds then too cause I can get rid of the small section of exhaust thats still 1 3/4 inch and have a full 2 inch system

[atari4x4]

if you're heading to the big smoke, drop past AAA Exhausts.

http://www.aaaexhausts.com.au/