4AGTE not going. PROBLEM FOUND - Awaiting a full retune now

[Crampy]

Well, I'm back after having fun in Malaysia with work for the last four weeks. Was only supposed to be three, but the pane decided to lunch one of it's engines, so had to change that.

So, I got back on Friday and went to give the Levin a bit of a run. The car was a bit hard to start, so chucked some jumpers on it. It started fine, but then with just a little squeek of the gas pedal, it started to miss and splutter and stalled. It wouldn't start again for a while. I'm guessing it flooded, as it would start again after leaving it to sit for a bit.

I thought maybe the battery was flat, and causing the Link (LEM V5) to have problems trying to operate with low voltage, but the jumper leads didn't seem to help matters.

Then I thought the sparks plugs were toast. So, changed them and they were a bit poo (they were gapped right down to .5mm or something silly). I chucked some new ones in gapped down to .8mm So tried again, but same thing again.

Eventually, I tried to take it for a drive. It cuts out like a bitch with any amount of throttle, but if I keep my foot in it, the turbo eventually spools and creates boost. Once boosting, it seems to take off fine, no miss, no spluttering. WTF!!!

I did notice, when I put a little throttle on when driving it, the vacuum would drop pretty much to zero with any amount of throttle. That doesn't seem right. I thought it would gradually get to zero vacuum with more and more throttle applied.

So, it idles fine, once on boost it goes ok, but any amount of throttle in vaccum conditions causes it to splutter and miss. Any ideas?

I'm going to check for vacuum leaks.
Then check the Link hasn't got wet or the wiring has been bumped.
Maybe the TPS. Ideas???

Sorry fo the big read, but trying to give as much info as I can to help out.
Any help greatly appreciated.
Cheers.

[FXGTV]

That kinda sounds like what happened to my mr2 after I changed my afm. It would splutter and choke all the way up till it hit boost, then like yours, it was fine as soon as it was boosting. As soon as i replaced my afm with a new, cleaner one, everything ran smooth again. But since you're using a link it could be bloody anything!

[Crampy]

Yeah, but the problem is I haven't changed a single thing. It was running right up to the day I left and doesn't go now. I put a full tank of 98 in to it before my last drive and it was going well, so won't be the fuel.

I'm thinking maybe somethings got wet over the time I've been away and that's causing the trouble. It's an AE101 GTZ with the stock bonnet and a front mount intercooler, so water can get into the engine bay easily.

I'm going to have to give it a good once over and see if anything is obviously out of whack.

[tsoob]

Yeah, but the problem is I haven't changed a single thing. It was running right up to the day I left and doesn't go now. I put a full tank of 98 in to it before my last drive and it was going well, so won't be the fuel.

I'm thinking maybe somethings got wet over the time I've been away and that's causing the trouble. It's an AE101 GTZ with the stock bonnet and a front mount intercooler, so water can get into the engine bay easily.

I'm going to have to give it a good once over and see if anything is obviously out of whack.

yeah fuel dosnt like to sit for tooo long but a month isint really that bad, sounds like you may have a vac line issue or wiring prob, seems strange its fine on boost tho.

[Crampy]

Damn it, just went to work and tried it again. No luck.
I tried unplugging the TPs to see if it was the problem, but no.

I'm goign to have to buy some vacuum line and replace it all, because it's dodgy anyway. The Link shares the same vacuum line as the boost gauge (hardly ideal). It still ran like that though, so not the cause of my new prblem.

It really seems like a ignition cut, because it's so jerky. It just cuts in and out. I don't know if flooding it with fuel would do the same thing though.

[xsspeed]

Corroded terminals anywhere?
Sounds strange if its intermittent. I wouldn't think it's from flooding.
What are your leads like?

[xsspeed]

Corroded terminals anywhere?
Sounds strange if its intermittent. I wouldn't think it's from flooding.
What are your leads like?

[nz_climber]

water in fuel maybe?

[Crampy]

Why would it idle well and be ok on boost though?

[Crampy]

Corroded terminals anywhere?
Sounds strange if its intermittent. I wouldn't think it's from flooding.
What are your leads like?

Got to check the earths for the Link, but I think you might be along the right track there. It makes sense to me. I'm going to pull the loom apart and check the joins to Link loom. I'm hoping it's been solderd properly, but doubt it after seeing the condition of other work done on the car.

The condition of the leads are unkown, but it was going before I headed overseas, so don't see why they would be bad now. I've got some Mitsi coils and some new MSD leads I was going to put in it later. Might have to do that now.

[IH8TEC]

could be coil packs which happened to me a in the red car before going mitsi stuff.

i have some coils if you wanna try them, but i'll need them back if this engine ever sells.

[Crampy]

could be coil packs which happened to me a in the red car before going mitsi stuff.

i have some coils if you wanna try them, but i'll need them back if this engine ever sells.

Hey Brendon. Yeah man, might come and see you some time and try them. If it is the coil packs, it's not a problem as I have my Mitsi ones to go to .
I'll try the Earths for the link and a few other things first though.

[Crucible]

sounds like ignition to me, if you have a timing light that runs on a battery, get a mate to hold onto it while driving. You see quite clearly if the light misses a pulse while looking into it.

thatll pinpoint if its an ignition prob or not.

[rollaholic]

where are you getting your vacuum reading from? the link? had you checked it before this problem came along?

seems like the reading is more likely caused by the shared line than an actual lack of vacuum in inlet manifold. i presume you are talking about slight throttle off boost, yes?

does the link have a seperate feed for MAP, or is it relying on that vac reading for its air info? is it fouling plugs?

[tsoob]

where are you getting your vacuum reading from? the link? had you checked it before this problem came along?

seems like the reading is more likely caused by the shared line than an actual lack of vacuum in inlet manifold. i presume you are talking about slight throttle off boost, yes?

does the link have a seperate feed for MAP, or is it relying on that vac reading for its air info? is it fouling plugs?

sound like the right place to be looking, ideally you want the map on its own one, i have mine teed off and its never had a problem however,
You can never have too many earths either.

[IH8TEC]

you guys are missing the point, yeah it's tee'd off, but that wont be it, yeah it's not ideal but it's been running like that fine for ages.

sounds like ignition man, give me a txt tonight, i gotta go to my shed ad get some parts, and let me know if you want me to grab the coils and bring them into work.

[Crampy]

you guys are missing the point, yeah it's tee'd off, but that wont be it, yeah it's not ideal but it's been running like that fine for ages.

sounds like ignition man, give me a txt tonight, i gotta go to my shed ad get some parts, and let me know if you want me to grab the coils and bring them into work.

On the money there Brendon.
The car ran fine with the vacuum lines as is and as I have stated it was running fine up to the day I left and now it wont go. I have changed absolutely nothing. So, with that in mind, I'm thinking the earths or the Link itself may have got wet or whatever. I'll check the Link at work sometime. We've got a good electro static safe work bench and stuff like that. So, I'll have a poke around and let people know what I find.

[rollaholic]

you guys are missing the point, yeah it's tee'd off, but that wont be it, yeah it's not ideal but it's been running like that fine for ages.

no doubt, i was more interested for my own curiosity than anything else

[escortman]

was going to offer u my coils if u wanted to check but prbly be easier for u to get hold off brendons

[cedwards]

More a question than advice really but don't ignition problems generally get worse with increasing manifold pressure? That has always been my experience (which is limited), generally cracked leads etc are okay at idle but start missing as boost rises???