Help- Built engine makes less power than before (dyno graph)

[drunkenmagnum]

I dynoed my car yesterday and the tuner spent an hour tuning it and the car now makes less power than before the build. I dont understand this. It has the Comp stage 2 turbo cam, pistons, rods, SRT-4 injectors (OEM 03), Meth injection, AEM cam gear, Springs & retainers,GReddy Emanage ultimate and a Thermal R&D exhaust and is running 15PSI. this is what it made: This is god awful. Before we tore the engine down the damn thing was close to 200 with just a cam, RSX injectors, exhaust, cam gear and 10PSI! what the hell happend here and what could i change to make more power. this is sickening to think that this has all been a waste. I know AEM or Kpro will give me further tuning abilities but I should AT LEAST be at the 200 mark without all of that. please give me some help before i perminently park this car. EDIT: I found two of my older Dyno graphs as evidence that the car once made more power. It was Dynoed another time but I was unable to locate that one. The lower Horse power one was with the addition of the cam and the next one was with the addition of E-Manage ultimate. As you can see I was making 20 hp with basically a stock engine and 10psi.

To remove this ad, register today for free or log in if already registered!

[ronaldo9]

There could be alot of things going on. Are you sure your injectors are flowing correctly? Is there a restriction in your system? Are you holding boost? Is your cam gear set properly? More details but yes you should be making more power and I'm not a fan of emanage, how is the ultimate working out for you? And the more obvious questions are you sure you have a competent tuner?

[drunkenmagnum]

The tuner is not the best but he has tuned more than one car on Emanage and does really great engine work. If you look at the graph, you can see the boost line on it. it gradually drops off after spikeing at 14.5 and goes down to 10 as the graph moves over. I fear there might be a leak but wouldnt it show up on the graph? the boost gauge wobbles under boost which leads me to believe there might be something going on there.

How could i check the flow of the injectors? doesnt that require me to send them off and put on a flow bench? I dont think there would be any restrictions either. the car pulls to about 4 to 5k RPM and then it feels like it falls flat on its ass and doesnt want to move at all.

[ronaldo9]

Would you happen to know what your air fuel ratios are? Another question is do you have a stock fuel pump or walbro? I wouldn't know the answer to all these questions but just asking them as to something to think about. I'm sure Andyman and the likes have better insight.

[drunkenmagnum]

no your help is great!

I have a walbro fuel pump. I didnt put it in but its suppose to be in there. it is one of the only parts i didnt order myself. the A/F kept creeping up over 14.8 but we tuned it down to about 14.0-14.4 ( I think it use to be @ 13.5 if i remeber correctly). the pluggs have about 4K miles on them and seemed fine.

every one PSI only added about 5WHP.

[emjay]

ok .. 14 is way to fukin lean for afr.. under boost u wanna be 11.5-12.4 and at idle u wanna be 14.5-15.2 thats more or less the range u wanna sit in .... Being lean could cause u not to make power, ill tell u one thing ... ur tuner sucks cuz he's the one that has to be able to figure out ur problem .. not tune it at 160 and say go search. but anyway ... with that said, ur injectors shouldn't be restricting u at 160 hp their good for 250 .. im running 200 at 49% capacity..BUT GET THAT WALBRO in there!!... its either ur running tooo lean and ur not making power, or ur in limp mode cuz u said the car loses power at 4 grand and thats when vtec kicks in , so if ur in limpmode, u won't have power past 4 grand as the car is in "limp mode" could this be the reason? have u unplugged ur o2 sensors prior to tuning?.. thats my guess, someone might support me or tell u other wise, but don't worry, u will be 250+ once this is done..

ps. how much did the build cost u, what rods? k1 or crower? tell me how much u spent on the build.. same engine or another one

[speedfoos]

Shit dude, you're running out of fuel. You want to be between 11.5-12.0 when you're WOT under full boost. You're probably detonating like an SOB under that lean of a tune. Pushing that much pressure, with the cam and I'll bet dollars to donuts the stock fuel pump can't keep up, in addition to the "tune" your boy has done. I understand that you can lean a little bit with the meth injection but not that much.

As Billy Bob in Sling Blade said when everyone else couldn't figure out what was wrong with mower, "Needs gas."

[emjay]

^^ one of my two guesses .. 14s under WOT :S ur nutssss

[drunkenmagnum]

the build cost about 4 grand but it had to be done due to piston slap.

we did get the A/f down lower as I now recall. I am thinking about putting the Type- S injectors back in and seeing what can be done with them.

I just emailed my tuner and asked him to send a screen shot of the emanage so I can show you exactly where it was sitting. I know he saved it.

[emjay]

u mite be in limpmode man, but im 99.9 sure that u being lean is causing u not to make power, don't get the rsx injectors lol are u kidding ? the srt-4s are way better. where did u buy ur parts? did u get an intake manifold ?

[andyman97]

Three suggestions to fix your problem:

Install fuel pump

Do return conversion

Get kpro and a good tuner

Problems solved and power will be made....

If you don't want to destroy the engine you've just built, park it until you do the things mentioned above.

[drunkenmagnum]

Originally Posted by andyman97

Three suggestions to fix your problem:

Install fuel pump

Do return conversion

Get kpro and a good tuner

Problems solved and power will be made....

If you don't want to destroy the engine you've just built, park it until you do the things mentioned above.

I ordered 85% of the parts for my car and he orderd the rest and i got receipts for most of it and i will have to go back through them to verify about the fuel pump. even without a return conversion, it should still be @ 200whp. I will be giving the dyno guy a call today and ask him to email me the A/F and maps he saved so i can let you get a better look at them.

Luckly i wont be driving my car much longer because i am buying a DD just to tool around in.

[emjay]

andy how much is it to do a return conversion ??

[drunkenmagnum]

about $150

My tuner has built some wicked cars but they have all been built using Kpro an AEM. I have already begun calling around to shops trying to get some help with this issue but I still want input from as many of you as possible.

[FoSho]

wow....15 psi on a stock non boost sensing fuel pump/regulator....I wouldn't dare push more than 9-10 on stock system w/o return system. I ran 15.3 AFR WOT for the numbers I put down below....that was at 9 psi leaning out on RSX injectors. If you do put RSX injectors back in only boost 8 psi.....Mine are at like 96% cycle at 9psi...... AFR's are a tricky thing to master. So many cars run in different AFR ranges. Non turbo engine w/ a turbo 11.8-12.2 range....some cars that come turbo can run in the 13's, newer passenger cars try to stay around 14.7 all the time......and carb'd car's are all over the place...I agree w/ andyman......park it and get the above....or put the rsx injectors in and retune for 8 psi....I bet you make more than 200whp w/ the rsx's

P.S> I blew my headgasket leaning out my injectors on 9 psi....hope yours is ok