Midrange falls on its face

VMacKenzie

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Joined
Dec 9, 2007
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625
My '98.5 has a weird problem where the power is very flat between 3-9 psi of boost, started right when I pulled the original injectors to check them out then reinstalled them. This is on a stock truck.

From a stop it initially takes off fine, but about the time it reaches 3psi boost the power begins to go flat, pretty doggy. If you keep on the go pedal it rolls some black smoke and the pyro soars to 700-900F without much Go to show for it. Once boost hits 10psi it suddenly becomes a different animal, comes alive and goes like a rocket, shoots right to 22psi, no smoke, and EGTs actually fall. Something isn't right, it's bad driving down the freeway because it loses speed and I have to downshift out of OD on every grade that's steeper than about 3%. And we're talking about an empty short box 2wd!! It runs and idles very smooth, I doubt the injectors or tubes are the issue.

Here's the sequence of what I've attempted to remedy:
 Checked injector lines for leaks, OK
 Checked intake system for leaks, none found
 Replaced cracked exhaust manifold, installed a Polydyn tubular header I had on hand, did not help at all
 Swapped out the stock HX35 for another stock one, no effect
 Cleaned IAT and MAP sensors, no change
 Replaced IAT and MAP sensors, slight improvement
 Replaced stock turbo with Garret GT3788 (stage 3) and installed 4/5" exhaust

Interestingly putting the Garrett on improved the bottom end response even with stock fueling, but still has the flat midrange power. I threw on the old school van Aaken box I had lying around (good for about 45hp) and while it improved the midrange it essentially masks the problem, EGTs rise a bit more and it smokes pretty good until I hit about 10 psi.

The next step is swapping out injectors, maybe reusing the non-reusable cross tubes is part of the issue, I have a newer set of tubes to put in. I doubt it's the issue though. My other theory is the VP44 is the problem, maybe the timing advance piston is hanging up and keeping the timing too retarded then it suddenly frees up and goes around 10 psi.

Other than that I'm out of ideas. . .anyone else ever heard of this sort of problem??
 
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I am going to say your theory on the VP is correct. Try giving it a heavy dose of 2 stroke oil and see if the problem gets better. If it does, then you pretty much know its the timing piston.
 
Thanks bosshog. Now last night it was running much better for some reason, maybe because it was only 85 degrees out instead of the high 90s we've been having a lot of in eastern Washington lately. It seems pretty temperature sensitive, over 100 it's really anemic and smoky.
 
Have you checked valve lash lately? I have played around with valve lash before and got big chargers to spool quicker, so it has some effect.
 
Set them about 4k ago, have them on the tight side at .008 and .017". Where do you set yours?
 
Thats about right for a stock cam. I have gone as tight as .006 intake but exhaust doesnt have near the effect intake does for some reason. Throw that theory out the window. I think VP...
 
Valve lash definitely has an effect on how it runs, even if they are reasonably close making the tolerance as close as humanly possible with each other sure makes it run smoother.
 
Vaughn,

Try disconnecting the batterys and reseting the APPS.

My thought would be if sometinhg is sticking in the VP44 it should not be consistant. Keep that in mind and see if there are slight deviations in the problem.

Ben
 
OK will try it Ben.

I looked at Blue Chip's diagnostic section and checked the static MAP voltage (key on engine not running) and found it to be at the bottom of spec, read 0.51 volts (supposed to be above 0.5v at no boost, and 1.7 max boost). Going to call Blue Chip and see what they say, it has a new MAP sensor but they have a fix to "boost" low MAP voltage.
 
So, your saying you could tell a difference from 0.002" change on valve lash??
 
OK just want to update this thread, got it figured out and fixed. It was either the injectors or tubes, I replaced both over the weekend. Made a huge difference in how it ran, and dramatically cut the smoke. Much more responsive, EGTs a lot lower, runs great!! No more soggy doggy midrange!

I have no idea how this played into the problem, I would think fuel delivery issues normally result in blue/white smoke, and restriction/boost/lack of air problems are black smoke. It didn't smell rich or stink, no idle haze, idled and ran very smooth, but driving it the engine just didn't have any spunk to it and rolled the black smoke. But whatever the case I guess reusing non-reusable cross tubes is a bad idea.

For being cheap injectors the Edge Jammer Stage I sticks aren't too bad.

Weird.

Now with that sorted I am liking the tubular header, spoolaid and Garrett BB turbo setup :D
 
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