sleejay

hopefully this gets answered right, and hopefully i am asking right...

i dont know if my aux ports are activating. i dont feel any speed increase whatsoever when they are supposed to open, and i tried testing them (probably the wrong way) unfortunately i dont have any grease to put on them and ride around and check so what i did was i touched the rods (lightly) when the engine was slowly brought to about 4k, and i didnt feel them move at all.

are they supposed to open only under load? the car has to be moving?
i asked this question a few times and never got an answer: am i supposed to feel a surge in power when they open? anything?

last question:
i read a post referring to hooking up lights that light up (from the ecu) when the ports open and when the VDI opens... how can i do this? i have never touched my ecu or done any custom wiring but i would really like to do this, any answers would be great.

*** edit: its an s5

thanks everyone

Tofuball

They only work under load.

Just try turning them, you can move them by hand.

ajsuper7

take the vacume lines off of the actuator dashpots, this is how i knew mine were cloged shut b/c when i took the lines off it made no difference in performance so i knew they were not working when i had the lines on. also you'll notice a huge drop off in power after 5000rpms, as in the car seems to accelerate fine till high rpms and it makes no more power.

sleejay

thanks for these fast replies...

tofuball: i DID try that... i could barely get one to move and it sucked itself back in pretty well (the rear one) the front one would only wiggle a bit. should it be hard to move?

also should the 'rod' "pull" out of the actuator? or does it turn?

Tofuball

It should move easily. I can move mine with my pinky finger.

It should turn.

Also, if you blow (Or suck, for an S5) into the actuators, you should be able to move them.

sleejay

engine running or off?

i cant move mine on or off

do i need new actuators? how do i diagnose what is wrong?

Tofuball

Diagnose it with the engine off.

First, remove the actuators (Two 10mm (I think) bolts)

Then try moving the rods and the actuators seperately. If one is stuck, you know the problem. If the rod is stuck, you have to pull the lower intake manifold out and unstick them.

MRX_Rotary

I just learned of a new test to check if actuators are working which you can use since you don't have any grease. It's called the paper test. What you do is just wedge a piece of paper between the bracket-stopper-thing and the rod when it is at closed position. Then take it for a drive (they open around 4,000 rpm at half throttle or more). Open up the hood and if the pieces of paper fell out, then they opened. The only thing is, this test doesn't tell you if it opened up ALL the way.

bingoboy

ok they will ONLY open under load unless you have done something to make that otherwise. also, you won't really see a big boost in power. it's more like the engine power dies off rather quickly if they don't open, and so having the ports open keeps it from doing that. my dyno showed my torque fairly flat-ish, but when it got to over 3500 it'd start to curve down, and then at the point where the ports should open it came back up to where it had been, and then did the same thing again at the vdi spot until it finally died off at the high end where i ran really rich. the ports and vdi are basically to help the engine breath when it needs more air at higher revs.

the easiest way i have found to see if they are capable of opening is such:

get a ball pump (little hand pump for inflating basketballs etc) and use it to blow air into the vac line that is attached to the actuators. pump. if it opens then it should be fine/not stuck. if this doesn't open it then they are probably too stuck to open properly by means of the airpump/solenoids.

cwsttu

https://www.rx7club.com/forum/showth...16#post3811716