Ok so lets start with the car Its a 87 T2 Motor rebuilt been sitting for 2 years. car has a FCD and a Catback, supposably larger injectors.

Heres what I know is wrong cats have fallen appart internally rattles inside, TID has a small crack where it meets the turbo. I'm currently making a new TID, just needed to get the rest of the parts to hook in the stock bov. wiring harness may be bad. IDK for sure.

when I first start the car it runs good, but after about a minute or two of driving it falls in its face. and then it trys to run, but contunes to fall on its face. It does it at idle too. I though it was spark plug wires because when it first started doing this I could mess with the wires some and it would stop, now i've replaced the plugs and wires and its still doing it and worse. Could it just be the cats

It feels like when my first gen leading went out, but I'm getting spark, it also is alot like when my shutter valve was jammed shut.

I also hooked a timing light up to it and seems to be off by 24* at idle but I don't know for sure. I just hooked it up and ran the **** till it was lineing up. so I'm thinking that would be 24* advanced.

So here are my culprits

FCD (its really old) may have busted. stock Boost gauge doesn't work when this syptoms happening. does when its running good.

Timing too far off? I know that 24* on a first gen 13B runs better than stock. I run 20* advance on my 12A

Bad Cats

Grounds

Harness

What whould you guys suggest is the most likely culprate. I plan on hollowing the cats tomarrow, and possably regrounding the engine and body to the battery.

 

try to remove the FCD and drive w/o boosting the car too much, see if the problem remains.

 

That solved nothing, so its not the FCD, could it be the boost sensor it self causing the issues? How can I test it to see if it works. could the FCD of messed it up?

 

well if the car starts and then falls on its' face; I think that possibly the broken cat pieces are just clogging up your exhaust and not letting the motor breathe....

 

well thats what I was hoping, but it seems differant than that. but I'll let you know tomarrow. I'm just trying to come up with alternative issues in case that doesn't fix it. I hope that fixes it, I just want to know if any of you have expeirenced this sort of thing before.

 

So I hollowed the main cat, and that stoped the rattles, it was pretty beat up inside, still havent got to the precat, and the mid section cracked, but that looks old so I don't think thats the problem at hand, I'll try and get it welded tommarrow.

I have noticed that I've been getting a small shock as I get out the car and place my hand on the body. and I don't know for sure but I think it only does it when its acting up, so I may have a bad electrical issue. I hope not though.

 

The shock you're experiencing is static. It's just from you getting out of the car and touching metal. I always get shocked to hell and back in the winter.

 

That never happend to me in my FB. I guess its that fuzzy interior.

 

I also have a similar problem with my timing as well, except my timing is high at about 1500-1800 rpm, and it wont drop lower than that.
My other question is, can the idle control sensor affect the situation???

 

So it runs alright when it's warming up but feels like crap afterwards? Low, lumpy idle?

The crack in your turbo inlet duct is a vacuum leak. When I had a crack in mine, it ran like freeze dried ***. You want to replace that, clamp it well, and see how it runs.

 

always check tps first.
It also might be a bad water thermo sensor. Its on the back of the waterpump housing.

Also....wow 24 degrees advance at idle...under 1100 rpm??
The leading should be 5 degree advance at idle, the trailing should be 20 degree advance, above 1100 rpm the timing advances more.

 

It idles really about 850 900 when its running right, and about 600 when its bad. but is efffected at all RPM's. I went to pineapple today and spoke with rob golden. he also thinks it could be the TID, so I put in my home made one tomarrow and see how it goes.

BTW Rob at pineappple is a really helpfull guy, I'll be a returning customer. I've gone through him several times. and has always answered all my questions.

 

its the crack in the TID causeing it to run like crap. the smallest crack or leak will make it run horrible. its very hard to find a good one used and way too expensive to buy new, so make one. there is a thread on here on how to make it

 

after you replace that go to autozone and buy about 10 feet of vaccum line its like 98 cent a foot. replace all vaccum lines that you can get too. easy fix to prevent future problems

 

I'm saving my pennies for silocone vac line. I priced it out it should cost about 60 bucks to do everything. I was going to pull the UIM soon anyway. I may buy some cheap stuff and do the stuff I can get at for now, but not untill next week. I've already got TID made I'll swap it out tomarrow. I took the day off I've been out in the cold all week. its like 20* outside, and my driveway is shaded.

 

Ok, so heres what I think was going on. the TID cracked causing the cat's to overheat and break. I also think I may have got some bad gas. cause after I replaced the TID and hollowed the cats. there was still some bucking but not like before. I refilled the tank and havent had any issues since. I have to replace my cracked downpipe. I'm getting a corksport DP on friday. I still haven't got the turbo in since I couldn't remove the DP since the bolts were broken, and impossable to get a wrench on, so I'll have to cut it the rest of the way anyway. But She's back on the road. and even futher away from passing DEQ than before.

 

and get a boost gauge, since you're removing the restrictions from the exhaust then you have to monitor your boost, i wouldn't even really recommend running higher than 9PSI on the stock fuel system.

 

I have a boost gauge now. Boosting at 7 hard throttle, and 8 full throttle. I'm putting a rebuilt turbo with ported wastgate in asap. I found out the exhaust is a walker dynomax. and its only about 2.25 each pipe. I talked with the PO and he says it has oversized injectors, not sure what size, but there is 4 stock injectors in the center consoles with red tops, and the one in the car or kinda a cream/pinkish color. So IDK. I plan on getting a fuel pump asap.

 

Ok problem is back. The last time this happend when it was super cold outside, well for here anyway. temps in the 20's and 30's. Last night it was pretty cold out and I felt it stumble a few times very quick but then stoped. problem comes and goes. I think I have a retarded thermistat and have one on the way from mazda, but its been a few days and still no part. I'm not sure if thats causing the problem, but it is causing it to run real cold, and warm up quickly when drivng hard. I don't think its an OEM. I've also seen it flowing when cold witch tells me its bad.

So what do you guys think it could be. I have new TID, getting spark, New plugs and wires, has antifreeze in it. I need to fix this asap.

Also still havent replaced the turbo and DP since I cant get the DP off the turbo bolts are broken and mis shaped. I have new DP to replace bad monolithic converter/cracked mid pipe.

 

bump

 

The problem was the positve wire for the alternator was shorting out. it was electrical after all.