frustrated turbo owner

[hicks]

i bought an mr2 turbo last monday and have found its not quite running right with the exhaust blowing and running rich. whenever im over around 4k on full throttle the engine hesitates and and pul pull so am using half throttle and changing up around 4k revs. anyway its seriously annoying me as i seem to be getting nobs constantly trying to race me and am having to let em thing they have beat me all the time.

i had a tomcat turbo racing me and was off down the road . but worst of all had a learner in a 1.8 vectra keeping up with me. came tear arsing up my rear end as i was doing 40 in a 40. followed me down a slip road onto a dual carraige way so i thought id show him up. accelrated upto around 110 and he was still there by which time i decided to slow down to 70 and let him past while cursing my car. cant wait to get it running right so i can feel the real brunt of turbo power.

[DeusMR2]

sounds like the ignition system is worn. Check and replace spark plugs, distributor cap, rotor and plug wires. Also get that exhaust sealed up!

[Essex MR2]

Gutted for you mate. But stick with it it's worth it, I'm only just getting to enjoy my first tubby and it is excellent. You certainly won't be worrying about any Vectras when it's all sorted.

While you're fixing things, get a grainger valve and up the boost to 15psi, and if you're gonna replace the exhaust, fit a downpipe at the same time!
That will definately see a few more horses and keep you happy for a while!

[BLOODUK]

lol i bet your both wrong.....



I bet you a fiver its this

http://www.imoc.co.uk/forums/kb.php?mode=article&k=23

[GeoffC320]

I had the exact same experience the other week after washing my engine bay. I had unknowingly got some water in the spark plug tunnel of No.4 cylinder and when the pesky BMW that had been holding me up finally moved aside, I put my foot down only to find..chug chug chug .

When I pulled the plug lead it was literally full to the brim with water, eventually got it all out but be warned...any degradation of the ignition components will eventually lead to this sort of scenario. If you're new to the car and don't know what's been replaced I'd treat it to new plugs/leads/dizzy cap & rotor arm.

You will find the car runs quite OK when not trying to boost...this is a strong pointer to ignition components past their best.

HTH

[BLOODUK]

You will find the car runs quite OK when not trying to boost...this is a strong pointer to ignition components past their best.

HTH

Not always, retarded timing can do exactly the same thing believe me
i experienced it

[GeoffC320]

Ideally check components *and* the timing then. But to be fair, the turbo is well known for going through dizzy caps in particular in no time, so definitely the 1st port of call IMO.

Never a bad thing to have known good components on there either, even if the root cause may be something else - you'll need to change them sooner or later anyway!

[hicks]

thanks for the advice guys. im off on tuesday so will investigate exhaust and oil leaks. change dizzy and plugs and check timing

hopefully will once aall sorted will get some poke behind it.

ill let you know how i get on

kind regards

alex.

[hicks]

just a little update on my progress. inspected dizzy cap and rotor arm and definetely need a new set so got them on order along with a set of plugs. also ordered new cam cover gasket which i haave a feeling my oil leak.

exhaust was interesting. took off heat sheild to discover the nuts from the downpipe to turbo werent even close to being tight. infact one is totally missing and the other two are loose rattling around on the studs. tightened the top 2 which has already made a big difference but could get studs to line up and start on the other 2 so will get some new studs/nuts take downpipe away from turbo and put fresh studs on then slide downpipe back on. sounds easy put its not



heres a pic of it once the heat sheild was removed. sorry for the poor quality pic but was taken with my phone with zoom on.

also found the lambda sensor wire had snapped of the connecter so have connected it back on but cant have been helping out much.

cheers

alex.

[BLOODUK]

ouch not so good then eh

Glad your getting it all sorted

[splashnatz]

hmmmm ... didin't blood make a bet for a fiver on this ?

glad you're getting it sorted.

[hicks]

more progress made. while waiting for the engine to cool down so i could have a go the exhaust i changed the dizzy cap rotor arm and plugs. next i took of the blitz airfilter and cleaned it with carb cleaner. it was extremely crapped up is now looking in much better health. see pic below.



then i took the intercooler pipes off to gain access to the turbo which in turn got sprayed inside and out and flushed any oil out.

after 2-3hours pratting about trying to sort exhaust out i chucked the towl in. has anyone got a guide on how to get the downpipe off at all? im thinking the best plan is to buy a downpipe/decat pipe and get an exhaust specialist to fit it for me. does anyone know or used anywhere in the derbyshire/south yorkshire area that have fitted a downpipe to there car and if so how much and how long did it take em?

by the way took it for a spin (went out at 7:30, got back home at around 11:30) and the car now goes like stink so blood owes someone a fiver

im not having to worry about vectras anymore. my main problem now is trying to figure out if they were trying or not lifes a b1tch init.

thanks for all the help guys

im now officially unfrustrated.