knock sensor? cut in power

[TRD_Sloara]

Had the night off work, so I decided to take the slowara out to the track to see how the new injen intake would improve things. Result? Power cut, mid-15s, almost a full second slower than stock intake. I noticed that it would randomly lose power, then abruptly get it back. I was initially running without the driver headlight assembly, is it possible that the open connector was arcing to the fender, causing th battery to lose power? Or is the knock sensor cutting fuel and timing since the intake makes the blower significantly louder, despite the boost level remaining at a stock 4 lbs? The CEL has not come in, coolant temp level has been normal.

[TRD_Sloara]

Putting the headlight back in didn't help at all. I iced the intake and supercharger housing to cool temps all night, since it heatsoaked last time when it was hot out.

[ThurzNite]

I apologize I can't help you. I'm really shocked at the mid 15s though, ouch! Any reason you're not going back to stock intake and wanna stick with the injen?

Dr J

[Gregtrd]

Putting the headlight back in didn't help at all. I iced the intake and supercharger housing to cool temps all night, since it heatsoaked last time when it was hot out.

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Where are you located? When you turn the key does the cel go on then after the car starts does it turn off?

[TRD_Sloara]

I actually stopped by O'Reilly's this morning to scan the computer, it has zero stored codes; the CEL never came on, which is extremely interesting considering the car was pulling so much timing that a stock 4.0 Explorer was on my door through second gear :S Basically what happens, is the car DOGS OUT in first and into second gear, and then pulls like it should in third and fourth, so I'm running Geo Metro 60 ft times with 14 second trap speeds. The car wouldn't even spin the tires at the launch if I tried. Yet after I left the track it turned my cooler over rolling into WOT in first gear on the onramp. It has never acted up at all on the road, even today, yet at the track last night it was as if I was going 1/2 throttle for the first two gears.

[TRD_Sloara]

Any reason you're not going back to stock intake and wanna stick with the injen?

Honestly, I don't think it's from the intake itself, but the only thing I can think of is that since the scream of the blower is louder than the engine itself now with the intake, it is fooling the knock sensor into thinking it is hearing mad knocking. I never heard detonation at all, just felt an abrupt loss of power that was similar to when my old Honda really needed a tune up and would misfire, only for prolonged periods of time now.

Is the blower going to be louder because I am running a decent intake and stock exhaust? Would I be correct to assume it is slightly increasing boost?

[TRD_Sloara]

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Where are you located? When you turn the key does the cel go on then after the car starts does it turn off?

In Wisconsin, inland, the temperature was 88 and humid last night. The car is running the 49 state exhaust/emission setup, in case you're wondering if it has the California stuff. Yes the CEL turns on just like everything else when I first turn the ignition on. The CEL is operable, but the ECU has no stored codes.

[Gregtrd]

Do you have boost gauge?
I'm going to pm you because it'll take to long thru posting.

[Gregtrd]

Your set up is probably running on the vsv with the ebc.

[TRD_Sloara]

Your set up is probably running on the vsv with the ebc.

Could you explain this please?

Now that I think of it, I really doubt that the car is refusing to boost as the cause of my problem last night. My last run was actually significantly slower than a stock V6 should run, TBH. I will take a video of the car at WOT for the sound of the supercharger. It would seem to be the most logical reason for this, although that would probably be the first occurrence of stock + SRI causing the knock sensor to wig out, without excessive heat being the cause (the car was still slow on the very first run, and even after I iced it down to the point the intake pipe was cool, and not just relatively cool, compared to a couple weeks ago with the stock intake, which resulted in the first run being much more powerful/fast than the following runs, but first gear still being MUCH more torquey on every run).

[trd4life]

list of things you should do right off the bat

1) Insta boost mod

2) jims fuel mod

3) safc2

4) NGK bkr7eix-11 plugs gapped at .029

Is the car auto or 5 speed?

[trd4life]

if the car is auto you should be at a 14.9-15.1 1/4 mile if your 5 speed 14.5-14.7 at stock boost. Another problem you may be having is your octane. Are you running 93? Some of the 4psi setups run like crap with 91 octane.

[TRD_Sloara]

I've only run ninety three octane in the solara, its a 5 speed. At least I know the engine is healthy, since it ran a 14.8 with a horrible 2.5 60 ft. time before she started to heatsoak. I will definitely heed the advice in this thread

[1gSE]

alcohol/water injection....the cure to hot blowers

:edit: What does your AFR look like? I had something similar shortly after I put the sc on. I was really lean at a lower rpm then went rich....turned out to be a crappy tune that I did. Actually, can you give us a complete mod list?

[TRD_Sloara]

It's a "TRD" Solara, besides the dealer installed supercharger and TRD muffler the only mod thus far has been the Injen intake, which I wouldn't have put in if I knew the Jim's fuel mod was the first thing I should do period; I assumed that was part of the fuel system requirements to raise boost past 4 lbs.

The car has gotten crappy gas mileage since the intake install, would that be improved with the Jim's fuel mod, or is the only way to really improve it to open the exhaust and get it tuned?