are the plug wires also installed correctly?

 

My gues is the Balance Shafts 180 out man

 

Your mechanic needs to take your car back

 

I had the same problem and my car ran exactly like you described.

 

ok, flipped the sensor 180deg. Throttle response improved, it runs better. Same problem still exists though, the car has a VERY lean AFR reading (max out my aem wideband in the lean direction around 16 or 17) when it begins to sputter at around 10psi. I don't want to drive it with that reading. Although, the first run after I started it back up and ran it, it boosted normally and ran well. Then after I slowed back down and did another 3rd gear pull it went back to doing the sputter and ran very lean. Balance shafts... hmm, I would I go about seeing if they were 180deg out? I don't want to take it back to that mechanic, i'm going to find someone with more experience w/ dsm. More advice..

And, i'll check the plug wires. Would it even run with them in the wrong position?

 

So it ran well once and then the next pull it didn't? Have you logged your coolant temp? The sensor might be borked and the car will think it's in warmup mode all the time.

 

Quit boosting the car until you figure out the problem.

 

Check your vacuum line to your fuel pressure regulator. Also check your MAP sensor. If the problem only shows up when you boost then something isn't responding properly to the increased boost. The two most obvious would be fuel pressure or airflow measurement (assuming you are running speed density with your AEM).

-Paul

 

mike- Yes, i stopped boosting. Ofcourse. Hell, i've stopped driving it.

The vacuum line line to the fuel pressure regulator is on there. The sensor that the aem scans to get engine temps, is that the same one that is referred to your gauge cluster on the dash, or a different sensor? I'll check my AEM and see if I'm getting any weird readings/ any readings at all. I have to get my macbook set up to run windows via bootcamp. Might be a day or so. I notice that it started idling very high, too. Around 2k, maybe this all has to do with the car thinking it is cold. Why would my fuel mixture be very lean if it thought it was cold, it would be injecting more fuel, thus, making it richer. It's all weird..

 

How did you go about fixing it?

 

I have new plugs in the car as well. What would be the proper gap for my setup or would it even change from stock? Could this be a part of the problem? I'm also going to do a compression check.

 

morning bump.. compression test checked out and gapped plugs to .023 they were at over .040! My mechanic...

 

^^

 

How can the balance shafts be out of phase if they were never touched in the rebuild? I know one is near the oil pump and then there is one deeper in the engine. Hmm. I did ask my mechanic and he said there's no way. He's been wrong before so I'm not sure.

 

You would need to take it all back apart and pull the crank sprocket the balance shaft belt sits behind there. Did he change the balance shaft belt at the same time as the timing belt change?