cerealkeller

I wanted to share an experience I've been having, hoping somebody might be able to explain it.
Lately, just out of the blue, I started getting this loud ticking sound coming from under the hood. I took the car for a ride and under full boost at around 6500 RPMS it started back firing. I call it that because I don't know what else to call it. It was shooting flames out of the exhaust. Three or four loud pops and of course I'd let off the throttle. This is not normal behavior. I checked my exhaust for leaks and tightened my tubular manifold and turbo flange. That wasn't the source of the tick.
So I dumped a bottle of Seafoam into my crank case and drove it gently for around 100 miles. It didn't knock or perform unusually at low RPM. So I did an oil and filter change. The oil was in rough shape, much worse than I'm used to seeing at 2K miles. There was some metal debris in it, but not so much that it worried me. I just installed a Greddy magnetic oil plug, so hopefully that will grab some of the ferrous sludge. Anyway, after the oil change I had hoped the tick would disappear. But it didn't. So I went for a ride to see I could determine wtf was going on...I also pulled the spark plugs and checked those previously, they looked ok. A bit of carbon build up, but not clearly fowled or damaged. So during the ride I went WOT and got the backfires again.
But immediately after that I noticed the tick was gone. I did several WOT pulls to redline to confirm everything was ok. It seems to be running alright now. So WTF??? What the hell happened here?

MODS:
EFR 7163
CBRD Tubular Manifold, Downpipe, 3" Intake, Intercooler and tune
ID 1000s, DW 65c
Pierburg EBC
Ultimate Racing Test Pipe and Catback
LICP, UICP

I think that's it, I feel like I forgot somethings. Tired...

HatrixMouse

iTrader: (1)

Gonna have to say plugs/wires. Had a friend experience that same exact problem.


Check your plugs. Check the gap. Re-check your plugs. Re-check your gap.
(This all assumes your tune is correct and stable.)

shekaar

iTrader: (3)

Did you ask Chad? How long ago was the RBX kit installed and tuned? He's usually very good about taking a look if something doesn't seem right to you.

cerealkeller

Kit was installed a couple months ago. Seems to have cleared up. It's been running great since the oil change. I'm still gonna get a new set of plugs.
I had the thought that maybe my downpipe was cooking my oil pan, so I'm gonna try putting some of that gold reflective tape on it and get a set of fog light deletes to improve air flow to my oil cooler. Whether or not it makes much difference, I want those either way.
I haven't talked to Chad, I was going to if I couldn't track down the problem.
I also had the thought that maybe the problem I was having with the missifires may have been because I was running WOT before the engine was fully up to temp. So I've been more cautious about waiting for temps to stabilize before doing any WOT pulls.
I really want to get my manifold and downpipe coated. I'm kicking myself in the *** for being in a rush to get it installed when I knew I should have sent the manifold for coating at least. Fortunately winter isn't far off and temps won't be an issue until next summer. I have some time on my hands for now. I did see these thermal socks things you can install with your header in place, I might check those out.
I was checking under the hood just a few minutes ago and the far right manifold pipe is cooking my UICP at the elbow, raising intake temps. I think I'm also gonna get some thermal wrapping for a few of the items under the hood and put some of that gold reflective tape on the bottom of hood scoop and either open up the port on the heat shield or remove it entirely to improve air flow to the turbo and exhaust. And put some on my UICP as well and maybe the intake heat shield.