EfiniX
Well-known member
Odd thing, this morning. But first, a bit of backstory. Whenever my car is cold, it typically starts fine. Turns over for a second or two, then fires right up. Only 2 or 3 times have I had to crank it a few times when cold to get it to start. More often, I need to crank it for a while if I start it when it's warmed up, but only if I've let it sit for a short time (maybe 10 minutes or so). If it sits longer, again, it fires right up. And it's not every time, just here and there.
This morning I drove to get coffee and do a little work. Car started cold OK. I let it warm up, as I do, and drove a short distance. Worked for maybe 25 minutes. My girlfriend sent me a message and asked me to bring her back a coffee. She likes this other place close by, so I drove over there. Car was still warm, but started right up. I got to the other coffee shop, grabbed her a coffee, then went back to my car. Crank crank crank and nothing.
Now full disclosure: I've know that my Odyssey 925 battery is on it's way out. 7+ years old and just last weak, I noticed it was at 11.5v while sitting, and dropped to 7.8v while cranking. So I'm sitting there in the parking lot and it's cranking, but it's not cranking in a way that leads me to believe it's got enough juice to start. So I get a jump. With the cables hooked up, it's cranking strong, but still not starting. It took me about 2 minutes to get the engine to catch.
Once it did, everything was fine. The exhaust smelled rich for a few seconds, but by the time the WB was warmed up and showing AFR, I was at 14.4:1. Car drove home like nothing happened. In fact, the car has been running like a dream since the last bit of tuning I did.
My fuel system consists of a Walbro 255 and 950cc FIC injectors. The injectors were cleaned and flow-matched by FIC when I put in the new motor last year, so they only have maybe 15,000mi on them. I've got no surge and no stalling, and when the car is idling, it sits like a rock at 950rpms. It runs great and boosts 22psi without any knock. I mean for all intents and purposes, it's doing great.
The one outlier is this: my fuel pump hanger assembly is bent from the PO and leaks a bit. Evan (EHMotorsports) and i tried to clean it up and get it to sit straight (we also rewired the pump while we were at it), but our efforts proved fruitless. I do have another hanger from Paul (thedsmguy) sitting literally to my left, but I haven't gotten around to cleaning it.
I've read that with the 255 pump, it's not uncommon to have to crank a bit more. I'm wondering if having a leaking hanger might exacerbate this under certain conditions. I'm also wondering if cranking the motor with a nearly-dead battery might have flooded it and caused me to need to crank it forever to get it to go.
One last thing I would add. I know this doesn't mean I'm safe, but I have had the caps and most of the terminals on my ECU replaced.
Thoughts? I mean I might put the new battery in and just go back to the old behavior, but I'm still wondering if that hanger really could be the cause of this, or if this is just par for the course.
This morning I drove to get coffee and do a little work. Car started cold OK. I let it warm up, as I do, and drove a short distance. Worked for maybe 25 minutes. My girlfriend sent me a message and asked me to bring her back a coffee. She likes this other place close by, so I drove over there. Car was still warm, but started right up. I got to the other coffee shop, grabbed her a coffee, then went back to my car. Crank crank crank and nothing.
Now full disclosure: I've know that my Odyssey 925 battery is on it's way out. 7+ years old and just last weak, I noticed it was at 11.5v while sitting, and dropped to 7.8v while cranking. So I'm sitting there in the parking lot and it's cranking, but it's not cranking in a way that leads me to believe it's got enough juice to start. So I get a jump. With the cables hooked up, it's cranking strong, but still not starting. It took me about 2 minutes to get the engine to catch.
Once it did, everything was fine. The exhaust smelled rich for a few seconds, but by the time the WB was warmed up and showing AFR, I was at 14.4:1. Car drove home like nothing happened. In fact, the car has been running like a dream since the last bit of tuning I did.
My fuel system consists of a Walbro 255 and 950cc FIC injectors. The injectors were cleaned and flow-matched by FIC when I put in the new motor last year, so they only have maybe 15,000mi on them. I've got no surge and no stalling, and when the car is idling, it sits like a rock at 950rpms. It runs great and boosts 22psi without any knock. I mean for all intents and purposes, it's doing great.
The one outlier is this: my fuel pump hanger assembly is bent from the PO and leaks a bit. Evan (EHMotorsports) and i tried to clean it up and get it to sit straight (we also rewired the pump while we were at it), but our efforts proved fruitless. I do have another hanger from Paul (thedsmguy) sitting literally to my left, but I haven't gotten around to cleaning it.
I've read that with the 255 pump, it's not uncommon to have to crank a bit more. I'm wondering if having a leaking hanger might exacerbate this under certain conditions. I'm also wondering if cranking the motor with a nearly-dead battery might have flooded it and caused me to need to crank it forever to get it to go.
One last thing I would add. I know this doesn't mean I'm safe, but I have had the caps and most of the terminals on my ECU replaced.
Thoughts? I mean I might put the new battery in and just go back to the old behavior, but I'm still wondering if that hanger really could be the cause of this, or if this is just par for the course.