Power losses
 

There have been some heated dicussion lately about power what it should be and what could be causing the drop. I dyno my 8 on a fairly regular basis and have noticed the power droping off lately to the tune of 8 to 10 at the wheels. I was growing iritated with the car and was thinking about trading it in.
Upon dicussions with Charlie @ Mazcare (plug) I had the P flash done along with the new plugs. While at the dealer they noticed my battery had 0 cold cranking amps. I have no aftermarket stereo nor do I leave the radio on with out the car running. This loss of juice can lead to a loss of power if the coil packs and sensors are not recieving enough juice. The dealer replaced the battery with the upgraded 750 CCA unit as well. When I picked the car up the power had returned and I fell in love all over again.

I was following the progress today from our friend in the shop. He called me when he got your car in and told me what a dog it was and asked when the plugs were last done. I told him I gave you a set back in March. He's going to bring them to me next week for a look over because we think there might be something to this power loss and the plugs. Glad to hear it's awake again. Aint life grand when you got plenty of power?

Can't wait to see how she does at dynolab this time around!!!!!

The plugs that he is bringing you were installed brand new the afternoon after the dyno day.

How many miles on your car?

18800

i find it hard to believe that you could start and drive your car but it didn't have enough juice? that's some weird stuff there.

Especially since we have current-sensing generators (instead of traditional regulated alternators) making it impossible for the voltage to be too low when the engine is running at or above spec RPM (unless you burn it up).

The battery only acts as ballast when the car is running. It has no effect on performance.

go figue? with all the testimonials(sic) something sure is going on. maybe there is something going on with the plugs/carbon build up that brian from racing beat said they are investigating.
He said they are noticing a power loss with the iridium plugs after they are ran for a while. Which comes 1st the carbon build up, plugs not lasting, or possible the battery(thats weird) who knows right now! then the oil injection pump issue lets dont forget that! note of interest i just recently did 2 things 1 changed oil to 5w--30 mobil 1 which made the engine a LOT quiter and smoother with no noticeable power lost and 2---ran some techron through (gas tank addictive) which sure helped smooth my idle out.
olddragger

Saw the plugs that came out of J's engine yesterday and they looked fine. The voltage thing could easily have been a WDS issue or the way the results were read. One common denominator w/Nabil, and J is that a new battery was installed which would mean that the memory was erased and relearned when the new battery was installed. Charles Hill experienced something similar recently if I recall correctly. Last I heard he was running consistently well.

I,ve not had to do any kind of relearn (batt. disconnect/reconnect) with my sled and it just seems to learn to make more power all by itself!

Charlie, we've all come to a head that you are doing something to your car that you aren't letting us know about. Come on... Spit it out. There is a secret there somewhere and we aren't going to rest until we find out. Do you have a special blend of Mazcare Juice that you feed it or something?

I tried Tree Sap, but that didn't work for me.... :)

There is one more simularity between my account and Nabil's and that is the decarbinization done on the engine. My post about the battery was mainly ment for those in dought to have theres checked. I did not know the 8 used some new altenator that sounds more like a generator, but on every other car if the battery gets to low all hell brakes loose with the electrical system.

Ok charlie rub it in! We all know you have that tandy 80 motec system hardwired into you xm radio. (or do you have sirrus?) Just hit that particular station and that satielite beams down a new temporay map to lean out your a/f's to 13.5 for the entire power band. You are NOT fooling us. I think you may just pour some of Boo's urine in your gas tank! Look how fast he is!
Oh yea we also know you put nitrogen in your tires!
Good point on the battery observation but question is why should the car have to unlearn anything? and also when they reflashed the car the memory should have been zapped then. Correct?
I read in another thread that this engine will probably be very prone to carbon buildup almost like a 2 cycle one.
Like i have said since january 2004 the pcm is going to be the hold up on this car. Someone needsto see how the french bypassed the chip!
olddragger

Well OD, you are getting close to figuring it out! I am gonna tell you the big secret.................it's not nitrogen, it's helium. I am surprised that nobody noticed in the videos Nabil shot that none of the tires actually touched the track. The results being less rolling resistance which frees up more power. I would love to get MM's opinion on that (not really, I just couldn't resist the jab).
Fact is I was running 100% Mazcare compressed air @34psi starting pressure and it felt pretty good all day.

Believe me, as we figure out more the news will be passed down. I have always shared info that worked for us as well as what did not so that we all benefit.
I am buying the replacement for the WDS within the next few months and I am stoked about it. I was poised to buy a used WDS several months ago and was told not to as it will be decommisioned within the year. Can't wait to have my very own!

Lego, sorry to be on the tail end of sending my condolences. All of us are very glad that you are OK and sorry that you had some bad luck. Please let me know if there is anything I can help you with to get you back on the road any sooner. FYI,
Mazmart has several 8's that are being parted out just in case.

Thanks for the concern. I appreciate it. I can't tell you how much of a loss I am without the 8, but I'm learning to deal with it. They are starting on the car tomorrow so I'm hoping it'll only be a couple or 3 weeks. I'm going on a weeklong cruise the last week of June, so hopefully I'll come back to my 8!

You are a cruisin' fool.....is this not the third or four cruise this year?? Getting some special deal you care to pass on?

It's our second. A really good family friend of ours is a travel agent specializing in cruises. If you want, I can pass along his information to anyone. Let him know I sent you and he'll treat you right.

thanks for the response Charlie. We have always known you share your secrets so does that mean you will be mailing out some of Boo's p---er I mean urine?
Well if you dont have your car --then take a cruise---no wonder i love this bunch of guys!
I may have a few surprises next time we met up!
Oh yea screens and springs ordered sunday.
Now I have to figue out how to get the P flash, new battery,starter and plugs from the dealer. I dont think donuts will be enough this time. I may have to run the car a little with a wire off a sparkplug. Hmmmm maybe not.
olddragger