Hello,
About a year ago i converted from a carb to a TPI system off an 87 T/A. I had a guy custom program an ECM prom for my 350 with 19lb injectors. (supposedly the T/A was a 350... judging by the injectors i would guess a 305...) Anyway, Right of the bat my idle would bounce up and down by about 500 RPM. I went through the article by Vador on setting the minimum air and TPS adjustment to no avail. After some frustration, i came up with the solution to plug in a dummy TPS set it to .54V and adjust the idle screw with the engine running and the IAT plugged in. After 2 or three turns of the screw my idle smoothed out. Now it seems i've traded one problem for another because at startup, the engine jumps up to 2000RPM and slowly settles to 1000RPM after closed loop dropping to around 850. So i can't just start it and go without slamming the tranny, i have to wait for the RPM to come down, select Reverse, go to neutral... wait for the RPM to come down and finally shift to Drive. So i was thinking it was a vacuum leak. I found and plugged a couple of leaks... still no change.
The other problem is pinging under WOT when the engine reaches about 2500 to 3000RPM. I can make it go away by retarding the timing, but, looking at it with a timing light, it will be all the way off the scale and it is a struggle to keep the engine running. Also my MPG will take a big hit from the retarded timing. I can bring the timing up to about 0, get decent mileage but pinging at WOT. If i advance it to the factory 6 Deg, the engine will ping like crazy.
I bought an autometer Air/fuel guage thinking that i might be leaning out at WOT. Watching this meter, i will get about 2 bars into rich on WOT. I don't know if this is enough or not. When idling, this guage will indicate a rythmic lean that seems to coinside with the wandering idle. It will go off the scale lean and the RPM will drop, Then stoich and the RPM will rise very quickly up and down. Cruising around, the mixture is very intermintant jumping of the guage to stoich, hold at stoich for a while and drop off intermintantly. I would expect it to change constantly... But that much? Do you think this is normal?
Im wondering if my programmer programmed my injector constant to 22 while im running 19lb injectors. I have an ALDL cable and can monitor some of the functions of my ECM. Unfortunatly, it seems like that isn't one of the things you can check using the serial connection.
Sorry for the long post, i wanted to give you as much info as possible and insight into the troubleshooting i have already conducted. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks in Advance

 

Just wanted to say first that I live in caldwell and I'm glad to see some more idaho people here on the boards and you might want to check out the cascade crew. also any pics of your car?

the autometer gauge won't be of a whole lot of help if your using a narrow band O2. they are only accurate from something like 14.0-15.5 or something small like that at least. if your in that range fine outside of that though and the thing will read full lean or full rich. you really would be best to see if you can borrow or if you have the money buy a wideband o2 and gauge. At idle they are even less accurate as they start to cool down and generally will read way off. either way though it is normal to watch the thing bounce around a little though as the ecu is adjusting the fuel mixture.
when adjusting the timing disconnecting EIST I believe it is called correct? (sorry I'm a rx7 guy at heart so don't remember the name).
Do you know what your vacuum is during idle and cruising? could still be some slight leaks somewhere. little can of carb cleaner works wonders for that.
Have you read the plugs at all?
might also want to check the EGR valve and make sure it's not gunked up as that can cause some weird idling and cruise conditions.

 

Just posted some pics in VBgarage. Cascade Crew? So, can i run my TPI system with a wideband O2? Wouldn't that also lead to a more accurate mixture from the ECM? Heres another peice to the puzzle, when my fan kicks on, the O2 signal is steady and the engine smooths out Lately, the engine feels like a cylinder isn't 100% but only at idle. You can feel it in the seat of your pants like a fouled spark plug. But only at idle, as soon as i give it any gas at all, it goes away....
I read the spark plugs and they seem to indicate a rich condition. I think i found an exhaust leak between the manifold and exhaust pipe. i tried tightening the bolts, but it's still there. I wonder if they make a gasket for this point...
This car deoesn't have an EGR valve, i used a block off plate.
Thanks again!

 

don't believe you would be able to run the ecu with the wideband as the wideband is a 0-5v signal and a narrow band is 0-1v. you can always tap a whole in your exhaust though and put an extra bung for wideband support and then put a screw in if you don't want to leave the wideband hooked up.
cascade crew https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/paci...rthwest-region or http://www.cascadecrew.org

at work will post more later

 

ok I gotta ask what year is that civic on your vbgarage? is it the 1.2 or the 1.5? and where the heck is 2t cause that isn't boise?

just curious when was the last time you have done a full tune up? and have you run for codes?

 

Lol, i don't know, that was my neighbors beater car he used to drive around. 2T is Twin Falls, I register my cars there to avoid sniff tests. What do you mean by tune up exactally? Ive got an MSD distributer, MSD 6A, MSD helicoil wires, MSD coil, Bosch platinum 4+ plugs. MSD inline Fuel pump. All with only about 20,000 miles on them. I must confess that the injectors are old and i don't really have a history on them THey are the old Rochester ball type injectors... Am i missing anything?

Thanks
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Also, i pulled all of the plugs and found that the Driver side plugs have some build up on them and are dark in color while the plugs on the right are clean and tan in color with a small spot of white here and there