My 1985 gsl-se is still slow, and here is what i've done:

Fuel filter
Air filter
spark plugs
spark plug wires
full exhaust
removed air pump
removed air conditioning
removed power steering
wired the 6th ports open

the car only finishes at about 80mph on the 1/4 mile.

the list of things to do:

dual alternator pulley
replace all the fluids again
get a brand new distributor cap and rotor (i know this is a HUGE problem, probably my main problem).

ALSO my water temp sensor doesnt work. I soldered the wires back together at the bottom of the radiator housing (the battery acid had leaked through. Got a new battery, but the temp sensor still doesnt work). Does the wires matter? maybe i soldered them the wrong way (maybe i did the + to -, does it matter?)

Any more ideas for tuning? I realize there are "modifications" i can do to get the car more HP, but i dont want more HP, i want my car to perform the way it should, (it should already have LOTS of HP!)

~Geoff

 

You will notice no difference with the RB pulley.

 

The water temp sensor isnt on the radiator. Its on the block under the oil filter. It looks like a mini spark plug or something with one wire that goes to it with a female bullet connector.

~T.J.

 

4.44 rear end.

 

80 mph?? Are you sure about that?

If that's the case you must have something seriously wrong with your car, you should be running much better than that. Don't even think about more mods, you need to find the problem, it must be a big one! It might not be something really expensive or anything, but man it's gotta be severely inhibiting your engine. That's just too slow a mph unless you got 800 pounds of subs or are running at crazy high elevation.

Can you post a time slip?

How slow is your car, I bet you're not able to hit much of a top speed either?

 

80 mph..lol thats like....18 secs?

Its got to be wrong ..

 

What about a compression check? It might be a good idea!

Could you have some kind of major fuel supply issue? Maybe your injectors are clogged or something (I know nothing about EFI lol)?

There's gotta be something weird going on.

 

Wiring the 5th and 6th ports open might be partly responsible - it takes away a bit of low-end torque, so you may not be snapping off the line as fast as you would if they were functioning as Mazda engineers intended. Try hooking them back up and adding racing sleeves. Working on the dizzy should make best use of those new wires and hopefully alleviate the rest of the problem

If your fluids need changing, the coolant could be encrusting your sensor with sludge. Not to do with speed, but something else you mentioned.

In addition, changing all oils wouldn't hurt. If the tranny is having to whip through old oil it might be causing a parasitic power loss, however minute, but certainly doing those pricey tranny bearings no good.

 

For a temporary fix.......open up your distributor, and file off the corrosion on the contact points. You'd be surprised on how corroded they can get, and how much better your car will perform once you clean them off.

 

Yeah, I did that to my car about twice before I finally bought a new cap and rotor.

~T.J.

 

you should be flying by now, check compression

 

a bit of corrosion comes off using a pink eraser. More serious greening comes off with light filing with an emery board.

 

1) that is what this thread is about, tuning my car, not modding it.

2) i dont know how to compression check, and any tutorial i've read says "steps to checking compression. 1) get a compression checker 2) check compression" i need a little more info than that.

3) I had my cooling system flushed, they did a shitty job, and my car started running a bit hot. i replaced the thermostat myself (which they CHARGED me for), but now the temp sensor doesnt work. I know it isnt overheating, so that should be fine.

4) the 5th and 6th ports are wired open because they dont work. The exhaust actuation system is incredibly unreliable, no matter what you think its not as good as you think it is, but mine didnt work altogether. It doesnt matter when i'm launching at 4-5k rpm anyways.

I was hoping for someone to tell me what i could be overlooking. Injectors, yes thats a very good possibility. I know nothing about injectors. How do i clean them?

I will replace the cap and rotor as soon as i have money. I KNOW thats a huge thing, they were barely giving any signla to the plugs due to excessive corosion (at close examination i'm amazed they WERE getting any spark at all).

So apart from those two things, what could the problem be? Do i need a new fuel pump?

 

Yeah Manntis, thats what I used. An emery board that is .

Hey Geoff, just go get some N20 . Haha, j/k of course man .

~T.J.

 

You could try a bottle of fuel injection cleaner. Its a gas addative thats supposed to clean them as theyre used. Other than that, you would have to take them out and send them somewhere to be cleaned, flow checked, balaced, whatever.

~T.J.

PS - Manntis, do your 5th and 6h ports work on on your car with the RB exhaust?

 

That gas additive stuff is a waste of money.

 

Is there any other cheap alternative, felix wankel?

 

Not if you want to get them truly clean.

I think RC charges about $25 each to clean injectors.

 

Oh well thats not too bad at all!!

..... Whats RC?

heheheh

~Geoff

 

http://www.rceng.com/service.htm

 

Yes, my ports work fiiiine with the RB exhaust. Ask Moses, he's had a few spins in my car

Geoff, your car, your decision of course but you might want to try cleaning your ports. When I was having idle problems a few months ago it turned out my ports were sticking and just needed to be taken out, cleaned (including where they sit in the housings) and replaced. Problem solved and Pam is as fast as ever.

Before you say 'I'm not having an idle problem' consider: the reason I was getting a rough idle is the ports were stuck in such a way as to be giving the engine too much air and confusing the primitive ECU. It might be that with your ports wired to a certain position the computer is having trouble calculating the right fuel/air mix and thus bogging your car down. It's pure conjecture, but it does seem to match the data.

 

This would make sense as since recent tinkering the car DOES idle like ****, although it is much faster than it was before (when it only had low end). I did a ton of things at once tho, so i figured they were all contributing.

I should probably buy new gaskets when i do that , huh.

Cool, new project!

 

i thought your were going to go turbo? what happened?

 

He is saving to ship his car to Australia

 

depends which one you are talking about . Theres one below the thermostat housing... Oopps or maybe there isnt on a SE. I beleive that 1's only purpose is to turn the choke off. But the one for the guage is below the oil filter...