Car acted like limp mode after spin
 

Hi,

Just had our 87 NA Sport that has been mildly modded for F Prepared autox out for the first time. We got in two decent runs before trouble hit. Took a fun spin on the last corner of the second run. Car seemed fine after that, but when trying to stage for our second round the car had no power, surged up and down and tried to stall every time we tried to let out the clutch.

This car has had rats nest removal, racing beat roadrace header, presilencer, then out exhaust, hi flow cone intake, injectors cleaned and flow tested, A/C removal, PS removal and that is about it for an real performance mods.

Anyway back to the problem, oil pressure was sitting at about 30 psi at idle, 70-75 psi under throttle, water temp in mid range, everything else seemed ok.

Once the car sat for about 30 minutes it started on first crank and drove up onto the trailer with no effort at all.

Does this car have a limp mode and if so any ideas what might have triggered it or where I should start looking at least?

If it doesn't have a limp mode the any other suggestions on where to start looking?

Thanks,
Bill Schnardthorst

AFAIK, limp mode only afflicts an S5, and usually has to do with the electric OMP. Based on your discription, it might be heatsoak. The engine is allowed to sit while quite hot, heating up the intake manifold. The intake air temp sensor reads sky high, and the computer compensates by leaning out the mixture. Let it cool down and everything is fine.

We found the problem, or rather two problems. The TPS connector was not fully snapped shut, from where I had adjusted it the day before. And the two nuts that hold the intake hose to the throttle body had also lossened up. Guess I missed torquing those when putting everything back to gether after removing the rats nest this winter. Either that or it was my teeth chattering in the unheated garage and not the torque wrench that clicked. Anyway, it is back to purring like a kitten even when well warmed up.

I guess little issues like this should be expected since it is hard to find a place to test drive a prepared car. Read that there is no place to test in the St. Louis area that we have been able to find.

All's well that ends well. Next stop Walnut Ridge in two weeks. Then KC the next week.