Once again, I am running low on gas. Although this is nothing new for me, the car has been performing pretty shitty lately. Since the last little bit of gas in the car... probably has a little bit of water in it, I just thought oh well it must be because of the crappy gas. Since the car performed much better since i gave her a few gallons last week.

Anyways, I had to go register for school today, and I was about to be late [typical me ]. So I hustled over there. I did floor her to get by some traffic [construction in town, makes it difficult to get through, so you gotta push your car sometimes], before the engine had warmed up. She just totally took off. I mean threw me in my seat and there was some definite tire noise. Thought maybe I had gotten rid of the bad gas.. and was pretty happy about that. Then, getting closer to the school, I floored it pulling into the parking lot, sure enough the car just bogs, hesitates, and doesn't really accelerate much at all.

I tested this again, after the car had cooled down. Same road, same conditions, same engine running time [maybe a few seconds difference], floored it, same thing happened. Threw me in my seat, tire noise, and great power. Drive around for another minute, same road, same conditions, except now the engine is up to temp, floor it, engine bogs, hesitates and really doesn't want to move the car.

After being such a genius as I am [], I remember reading that current flows faster/more efficient when cold. So I inspect all my grounds. While checking my main block ground, I noticed part of the engine harness had been chewed up leading to the ICM [for clarification, this part of the harness ONLY goes to the ICM, so nothing else was effected by this]. The wires are all still there... like enough, but maybe 20% copper remains. Which is enough to fire the ignition, but not enough current flow to really give the ignition it'* full power. [also remember, that current must flow as easily out {ground} as it does in, otherwise current loss will occur].

Although I may have figured out my own problem, I need to figure out how to fix it. Obviously replacing the entire wire from connector to block ground won't work, since the connector is kinda sealed off and such. And just cutting and replacing won't do it for me, because I want to replace the affected grounds with 12ga wire. And just cutting the 16ga [i'm pretty sure stock is 16ga, if not it'* 14] an inch or so from the ICM connector then soldering on the 12ga wouldn't be the most efficient or the way I really want to do it, but I don't see any other way. Any ideas?

Also, the brush I used to clean my heads [wire brush attached to power drill], was also used to clean the contact surfaces on both the ICM bracket, and the back metal on the ICM. Remember, the ICM also is grounded through that too. So you gotta keep that clean too for optimum performance .

Oh yes, btw the car just rolled 50mi today. So far, so good.

Your electrical theory doesn't hold water. Electricity may flow better when colder, but really only in superconductors. It won't affect performance of your car based on temperature.

A clogged catalytic converter can cause your symptoms, as well as anything that changes between open loop or closed loop mode of your ECM.

Sounds like my car....Runs like a champ until it get'* close to op temp....then it drops off.

Check the cat...I'll have my new Magnaflo going in shortly.

cat is shot. rattles when kicked. But it also rattled when kicked before the first head gasket failure [actually it developed it then] and the car performed great then. But now it'* shitty.

what can prevent me from going into closed loop? You may be right, but idk.

I got the car craft that has the info i read on the grounds.

Replace the Cat. That'* a no-brainer.

Don't try to work AROUND the problem by trying to prevent loop status changes in your PCM, or you'll kill another cat by running too rich, wipe out your O2 sensor, and not be able to afford the horrible gas mileage you'll be getting.

Fix the problem. No workarounds.

sounds like my car... x2

cept i got a new cat

Well, I went through a 1/4 tank of gas [lower portion of the gauge.. so i guess that could be less than 1/4 tankin reality] in 50mi. So, my fuel economy is good, considering I sit at 3k rpm at 50mph.

If it really is the cat, how can I prove it, other than replacing it?

:?: :?:

somebody doesnt have overdrive

thats TERRIBLE.... i sit half that

That'* 11mpg. You sure it can get that bad?




in response to the above two posts: He'* got no 3rd and OD, 3k @ 50mph is a given :P