rocket951

I was hoping you guys might be able to help me diagnose what I beleive is a problem, or maybe just poor driving technique. My car is running fine and I have no complaints with it, except that it seems to be absolutely gutless from a dead stop. It's like I have to rev the guts out of it just to get it moving, like anything below 3k rpm, forget it. I noticed it big time last night when trying to quickly turn onto a busy street, the oncoming traffic almost ate me up until I got it into second and came up on a little boost.

The car runs great other than that. Shifting and clutch feel seem to be good, so I wasn't really thinking clutch. Maybe a rich running condition? I don't know. It doesn't sputter or hesitate, it just won't go...

Any help appreciated.

Rodney

rberry951

Quit trying to pull out in 3rd gear! J/K

Have you changed anything on the car lately? Did this just start happening or has it always been like this?

Regards,
Russell

hot-J

Welcome to a slow revving engine + turbo lag......

rocket951

Russell, it's funny that you mention starting in third, because that's what it feels like. I have had the car for three years and always felt like it was hard to get going, now I'm wondering if it is a condition that can be rectified. I have not changed anything on the car. I remember reading a post once where someone mentioned that they could idle away from a stop, my car certainly won't.

So is there something wrong with it or is it just an inherant 951 characteristic?

rberry951

There is no power on the bottom end, that's for sure. But if you are having to rev high rpms to launch from a standstill then there may indeed be something wrong there. Parking brakes could be stuck, clutch may have a bad spot on it and be grabbing. Does it lunge if you try to just ease the clutch out?

Regards,
Russell

rocket951

No lunging, no violent grabbing, clutch acutation seems smooth. Maybe I am expecting too much response off boost...?

rberry951

Before you suspect your own car to have some sort of problem, find somebody close by who has one and drive theirs, compare your results.

Regards,
Russell

billthe3

Is this at all times when you're driving the car? Mine is pretty slow usually, but I've noticed that when the engine is cold it has absolutely no power. Once its warmed up it goes back to the normal slowness.

rocket951

That was actually my first thought. Any Denver area owners with a mostly stock 951 care to help me compare this running condition?

My944Turbo

First remember that up here you lose power because of the altitude to begin with, so off boost the car is pretty painfully slow. Years ago the biggest help for me was a test pipe. This alone seemed to open it up quite a bit, but it still isn't great off the line without reving.

I switched back to the converter for emissions testing last week and off the line it was terrible, with the test pipe back on it feels a lot better.

Now I have chips, test pipe, 38mm Tial wastgate and an electronic boost controller and it is better. However I have a small header crack I noticed while changing out the clutch (I will never do that again) so I'm only getting like 2 psi in 1st gear and then up to 15 psi by 2nd gear...not sure if it is related to the crack or not but...

...if you plan on staying stock I'm not sure what else you could do other than getting a new air filter and changing out the wires and plugs to try and keep the car as fresh as possible.

RKD in OKC

Release the parking brake by pushing the button in and lowering the lever as far as it will lower.

billthe3

On the topic of modifying it, maybe doing some type of boost controller would help? I the lindsey one on mine, and although I haven't driven a 951 without it, I can't imagine how much slower the car would be if the boost didn't kick in 500rpm (or however much) sooner.

rocket951

The car will not be stock much longer, I have plans for the first phase of upgrades ( WG, exhaust, FPR, chips...) to begin soon. I will be doing belts and rollers here in a couple of weeks, also plan to pull the intake and change all the vacuum lines, whether they need it or not. Everything else is pretty much fresh, I went through it with fluids, filters, plugs and wires shortly after bringing it home. It is low mileage and well taken care of.

skene

My car was doing that last winter sometime. It felt just like I was starting in 2nd or 3rd gear for the first 5-10 minutes until the car warmed up a bit or I got on boost a bit, then it would go back to normal.

I put a vitesse chip and 3bar fpr on it and it helped a good but, but I still have funny off boost issues sometimes. I think it's more that John's code does a better job compensating for goofy A/F signals or some other signal going to the DME then anything else.

rocket951

It has never really mattered if the car was warm or not, and it is not always so noticable. Last night just got my attention because I needed to merge in traffic quickly from a stop and the car was not as motivated as I was...

I have a Lindsey MBC on the car and it seems to be working okay, although I have a hard time finding that sweet spot on the dial for optimum boost without overboosting. EBC is also on the list.