Power Loss!! HELP!!!

Torry Skurski ezcheese15@yahoo.com
Fri, 19 Jul 2002 00:10:36 -0500


Ok, my car is seriously messed up.  I just dyno'd it and have a serious
power loss.  I made 143.4 HP and 155.6 lb-ft stock.  Then, with intake
and exhaust, I put down 148.2 HP and 158.1 lb-ft.  Now, I have intake,
exhaust, header, and removed balance shafts, and I only put down 145.9
HP and 154.9 lb-ft.  I LOST power all over.  BIG loss in torque under
the curve.

So I need thoughts on what could be wrong.  The dyno operator thought
that it was possible that with a bigger flow of air now, that I could be
leaning out.  However, I would think the ECU would compensate within the
flow rate of the injectors, so that should be fine.  We checked the
compression too, in fear of a motor going, being a QR, but compression
was 190 psi across the board.

Here is our best theory:
The car has had a problem since about March or so where it doesn't like
to start.  It will crank and crank and crank, then finally start after
about 7-8 cranks.  I have been lazy and haven't botherd taking it to the
dealer to get it fixed.  Well, my friend came up with the theory that
the FPR is going bad.  Where it is holding less and less pressure, so
the fuel system is not primed (the starting is getting worse and worse).
He said it's possible that it is now loosing pressure under throttle as
well, and starting to lean out all over.  This could cause the huge
power loss of HP and torque.  This seems very reasonable to me, but I
was wondering if it made sense to anybody else.  Does the FPR on a QR25
work this way?

I can either A) take the car to the dealer and complain of it taking
forever to start or B) dyno my car again using a wideband and see if
it's leaning out up top

The dealer would be cheaper, but I don't know if they would do it under
warrenty considering my mods.  What do you guys think?  Or is there any
other possibility of why it lost so much power??  And help is MUCH
appreciated.