88 1.9 Gti, Lack Of Power

[chicargo 0]

hi, ive just got my 88 1.9 205 gti back on the road, the problem is theres not a lot of power. i just had it moted and the co level and hc level was as follows............. CO 2.03.. and the HC level was only 50... could this be the cause of the lack of power. seems to pick up ok ish if you only press the accelerator a little but as soon as you give it beans it seems to do almost nothing. also when on tick over the revs go up and down a bit (between about 600-900 rpm). all advice very apreiciated. all the best. si

Edited February 19, 2010 by chicargo

[chicargo 0]

anybody ?????????

[Tom Fenton 1,529]

The emissions sound pretty reasonable, HC is unburned fuel, higher number is bad.

 

As for the performance, it sounds like you need to get someone familiar with them to have a look at it.

[DrSarty 90 1 Cars]

You haven't mentioned if you've checked all of the basics.

 

Is your air filter element in good nick? HT leads? What condition is the rotor arm in? Are you getting advance on the dizzy?

 

It could be any number of things, or a combination of these and other things. Have you done a compression test?

 

We really need to know where we stand and what you've tried before we could diagnose over the interweb.

 

Alternatively as Tom suggested, get someone a few beer tokens and let them have a fiddle.

[chicargo 0]

You haven't mentioned if you've checked all of the basics.

 

Is your air filter element in good nick? HT leads? What condition is the rotor arm in? Are you getting advance on the dizzy?

 

It could be any number of things, or a combination of these and other things. Have you done a compression test?

 

We really need to know where we stand and what you've tried before we could diagnose over the interweb.

 

Alternatively as Tom suggested, get someone a few beer tokens and let them have a fiddle.

 

yeah good point new air filter, oil filter, oil, plugs and flushed out the old petrol. the rotor arm dizzy cap and leads all look like brand new, i sucked the pipe coming from dizzy advance/retard and that was working fine i.e it moved and kept its place if i put my tonge over the end of pipe. when i bought the car it had a nasty rattle when you either blipped the accelerator on tick over or put your foot down when driving but was fairly fast. so i checked the timing and turned the dizzy with the engine running until the rattle stoped. i then switched off the engine and turned the engine by hand until the timming mark on the flywheel and timming plate met, i then took off the distributor cap and the rotor arm was pointing to spark plug number 2 instead of plug number 1, but as mentioned it stopped the rattle completely and the engine now starts better and runs ok apart from not much power. the engine in the car is from a 405 sri i think ?? (engine code d6a) lets hope its a simple fix as ive now blasted all my money on rip off road tax & mot

[chicargo 0]

any other suggestions ????

[Tom Fenton 1,529]

Well from that reply above, it sounds like you have retarded the ignition so much it is now gutless. You can't really set it by guesswork, it needs setting properly.

[lagonda 41]

Sounds to me as if it's your ignition timing that needs looking at. Not familiar with your particular engine version. Assume the rattle you mention was pinking. You need to set the ignition by retarding it until pinking stops and no more, sounds to me like you've gone too far, & these engines are quite sensitive to timing. Best to mark the distributor position, advance a little, try again, mark & try again. You need to aim for a point where it's just not quite pinking. Also don't use 95 octane petrol, they need 98/99 at least. 95 will give poor performance & poor fuel economy, AND cause pinking.

All this assumes someone hasn't messed up your cam timing, if you still can't get satisfactory result by CAREFULLY adjusting distributor, I'd recommend you check cam timing marks line up, see Haynes manual for details.

[chicargo 0]

Sounds to me as if it's your ignition timing that needs looking at. Not familiar with your particular engine version. Assume the rattle you mention was pinking. You need to set the ignition by retarding it until pinking stops and no more, sounds to me like you've gone too far, & these engines are quite sensitive to timing. Best to mark the distributor position, advance a little, try again, mark & try again. You need to aim for a point where it's just not quite pinking. Also don't use 95 octane petrol, they need 98/99 at least. 95 will give poor performance & poor fuel economy, AND cause pinking.

All this assumes someone hasn't messed up your cam timing, if you still can't get satisfactory result by CAREFULLY adjusting distributor, I'd recommend you check cam timing marks line up, see Haynes manual for details.

cheers, i'll have another go at the timming and check the cam timming and let you know how it goes