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Suddenly running lean.

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Old 08-28-2016 | 12:35 AM
  #1  
adryargument's Avatar
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Default Suddenly running lean.

So.

00' 1.8 wrx turbo, 640cc inj, stock pump and everything else.

Car was running fine. Was very low on fuel. Nearly completely.
I filled up and drove away. About 15 minutes later i started stalling on idle.

Pulled over had a look, IAT was fine, no leaks, car looked good. Not overheating...
Tweaked the idle till it was steady.

Started driving again and noticed my AFR's started bouncing around and getting high. across the board it seemed 3-4 higher. (17 instead of 14)
Car started misfiring, conking out a few times and being generally ****.

My idle fuel 'target' is 60, boost is around 110-130.
To overcome this i added 20 across the whole table so i was running slightly rich. And drove/limped 40 minutes home.
Last 10 minutes in the drive it was misfiring like crazy and i noticed the fuel was jumping around. Holding same throttle and AFR bounced from 13-> 17 -> 13.
Keep in mind i'm already throwing extra fuel in at this time.

Looking at the logs there's fuel pressure.... Can a clogged filter do this? No idea when it was last changed...

ideas?

Latest log is the last 10 minutes of the drive home. It was playing up bad for the start of the log. I then drove 10 minutes up a mountain and it behaved alot better....
Yesterdays log was when it started and i ramped up the fuel and drove it a few blocks into a mates garage.

I filled up with 98 Fuel which is what the cars tuned on. (USA 93 RON?)
Could this be **** fuel? Edit: no. may run **** and start having timing issues but it wouldn't be lean. hmm.
Attached Files
File Type: msl
2016-08-28_12.32.33.msl (4.46 MB, 124 views)
File Type: msl
2016-08-27_17.28.11.msl (4.80 MB, 143 views)
Old 08-28-2016 | 01:02 AM
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Since you mentioned being low on fuel, my first thought is your fuel pump strainer grabbed a bunch of **** and is now a bit clogged. It's not too hard to check, I'd start there.
Old 08-29-2016 | 07:32 PM
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I agree with Onyx. Fuel filter is a very likely candidate here. Contaminates collect in your gas tank and settle to the bottom don't normally get sucked up, but when you run it so low they work their way into the fuel system.
Old 08-29-2016 | 11:33 PM
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Yeah I picked up a filter and will give that a go.
Strainer on pump will be next.
Old 08-30-2016 | 06:53 AM
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Changed filter and AFR at idle went from 14.8 to 10.6.
Misfires are gone and she's all sunshine and rainbows.

I truly didn't expect a filter to make that much of a difference, that quickly!
Cheers.
Old 08-30-2016 | 12:24 PM
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I guess I should actually get around to putting the filter that I have on...
Old 02-15-2022 | 07:23 AM
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Originally Posted by adryargument
Changed filter and AFR at idle went from 14.8 to 10.6.
Misfires are gone and she's all sunshine and rainbows.

I truly didn't expect a filter to make that much of a difference, that quickly!
Cheers.
This gives me hope for my issue. Just finished my vvt turbo swap into my 95 ok ms3x and RC550 injectors. Car originally sat for 2 years not running. Motor locked and everything nasty including the fuel. I was able to clean the dried up ethanol and gunk out of the tank, freed up the fuel pump from the gunk and replaced the deteriorated fuel stock. I blew out the lines thinking I would be ok, but as this is my first Miata, I completely forgot about the fuel filter. I couldn't figure out why it didn't want to idle after setting base timing. I ended up changing my fuel ve tables from 80-90 to around 130-150 and the AFR's went from 19 and motor stalling to 14.9. I compared VE tables to a buddies car, even used his tables since we have a similar setup, and it'll run but at full lean. We suspect a clogged fuel filter and a potentially weak pump.
This has to be the problem due to the condition of the fuel system when I saved the car from rotting under a tree. Bad gas and nasty ethanol dried everywhere, deteriorated fuel sock. HAS TO BE IT.
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