Two days in a row I have noticed startup problems.
In the morning, cold enough that there is frost on the windshield and the car is left all night…asolutely no problems with startup.
But drive to work, leave the car in the sun all day (about 55 degrees today i think), then go out and when i turn the key, the engine stutters for about 10 seconds before it kicks over…it feels like it wants to die or can’t quite get above 300 rpm…but eventually does. The stutter is in the engine, not like the electrical stutter when my battery is dead…although what the hell do i know…that’s i’m asking for help.
things i have done that may/may not contribute: supercharger, 10w30 oil, iridium spark plugs. while none of those are new…the s/c was added in december…so i guess this is the first real stretch that the car and mods have seen warm weather…if that is the issue at all.
Anyway, in the lot i let the car warm up today after the stutter start. Shut it off, and rekeyed the ignition…starts up with no problems. So why doesn’t it like my office parking lot at 5pm on the first shot?
could mean a few things… the motor doesn’t seem to get enough fuel on startup.
what blower are you running? was it a kit, or did you piece it together? are you running upgraded fuel injectors? pump? how many miles on the car? still on original fuel filter? Was the car tuned for the kit, or is it running on a cookie cutter tune that came with the SC?
This is what I have: Vortech S/C V-5 F-TRIM
, kit provided and sold under the TRD brand. No piggyback, TRD reflashes the ECM with an updated map on install.
Injectors get upgraded in the kit (410cc), but not fuel pump. About 18k miles now. I would imagine the fuel filter is still original at this point.
This is a link to the kit install with parts list if that helps: http://trdsparks.com/install/PTR01-21050-90inst.pdf
Only thing i have changed is to iridium spark plugs and Forge BPV.
some scion tuners have upgraded to 550 injectors/walbro pump/emanage…but i think that was after pushing over 285 to the wheels.
i think that was to alleviate issues at wot, not startup. and i am not near that whp number anyway.
Thanks for the help. Also, I am still puzzled why it seems more symptomatic in warmer weather.
your right… it really shouldn’t matter at idle… I’m just wondering if you may have been overworking your stock pump and possibly it’s getting goofy on ya (which I somewhat doubt).
I’d honestly start with the fuel filter and see what happens
when you say “overworking”…ok, i am a bad boy…i let the fuel go to 1/8th tank often before fueling. is that what you mean?
and now i am reading that the pump is cooled by gas…so it is possible that it gets damaged sooner.
although i have always driven cars like that and i’m sure i’m not the first.
ok so this past week as the weather warmed up I tried a few things.
1 - Swapped the EFI relay to ensure it wasn’t bad
2 - Dumped in some STP fuel system cleaner to kill any possible debris plugging the filter
Thought I was in the clear but when it was warm on Saturday, the car choked on startup again. This time much worse then before.
So next, I
3 - Checked the spark plugs. My Iridiums I was told we pregapped to .035" so I just dropped them in 2 months ago, but i pulled them out and measured them at about .030". This is smaller than the .032" the stock plugs call for.
Long story longer, I extended the gap to .036"…
Today was very warm…hit 80 degrees…car sitting outside for hours and NO problem at startup. Am I wishfully thinking that I solved my problem?