Sounds like Subaru until driven for 10 mins

psipwrd

Member
Sorry in advance for the long post,

I did a few searches and came up empty handed. I tried adjusting my timing by myself and it's at 12-13 BTDC at idle. A hair one way and it's at 15 and a hair the opposite and it's at 5-6. I decided to leave it at 12 and test it. What's happening is the car sounds like a subaru for the first few mins idling and smooths out. But then the first 10 minutes of driving are rough like a subaru, is slow to rev, slow to boost, and is very weak. It doesn't smooth out until I hit a long stretch and keep the rpms steady for a few mins, at which point the everything goes normal and the car runs PERFECT! What's strange is the turbo is very audible all of a sudden, like it just woke up. Park the car, kill the engine, let it sit for 30 mins, the temp drops completely. Start car and it sounds like a subaru--have to drive 10 mins again before it's normal.

Timing is the same at 12-13, no overheating, so i don't think it's the problem.

I can't find any vac leaks.
Burped coolant
I do have CEL 71 (EGR) Euro spec car on USDM ECU (ordered 10k and 2k resistors).

ATS Built 2.0 SB and head with shimless conversion and GSC 268 cams/adj gears
stock injectors
3" turbo back

New dizzy, cap, rotors, coil, igniter, plugs and plug wires, new walbro pump, new fuel filter

Only thing I can think of is I'm coming up on 100 miles since the build and need to retorque.

Any ideas what could cause this behavior?
 

psipwrd

Member
I don't think it can skip a tooth and skip back, but after posting this thread yesterday I moved the car and it idled and drove flawlessly. Today everything was perfectly normal. :shrug: :D
 

sleeper

New member
99% sure you are running on 3 cylinders when it sounds like a subaru..

i would do a compression test just to be sure your engine is ok ( bout cold and warm test)
( i have seen 3s engines run on 3 cyl when cold\low rpm before due to low compression on one cylinder. )

If engine turns out ok, i would first try to isolate what cylinder that is missing. ( let the car idle when cold, and remove the wires ( clip ) to one injector. listen if you can hear a change in how the engine runs. with 3 of them you should, and one not.

Then check your ignition system, you might just have a bad spark plug\wire.
 

underscore

Well-known member
I agree with the above, sounds like one cylinder isn't firing for some reason until things warm up, figure out which cylinder it is and go from there
 

psipwrd

Member
The problem completely went away immediately after I posted and it was colder outside than previous days. Forums scared her straight!
 
My car did that a few times on really cold days right after I swapped to a Gen3 ecu. I tried to trace it but it never amounted to anything I could find and stopped doing it. Maybe it was the ecu being upset or re-set? It seems to me these ecus "learn" to some degree and once it was happy it did not do it again. I am sure many disagree but this is from my experience.
I am interested to see if this surfaces to a substantive problem. I took that engine out a year or so later so I wonder if it is something that will go bad permanently eventually.
 

paladek

New member
"Sounds like Subaru".....

That would be actually extremely nice..... if it would drive and behave like a Subaru it would be even better....???!!!! that's only my opinion.....


Regards,
 

psipwrd

Member
I had a WRX, loved the feel and sound with equal length headers (no lumpy sound). I prefer the 3sgte to the EJ series engines. Would love to explore the FA20DIT tho.
 

warracer

New member
paladek":h23xgkjy said:
"Sounds like Subaru".....

That would be actually extremely nice..... if it would drive and behave like a Subaru it would be even better....???!!!! that's only my opinion.....


Regards,

I hated the ones I drove in the snow, my god the AWD system does all the work for you, can't even swing the car around without having a bazillion lights flashing in the dash and the car correcting automatically, sureit wasn't a STI but it was a 2013 WRX and I was extremely disapointed... :( Ill take my gt4 over a subaru anyday haha
 
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