Power Lost

[Tiger]

It is okay to shift your own gear... starting out at 2 which your transmission will shift from 1 to 2 and then you shift to 3...etc.

What I want you to focus is if the power is good as you remembered even though the speed may be limited by each gear... is it really peppy? or sluggish?

Try again in D from start...

This would tell you if you have tranny problem like valve body... If the gear upshift too soon... it would feel sluggish and that is definitely the transmission valve body.

[genphreak]

IMH experience problems with these boxes are usually down to:

Incorrect fluid levels (because people find the full procedure hard to follow, or simply fail to follow it for some other reason)
Incorrect engine operation (Engine output influences the way the box changes)
Failure of the transmission's speed and temp sensor.

Never seen one engage 2 gears before but I've not stripped on down before and haven't done that much with them other than change and maintain good ones.

Be sure to keep us posted- and post pics!

[Stewart]

Now had the valve body done and it was filthy. New gasket, balls and the transmission is working fine. Good upshift, down shift and finally no more dropping into limp mode. The transmission does feel stronger however, the power is still down though!
Next stop test the cats ?

[Tiger]

Okay! So it was the transmission's issue first.

At this time, I would want to check the fuel pressure to make sure it is up to spec.

If you got your old engine... swap out the crank position sensor to see if that makes any difference.

But before you change the CPS... what you should do is disconnect the battery for say... I don't know... like 1 hour and make sure the key is on after you disconnect the battery... to reset the engine map to blank and make the ECU recalibrate with your new engine and rebuilt tranny.

[Stewart]

Thanks Tiger,
Do you mean leave the ignition on then disconnect the battery, or disconnect the battery, then turn the key on and leave for a while?

[shogun]

disconnect battery, then ignition on. Before you disconnect the battery, make sure you have all the codes for radio, anitheft etc.
Also the OBC has to be reset then, that means time and date, otherwise you will only see PPPP.

[Stewart]

Just an update
R econnected battery reset clocks etc. Started the engine which ran fine but noticed very slight miss over 2k revs and could smell petrol fumes in the exhaust.
I went straight to the coil packs.
Removed all the coil packs and cylinder 3 & 6 had no pressure in the spark plug tubes. Removed the tube from the actual coil pack and out fell very small pieces of what looks like thermoset plastic rings from both the top tube end and tube connector. I then loosed up the spring load tubes on 3 & 6 which where stuck and rechecked the others at the same time,
Went for a little drive and now have a much better performing engine.
My thoughts are that the spark may have jumped to the plug but was interupted at higher revs.
I did notice the smell of petrol fumes is not as much as before but going to look into the exhaust while on this track as 90% is still not satisfactory when the M1 speed will rise to 130 next year.
Thanks to all for the assistance work in progress.

[Tiger]

So... you got multiple issues... which is not uncommon when you do an engine exchange.... tranny fixed... Now ignition coil packs.

I suggest you replace all the coil pack leaders... that rubber thing that connects between the spark plugs and the coil packs. They are cheap and makes a lot of difference in fuel smell or white smoke At the very least that it is not original.

Another thing I highly recommends is you clean or replace the ground strap to the engine or add another one to a good ground location (do not ground over painted surface... has to be bare metal contact).

This second part is optional... I feel the coil pack grounding is poor because of painted surface... if you could use a dremel... clean up all the contact points between the coil packs and valve cover... including that short ground strap... This would help a lot... make sure surface are oil free... use carb cleaner. Another option is to bring another ground strap from the coil pack to somewhere on engine compartment using maybe 12 gauge... so the cover doesn't have too much of an issue...

Last question... the spark plugs... are they new? what kind did you put in? Stock dual prongs or standard single prong (best)... anything other than this is not good. Known issues.

[Stewart]

Its interesting to note that when you disconnect the battery and then turn the key and leave it for a while, this obiviously drains all memory from all the control modules.
Went for a drive last night much better but did'nt check several things like windows, central locking, windscreen wipers.
Non of these then worked after the process.
What I did was disconnect battery for half and hour with the car in normal off. Reconnected and presto everything worked again.
Just sharing a bit for all the help. The dremmel is getting a workout.