sluggish svt

OK so I bought this 2000 csvt the car has 100k miles on it and was sitting in the mountians for about a year before i bought it.. I had it towed to aamco to rebuild the trans and put in a new clutch..

I did a major tune up, plugs, coils, wires, pvc valve, 02 sensors, fuel injectors cleaned, MAF cleaned, intake cleaned. I ran 2 bottles of sea foam through it, and some cat cleaner( forget the brand).

I bought a K&N air filter and installed. It had more power but it kept throwing code PO174 running to lean.
I couldn't figure out why so after reading some forums I decided to change back to stock filter and its been about 300 miles and no code but the car seems to be running like crap. It has pretty much no power anymore.. once it gets to about 3k RPMS it just doesn't want to go any where.. When I had the old K&N in it ran really good but it would stall sometimes when I would come to a complete stop.
It has only staled 1 time in the last 300 miles since i put the stock air filter back in...

I also hear a humming noise sometimes. It will go away if i turn the wheel or give it some gas.. Today when I got to the light the car was humming and car died on the roll.. seems like the hum has something to do with the car stalling.. maybe a bad fuel pump?

Also the trans is very knotty when it shifts.. Is that just a problem with the MTX trans or can it be fixed?

Wow, paragraphs can make this easier on us who are trying to help you.

When it "stalled" did it make a humming sound just before?

I would forget all the seafoam and other stuff and have the system checked to see what is happening. Catalytic converter could be plugging up but without vacuum readings it is tough to tell. If the vacuum readings are good then check the MAF readings.

You will also need to see if the secondary throttle blades are opening.

Fuel and spark is all you need to run. Has to be the right amount of both.

Loss of power around 3k is likely the IMRC, just as crewchiefpro mentioned about the secondaries. Both of my SVTs have had this issue. I replaced the transistor and all was well.

I'm not sure about the humming sound though or the lean code only with a K&N... I've had one on every car I've owned without any issues...

Sorry about the no paragraphs, was running late for work..

It did not hum before it stalled.. One time i had the clutch in at a red light and m RPM's went down to almost 0 then shot up to 2500 with out me pushing down the accelerator.
My vacuum readings are all in the green. I think it was around 27. How do you check the MAF readings?

JBalch can you link me to a transistor to purchase?

Unless you are coming down from full throttle in gear the vacuum readings will not exceed 20. Have someone stand behind the car with their hand near the exhaust while you rev it up to about 3500. They should feel a bunch of pressure. If not then exhaust is plugged somewhere.

Do a search on repairing IMRC here or on google for information on the secondaries.

I couldn't read your post well, did you replace both the upper and lower intake gaskets? If not, change them.

MAF readings require a scan tool.

yeah there's not much pressure coming out the exhaust. I don't have a check engine light on or anything.. wouldnt the imrc cause a check engine light to go on?

staxpkr said:

yeah there's not much pressure coming out the exhaust. I don't have a check engine light on or anything.. wouldnt the imrc cause a check engine light to go on?

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The IMRC shouldn't cause a check engine light to come on. Take off your air intake tube, and underneath the throttle you'll see what looks like a smaller throttle directly underneath it. There's about a 4 inch piece of metal that connects the two runners together. The plastic pieces that hold the metal in break easily. Also if the metal connector is in there and it's lose the secondaries will not open fully. However it seems your cars aren't opening at all.

That IMRC (intake manifold runner controller) is a box underneath the "2.5 duratec" plastic cover. If the metal connector underneath the throttle is in tact, your IMRC box may be bad. I think they're prone to go bad. Not positive tho.

So you have not changed the intake gaskets?

A plugged exhaust will cause very slow acceleration. You could disconnect the Y pipe under the engine and see which bank is causing the problem. Doesn't take long to do ( well on mine it doesn't ). Once disconnected with the vehicle properly supported fire up the engine. Get down under the engine and have someone rev it up. My experience is the exhaust will whistle when it was partially plugged and you can tell pretty quick if one bank is worse than the other. It will be loud ( thank you Mr. Obvious ) if the exhaust is free flowing.

No I have not changed the gaskets yet. Just bought them today and will be installing tomorrow. Will disconnect the y pipe as well and let u know what happens.

Quicksight said:

The IMRC shouldn't cause a check engine light to come on. Take off your air intake tube, and underneath the throttle you'll see what looks like a smaller throttle directly underneath it. There's about a 4 inch piece of metal that connects the two runners together. The plastic pieces that hold the metal in break easily. Also if the metal connector is in there and it's lose the secondaries will not open fully. However it seems your cars aren't opening at all.

That IMRC (intake manifold runner controller) is a box underneath the "2.5 duratec" plastic cover. If the metal connector underneath the throttle is in tact, your IMRC box may be bad. I think they're prone to go bad. Not positive tho.

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Ok thanks will check it out tomorrow

I actually have a spare transistor. PM me if you want to buy it. Sounds like you may have a couple of issues. First being a vacuum problem most likely and second being IMRC (most likely). IMRC is a pretty easy fix... The vacuum leak is probably easy too but tracking it down will be more difficult (captain obvious I know...).

Those are just my guesses but seem likely to me judging by your symptoms.

I recorded the humming noise.. if anyone knows what this is please let me know.. every time i accelerate more then what i already am doing when the humming starts the hum stops.
I'm not sure if the hum is connected to the car dying when it comes to a stop or not but it has happened a few times. The car only stalls when I'm coming to a stop and have the clutch in or I'm in neutral and the car is already stopped. the cars stalls about 1 out of every 30 times i come to a stop.

*update on the lack of power... waiting for the transistor from Jbalch, replaced my back cat because my car failed smog (looked like a campfire in there). I haven't had a chance to take off the y pipe and see if its clogged or anything else.. will be going back at it again this weekend.

[video]http://s13.photobucket.com/user/dub027/media/IMG_5692_zps50eaeaa3.mp4.html[/video]

big ass vacuum leak.

I'm pretty sure the vacuum leak is coming from my intake. What do you guys recommend I do for a new intake?

Also I had AAMCO do the transmission.. what kind of oil should they of put in the trans? After the rebuild the trans has been real knotty.

crewchiefpro said:

Wow, paragraphs can make this easier on us who are trying to help you.

When it "stalled" did it make a humming sound just before?

I would forget all the seafoam and other stuff and have the system checked to see what is happening. Catalytic converter could be plugging up but without vacuum readings it is tough to tell. If the vacuum readings are good then check the MAF readings.

You will also need to see if the secondary throttle blades are opening.

Fuel and spark is all you need to run. Has to be the right amount of both.

Click to expand...

The throttle blades were broken.. I replaced the clips
I also did the upper and lower intake gaskets.
I took off the y pipes and they were fine nothing was clogged.
I replaced the back cat. Was clogged.. other two cats were fine.
fuel injector orings replaced
under intake manifold the square box was loose so i tightened it up
throttle body gasket
IAC cleaned.

csvt still runs like ••••... when I pushed the gas petal all the way down in first gear once it go to 4500 rpms the rpms started to drop. And a lot of hesitation in all the other gears.. It almost feels like if u were riding a dirt bike and u had the coke up that's how it ran. It still doesn't seem like there's much power once I get on it a little.. but what I did did help some. I'm waiting for the IMRC transistor from Jbalch hopefully that will fix it..

I replaced my IMRC transistor then got a code p1518(IMRC stuck open). I found a metal rod under my intake that popped out of this little hole.. It was missing a clip so I went to orileys and found a metal clip for it and put it on. Erased the code and all was well. Then my throttle body started sticking ( gas petal sticks) anyone have any idea whats going on and how to fix it? Also the IMRC and secondary throttle blades being stuck closed still didnt fix my torque issue. It did a little but barely noticeable. I'm guessing the only thing left to check is the front two cats?.. ugh

I thought you checked the front two already. Disconnect the Y-pipe and see how loud it is under load. If the back one was toast my guess is the front ones are also.

crewchiefpro said:

I thought you checked the front two already. Disconnect the Y-pipe and see how loud it is under load. If the back one was toast my guess is the front ones are also.

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I had a muffler shop check them. He said the front two were fine but it was in the afternoon and I'm thinking he just didn't want to do the work.