Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Fuel Delivery or Secondaries crapping out???

I have had my 98E0 for 4 years now. I am having a problem, recently, with my secondaries or my Fuel system not delivering the added punch after 3800rpm's. It is not consistant and really baffles me. Sometimes it runs like a raped ape and others it falls flat. It still out performs most cars on the road, but lacks the punch that I have grown attached to. I expect, with the cash and time I put into it, at least a 14.80 in the 1/4, but I struggle to get in the 15's. I ran a 15.20 3 and half years ago with only a K+N drop in! What gives? I still (@60k miles) am under warranty. Should I go through the hassle of bringing it back to stock, to take it to the dealer?

You should be able to verify that the secondaries are working by manually operating the throttle linkage and watching the linkage engage above 3800 or so. If it seems to engage consistently you're butterfly valves in the LIM may be gunked up and sticking sometimes. A cleaning of the LIM should help this out. Cracking the secondaries open about a 1/2 turn or more on the stop blt should help reduce gunk buildup and may provide a little better performance. Some have removed the secondaries altogether.

Where's the LIM? And how do you clean it?

On the V6, the LIM is under the UIM. Actually the UIM (Upper Intake Manifold) is the casting with 6 bolts and the Duratec or SVT label on the top of the engine. The LIM or Lower Intake manifold is directly underneath. A how-to for cleaning and and overhaul of both is posted in the FAQ section.

I am a little unclear with the descirption. Am I to open the Intake Manifold? Could this be a computer issue?

...also, how would I crack open the butterflies? I am interested in opening then earlier/more/always.

ttt

Po-Jay, I have some pictures of when Scot(Horse) and I cleaned his upper and lower intake Manifolds. I will upload them as soon as I get to work so you can see exactly what they are talking about. To me it sounds like the secondaries are sticking. You would be suprised how gunked up they are.

This is the engine bay with the hood off. The upper intake manifold is the black part that has the SVT plague on it.

This is after we removed the upper intake manifold. This is looking down at the lower intake manifold as you can see they are really gummed up. The larger holes that have the metal in them are where your secondaries are.

Another shot. A little closer.

Yet one more. This is a real close up of a secondary.

This picture is after about 20 minutes of scrubbing with laquer thinner and carb cleaner. I am sure that we could have gotten things cleaner.

ryan- its really easy to clean your upper intake maniford and lower intake maniforl- you can clean the lower while it is on the car- the upper needs to be taken out.

what you need to do is disconnect you air intake- do this at the throttle body. there is a hose clamp -= loosen it all the way and twist the clamp as it is slotted to correspond to the rubber. unplug all the connectors to the MAF (Mas Airflow meter) its the electronic lookin thingy with about two electrical connectors on it. than remove your air filter. there should be 4 more hoses attatched to the area between the MAF and throttle body- (thats whats bolted to the Manifold). you will need to also remove the accel cable which if I remember correctly is 4 bolts and fidangle it a bit) and the thingy at the upper right of the intake which is two bolts. when you have thses things removed( dont worry about the rubber billows it sticks to the throttle body housing thats norrmal) there are 6 bolts in the upper intake- remove them- the intake should now lift off- but check it for other things still attached- I may have missed something. the gaskets may stick a bit but should pull off easily as well- when you are to here- go to town cleaning like a beaver-
new gaskets are around 8-10 a piece sold seperatly- get two and do it all backwards!

have fuin- go slow and be carefull thats the best thing you can do.