Engine looses Pep

[beaudeen]

Hey Guys...new here so....just bought my first SHO on Friday..95 MTX and well maintained..have a folder on all work that has been done to the car since new..original owner..anyhow..just noticed that strangest thing..at least to me..here goes..when the car is cold, first thing in the morning..the accelleration is blistering..I love it..always give her a good run throught the gears..after about 1/2 hour when the car comes up to normal temp, the snappy acceleration is gone..the engine runs and idles smooth..no hickups..drives smooth in all gears, but the snap has gone..I've been reading the forums, but haven't run accross anything that addresses this topic..the 60k has been done..engine sounds smooth and no ticking what so ever..all I found was something addressing the MAF sensor..checked with the local Ford dealer here in town..they don't seem to be experienced with the SHO..any ideas would be greatly appreciated..just love the grin it puts on both mine and my 16 year old son when we drop the hammer....P.S...135 kilometers on car and live in Belleville Ontario..

 

[aaronsbiza]

Welcome to SHO ownership... The only thing I can think of would be a sensor on its way out, maybe the MAF, O2 Sensors, Throttle Position Sensor. Most likely the loss of Pep is as a result of wear on the engine, being that at cold temperatures the engine is cooler, the piston rings and other such parts are tighter and fit the engine well due to the contaction of metal when cold. When the engine warms up you may be loosing a miniscule amount of compression from the cylinders due to the metal expanding. I may be completely wrong, and if so, try testing the fuel lines for pressure, be sure they keep a steady pressure and volume.

 

[beaudeen]

beaudeen:
Hey Guys...new here so....just bought my first SHO on Friday..95 MTX and well maintained..have a folder on all work that has been done to the car since new..original owner..anyhow..just noticed that strangest thing..at least to me..here goes..when the car is cold, first thing in the morning..the accelleration is blistering..I love it..always give her a good run throught the gears..after about 1/2 hour when the car comes up to normal temp, the snappy acceleration is gone..the engine runs and idles smooth..no hickups..drives smooth in all gears, but the snap has gone..I've been reading the forums, but haven't run accross anything that addresses this topic..the 60k has been done..engine sounds smooth and no ticking what so ever..all I found was something addressing the MAF sensor..checked with the local Ford dealer here in town..they don't seem to be experienced with the SHO..any ideas would be greatly appreciated..just love the grin it puts on both mine and my 16 year old son when we drop the hammer....P.S...135 kilometers on car and live in Belleville Ontario..

 

[beaudeen]

The engine is tight..this is an intermitted problem..it's not happening every day..just recently I noticed it when the engine came up to temp..this is not a small loss of power, It's the punch thats gone..almost seems like the engine is starving for fuel or air..will have the sensors checked out..I don't have a check engine light on though...thanks for your help..

 

[slickn56]

Dont rule out the fuel pump either.....I had an issue with loss of power and it turned out to be my fuel pump.

 

[beaudeen]

would doing a fault code scan reveal something.."no" check engine light on..I have read that some codes won't trigger the light..also, is there a fault code for the fuel pump..??.if I go and run the car right now, she'll go like a bat out of ****..when I picked the car up friday, she ran strong all the way home..100 miles..was having fun playing with a few BMW's..had it up over 200 a few times..no hick ups or burp's..this just started saturday..help

 

[JoeHoe_SHO]

I noticed that on my older 89...when the car is colder, it is a little peppier. It is also bad to run the car hard when it is cold. After the car warms up, it seems to shift a little smoother, but with less power. I think the power is still there, it just feels different because the engine is warmed up.

DON'T GET ON IT WHEN THE ENGINE IS COLD! Bad things can happen.

I could be way off, but if you are not getting any fault codes and or CE light...thats what it could be.

 

[beaudeen]

Hey again Guys..I think I'm not expaining my symptoms clear enough as some of the comments don't really address my problem..will try again...I never tromp on her untill she's warmed up..as I said before, the throttle response is "hang on to the steering wheel" acceleration early in the day...with a scream in intake noise..snappy in all gears..after an hour or so, she looses that..it pulls hard all the way up to 6-7000 but if I tromp on the pedal, it almost seems choked..no secoundaries..checked air filter..it's new..changed plugs..all firing..idle smooth..no hick-ups..if I let the car sit for a few hours, starts fine and the snappy throttle is back again...I just don't want to show up at the dealer with no clue as to what it may be..again..thanks for your input..

 

[Emerald94]

Hi Beaudeen.
I noticed that you live in Belleville.
Check out www.shopower.com
It's the Ontario SHO club. We might be able to help you out as well.
Just join the Topica forum (OSHOCTIMES).

 

[aaronsbiza]

I noticed that you stated you had no secondaries after the car is warmed up. Why don't you let the car warm up to where it has a loss in power, leave it running, open the hood, and check the secondaries to see if they are open at idle. They shouldn't be open, if they are open there may be a small leak in their vacum lines that is effected by the heat. If they are open at idle then this is your problem. The secondaries will hurt performance if they are opened before the 3800 RPM range. If this doesn't work I would get the TPS (Throttle Position Sensor) tested at AutoZone. If that is not the problem either, try testing the fuel lines for pressure.