What happened? Whats your theory?

[93rev2sev]

Yesterday, while at work, I got a call from home. "The power is out".

When I got home...sure enough it was out. A call the the local Utility Monopoly netted me an expected restoration time of 24 hours.

Great, I thought...a chance to test my inverter.

So I fired up the SHO, tossed it into neutral and hooked the 1400 watt inverter up.

It ran a few lightbulbs, a laptop, a small TV, and my router for internet access.

It worked great, probably could have run more...but I didn't wanna **** my alternator.

I ran the car at idle from about 6:00PM yesterday to 1:00PM today. 19 hours.
The tempurature stayed normal, and I got no alternator light. Nothing out of the ordinary (I was kinda surprised my 1/2 tank of fuel lasted 19 hours)

I had no noticable problems with the engine prior to idleing it for 19 hours.

Now, the car runs BETTER than I ever remember it. Transision to power is smoother, low speed clutch engagement is smoother (less bogging). Throttle response is noticeably better. And, it sounds better under power. Also, the oil light stays out unless I bog the engine under 500RPM. It used to be around 700RPM when the light would come on.

So whatchall think? Did I clean my injectors and flush my oil galleys? I do plan on an oil change this weekend, and I'll probably do the fuel filter too(since I ran the car out of gas).

 

[ritmusic2k]

Wow. No idea. I'm gonna go start my car.

 

[SASHO91]

LOL!!
*runs outside... dd-ddd-vrooom*



thats weird....
Maybe the rings are seating better now???? **** i dont know.... :laugh_ti:

EDIT: i gotta admit, when i read that 19hr part, I thought, oh no... something is f-'ed up!!...
but seriously, that is weird....

 

[Endri_SHO]

sounds interesting.. i am about to go and do that to my car right now.. and see what kind of diference will it do to it..

 

[SuperHO]

I'd do it, but with a water pump going bad and a rear head gasket seeping just a little, I'd just as soon not go out to a puddle of SHO motor in the morning...

 

[93rev2sev]

As a follow up. I bumped the rev limiter this morning passing a truck in 2nd on the I-696 onramp....Had no idea I was even close to it yet. I can usually tell when I'm approaching 7k. It's most definately smoother.

 

[ritmusic2k]

What's odd to me is that this goes counter to all the advice about cold weather starts and 'warming up the car' before you go anywhere.

I thought the consensus was now that you'll ****** rod bearings that way, and that you should just take off immediately and drive gently until operating temp is achieved.

Given the above, then how the **** does idling for 19 hours improve anything? Is it like, a character-building experience for the car? "You don't like it now, but you'll thank me later, son"... What the ****?


...I would be willing to bet that my car hasn't idled a sum of 19 hours in its lifetime.

Nevermind that the above was a naive assumption. Maybe it's true if I don't count stoplights and such... just starting the car before going anywhere.

 

[SHOsFAST]

Maybe the computer did some learning during that period of time and made some adjustments?I'm going to go fill her up and let her run in the parking lot at work for a while....hope she doesnt crap out after that.

 

[AREA 91]

There's no way I would let my SHO idle for that long. Ever seen the stock oil pressure at operating temp?

 

[SHOZ123]

I think it leared some better MAF curves too. Pull the battery and if it runs like it use to then that's it.

 

[93rev2sev]

Perhaps my 19hour "heat soaking" allowed the injectors to get good and warm - including the fuel in the rails. The temp of the fuel when it reaches the injectors is probably pretty low...normally (and by design). But while idleing...the fuel is moving pretty slowly through the rails. The extra time spent in the fuel rails would allow it to get quite warm. And we all wash the crap off of our hands with warm water...not cold...right?

I think the hot fuel might have enhanced the ability of the fuel additives to do their magic to the injectors.

 

[SHO_Driver]

All I know is that after a long distance drive my SHO drives really smooth and effortless. Especially after a 5 hour plus drive. And like others here the SHO has good days and bad days when it comes to acceleration.

 

[93rev2sev]

I'm becoming convinced that the engine cleans itself better when totally heatsoaked.

Heat it up for 1/2 hour...let it cool for 10 hours, repeat. That seems like a recipie for film buildup.

Maybe I'm on to something....It only burned 7 gallons of gas....charge people 40 bucks for my "overnight tune up"

 

[93rev2sev]

HEH If I get enough takers, I can tell DTE to SHOVE IT!

 

[1993MTXSHO]

I dunno about the idle thing, but you should go out occasionally and open your sho up. Get it revving nice and high and really get parts moving and warm. Like those cars owned my grandma. Take grandmas car out and beat on it for a few days and it will more then likely be faster and or run better. I do that to my mustang after every winterization, kinda just blow out the engine. It really burns up any crap in there and just makes the engine happier.

 

[crazy_canadian]

I dunno about the idle thing, but you should go out occasionally and open your sho up. Get it revving nice and high and really get parts moving and warm. Like those cars owned my grandma. Take grandmas car out and beat on it for a few days and it will more then likely be faster and or run better. I do that to my mustang after every winterization, kinda just blow out the engine. It really burns up any crap in there and just makes the engine happier.

True!
A guy I know had a 1993 Dodge colt 12 valves. It was smoking black and blue really bad, very difficult to start, Was stalling at idle and in reverse. Wasn't even able to get PAST 3k rpm!!! That car was never beaten on... EVER! I took it, changed the oil, cleaned the air filter, added a injector cleaner in the gas. And I left driving the living **** out of it. Always floored. First hours was sad, even in neutral the engine wasen't able to get over 3.5 4k rpm, and it was SLOW. After a few days of highway run, fisrt gear 40mph cruising, the car was holding it's idle, was able to hit the rev limiter and wasn't smoke out of the exaust anymore. It was 3 days of fun, but the car was running almost like new, and before it have had maybe worth a max of $60

 

[SHOck]

The reduced combustion temperatures that result from idling cause carbon build-up, and this is the source of your engine's "smoothness". The excess carbon in your cylinders is creating hot spots, and these are forcing your PCM to back off timing to avoid detonation. When you back off timing, peak torque spikes get "decapitated" so to speak, and this results in an engine that has a smoother feel to the power band, though it suffers from lost power.

Additionally, the inefficient combustion events that take place during idle result in a decent amount of fuel washing past the rings and into the oil. 19 hours of hot idle leaves no doubt in my mind that your oil galleys got a bit of cleaning.

I'd suggest a bit of seafoam for your motor, and some fresh oil.

Fuel does not run significantly slow through the fuel rail during idle. The fuel pump only has two speeds (when low speed even works), and they are not significantly different speeds. Of course, this is moot as the speed at which the fuel flows through the rails does not significantly impact the amount of heat that is transferred to the fuel in the tank, which is the de-facto consideration as this is the starting temperature for the fuel going to the engine.

I haven't stuck a temperature gauge in my tank anytime recently, but I would imaging that about one hour of idling would be sufficient time for the fuel temperature to be raised to a stable temperature.

I personally would not suggest leaving a car to idle for extended periods because there is no overheat protection should a fan motor or relay fail. If one wants a cheap power generator, it does not take a lot of dough to grab a used air-cooled lawnmower motor and mount a cheap alternator to it.

 

[SonicRiot]

An inverter...cool! Now I finally have a use for my SHO in the yard! A Yamaha generator for when the power goes out!

 

[whiteman_01]

I know my sho would have held a resonable temp for that long. I bet my fans would have been running for most of that time.

 

[Mrhappytuzi]

An inverter...cool! Now I finally have a use for my SHO in the yard! A Yamaha generator for when the power goes out!

Hey now... that sounds like a great marketting idea! "It only may look like a car but i tell you its a generator!!'