Rich idle on FD with rebuilt engine

[leeroy_25]

Posting on behalf of my dad here!
He has had an on going problem with his FD since a rebuild. Well more the garage has. Reputable place that have tried all they can think of. So currently we have the car back for a while.
Story goes. Was running normally then turbo\'s went so it went in to get a new set. At the same time decided to get the engine overhauled. So new engine went int and another set of turbos and it smoked like a pig. Tried 3 mor sets of turbos including a rebuilt set and still smoked. Engine came out and got stripped and rebuilt again. Still smoked. Complete new engine got built and put in and that\'s where we are roughly. Still smokes! It is on a stock ECU and 3 other stock ones have been tried with no change. The throttle position sensor was change which apparently helped a bit. Injectors have been cleaned and flow tested. Strangely an Apexi ECU was put in on a base map and this cured it? All well and good but we don\'t want to fork out on a new ECU and want to try and find the actual cause of the problem.

So the exact issue at present is at cold start it does not fast idle just drops straight into slow idle. It runs so rich that it smokes and you nearly pass out from fuel smell. As soon as you get it off idle and on some load it clears and appears fine. Drives fine too. When it is warm idling it runs much better.. practically no smoke but still a bit rich for sure. There is possibly a very slight hint of blue ting in the exhaust gas when cold. But you cannot smell oil burning at all. Starting is not as good as I would expect either. It starts on the key with no throttle hot and cold but only just. but then I expect that is just a case of the over fueling.

So.. ideas please. Can anyone think what this could be.. A damaged loom somewhere? Strange how the Apexi ECU supposedly fixed the issue. I have not seen that first hand. But no reason to doubt the guy.

Any help appreciated.

Thank you
Lee

[leeroy_25]

Any takers on this?

Cheers
Lee

[Grant Monkhouse]

Surely a reputable tuner would sort it for you before returning the car to your possetion?

If an apexi sorts the problem then that\'s the way forward, you can pick them up for £350, you don\'t need a commander as they cause mental problems with your car.

[clive]

If I\'m reading this right and you have paid good money for three turbo\'s and two engines to be fitted the car should be going back to the person who has been doing all the work because they will know what has been and has not been done and what parts were renewed or not

Not asking you to name names and I don\'t know anything about this other than reading this post but whoever is doing your work should know by now what is going on and be able to tell you rather than the club just throwing a list of potential causes at you.

[leeroy_25]

I do tend to agree.. Just to clear up though. Only the rebuild and new turbo\'s have been paid for the once. The garage doing the work have done all the other work at their cost. I am stuck in the middle as it is not my car.. Just trying to help my dad out! And see if there is something the garage have missed thus far. It has been sat for a while so I think part of the idea was drive it get a fresh tank of fuel and see if it cleared. When the turbo\'s went it blew a lot of oil in the exhaust and everywhere! The fumes though are definitely fuel smelling.
I did notice today that the plug on the airpump is not connected. Unless for some reason it has been done for a reason surely this would not help idle? I gather the stock ecu fuels assuming the airpump is pumping? But then again I cannot see even the airpump clearing this much extra fuel! Dad is going to call the guy tomorrow and check that out.

I don\'t want to name names as so far he has done all he can to try and resolve issue.

[Grant Monkhouse]

Have you checked the Inlet for oil? As if the turbos have died then there\'s a possibility it\'s sprayed oil out the inlet side of things. Into the intercooler and that stuff?

[leeroy_25]

Yeah. It\'s all been off and cleaned. I think it is more fuel than oil though. It literally smells of neat petrol on cold idle and the fact the cold start function is not working from an increased rpm point of view is the bit I find odd.
Not sure what controls it? Is the cold start rpm increase controlled via the rat nest? O2 sensors? Also when you stick an Apexi on it is supposed to cure  it? So that means either the Apexi is not using something the standard ECU is or is less susceptible to a bad signal on something?

[cyman]

is the car completley standard or has it had any mods like cat removed,which maybe causing an issue with the standard ecu and overfueling which the apexi sorts out.

only other thing i can think of is have the injector plugs got mixed up so maybe its running on one 55o and one 850 injector on idle that will make it smoke as it will be overfueling and it will :censored::censored::censored::censored: the idle up aswell.

also you havent said if its been on any sort of run at all just to make sure everything has got blown through at all or clears with a few miles of decent running? have all the normal things been cleared out like breather hoses so there isnt any build up of crankcase pressure pushing oil passed the seals to get burnt.

[leeroy_25]

Hi Cyman, Thanks for the reply..
Car is completely standard. I know the CAT is shot to bits.. Airpump is unplugged I have noticed. Car has had a good run which has not cleared it.

Will look into the injector plugs as you suggested.

Thank you
Lee

[HaywardRotary]

Check that the MAP sensor is both plugged in and piped up to a vacuum/ boost hose.

[leeroy_25]

Thanks for that advice. I guess you might be speaking from experience? Is there a chance the map sensor could be cracked or faulty so not working right even if it all looks plugged in okay?

Thank you
Lee

[HaywardRotary]

Thanks for that advice. I guess you might be speaking from experience? Is there a chance the map sensor could be cracked or faulty so not working right even if it all looks plugged in okay?

Thank you
Lee

Its possible yes.
The causes can be many though.
Hard to diagnose without seeing it though.

[leeroy_25]

Thanks again for the info. I will have a look over it at the weekend. On another note.. Did you come across any reasonable twin or triple plate clutches that might suit my build in my FD? Let me know.

Thank you
Lee