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/RANT ON I've had enough of this crap. My car has been GREAT over the years as far as problems go. I've had some odd things happen, but only because of strange mods I've made or freaks of nature. No major problems. But this damn pinging has gotten the best of me. I HATE MY CAR right now and I'm sure Greg Dupree thinks I am absolutely nuts. I just can't fucking win with this car. I love it and I love Z's, but not this Z right now. For a YEAR I've battled off and on problems. The thing is, I keep changing things and nothing stays constant...so it's majorly confusing. A year ago I'm pinging. We change the plugs from 5's to 6's and it's fine. 6 months ago I'm pinging again. We think it's the car running too hot (205+) because of the radiator. I get it rotted out and it's fine for a little while. I start pinging again and pull off the AFC just to be sure. It doesn't help so I retard the timing a little and it's fine for a while. I get a new radiator and the car runs cool so I bump it back up to 15 degrees of timing. Then I get a JWT ECU and the car pings like MAD (worse than ever). I pull it out. Maybe it's fuel? I buy a Fuel Pressure Gauge...it's actually running MORE fuel pressure than it should be. But wait...fuel pressure doesn't mean flow. Either way, I've had bad gas mileage for a while and thick soot covers the rear end in 10 minutes, yes TEN minutes of driving. So am I running rich? And still pinging? WTF!? I change the plugs and the car feels like it never has before. People think I'm nuts and it's in my head...but it did! I drive a VERY specific way and floor it all the time. So when the car starts fishtailing and blowing through turns it's easy to spot the low end power gain. After a week the car is back to being sluggish as hell. The pinging has subsided so I think the sluggishness if from running rich and a lot of signs point to that. So I check the plugs and misread them thinking they are fouling when they are not (my dumbass...I should have known). In fact, I'm running a bit LEAN. Well that makes sense for pinging...but I'm not pinging anymore. Since my Fuel Pressure was much too high, I try a new Fuel Modulator (Greg has seen dozens go bad) and the pressure is the same. The Apexi reads 58psi peak which is 15psi MORE than it should be. But then we hook up a snap-on gauge and it reads 43 like it should. DAMN APEXi! WTF! But hey...the computer does make the car seem to run better so I keep it. Maybe it's psychological? Better yet, I'm just psycho and at my wits end. So today, I'm at 188 degrees and start pinging all over the place again...I have good gas and it's not overly hot where I was. WTF!!??!?!? I can't fucking win. I swear, I'm about to just throw a few thousand dollars at someone and just say "FIX MY AIR/FUEL PROBLEMS!". I guess I'm not looking for a solution here...no one can help, I'm sure of that. I just need to vent. I'm going to set my timing to 10 degrees and drive the car like it's a Honda. Damnit. P.S. Over this time frame we have replaces O2 sensors, fuel filters, all the fuel lines, computers, gauges, stock fuel pressure regulator, dampener, etc. /RANT OFF
Vote on my Z on www.cardomain.com! Fords are killing us! Zheaven.com has a new, FASTER server! Latest update includes full writeup on the 3rd annual L.A. Sports Car Canyon Drive 07/30/01 -- Click my Z below to enter. 
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22:45:18 08/15/01
