With the 'close to home' experiences of Sipie's broken engine I'm finding myself increasing paranoid about every little noise from the car. JB recently put my mind at ease with a DD check but one thing I've always wanted to ask is whether pops and the occasional bang from a full decat on a standard DV is normal?

I sometimes (not often) get a nice bang/loud pop on high rev upchanges. The car will often give soft little pops at certain points in the rev range when I've backed off and the engine braking is slowing the car down. Its all very occassional and I do like the sounds but I just was assurance that its to be expected and it doesn't mean something nasty is looming.

Thoughts?

 

Lovely aint it......mine does the same, nothing to worry about.

 

Votes:

Normal = 1
Your cars gonna blow up = 0

Looking good so far

 

I'd say normal.

2 - 0

 

If you are worried about your engine Kenny GET A KNOCKLINK. It is foolish not to have one with your setup, you like to run it near to the edge. If it then blows well at least you will know that there is nothing you could have done about it. Detonation kills most of these engines IMHO.

 

I hear you but they look so crap!! Is there anywhere you can mount one where you can see it if it lights up but where is is subtle! The car looks modified when you can see a knocklink flashing away

 

Kenny,

You'll not be moaning about it's looks when your car's sitting in bits at AF Nobles will you?

Mike @ Scoobymania sent me some pics of their own Knocklink. It's a dinky wee thing about 1.5" long and just LED's. He's out of stock and changing suppliers, so can't tell me a price yet. I'm getting one as soon as he's got them in stock.

I'll e-mail you the pic he sent me.

I've a full-decat and it's never popped or banged. In fairness, I've started short-shifting around 5000rpm so don't really rag the nuts off my car.

When exactly do you get them? upshift, downshift, high-revs ...?

Stefan

 

Ok, ok, ok!! I'll get a friggin knocklink! I know its a good idea but where do you draw the line. Gridlock Mikey to a small degree had a point, i.e. if you took everything you read on SN seriously your car would be decked out like the Enterprise!!

I look at the facts: at the moment I'm running less boost than the Tek2.5 was designed to run. I hadly ever get the chance to boot it for more than a short blast, I run good fuel and service it on time. Statistically speaking if my car was to blow up then I believe it would be a first for a JB mapped car. Not saying it can't happen but if I get a knocklink and it never blips once throughout the whole summer I'm going to feel like I've wasted £170 odd quid. Furthermore, I know that when I can see where det is/isn't I'll just turn the dawes up to be just below that point - i.e. actually run it on the edge!

The pops/bangs....take 2nd gear and floor it (lots of roar sounds ) when I get to about 6800rpm I change up and sometime get a nice loud pop/bang. Floor it in 3rd gear for the roar again. Back off in any gear and let the engine braking slow her down and you can hear it pop and spit a little as the revs drop. This popping and spitting is hard to hear and I usually only hear it with the load-through down or the windows down.

I'm not overly worried about the engine the car has been running fine. The purpose of this post was to establish why a car pops and bangs (what causes it) and whether or not that is normal for mines to do it. Its preventative investigation

 

Kenny,

Being very paranoid and scared is a good thing. It keeps us alive and will keep your car alive too.

If it never blips, you'll be content in the knowledge that your car is running very well and will be happy to give it a blast whenever you feel like it.

If it lights up like a Xmas tree, you'll know there's something not right and needs to be sorted BEFORE IT IS FUBAR'D.

It's a bit like Insurance. I've had no claims for the past 3 years, but I don't feel like I've wasted £1500. It's there when I need it and when I do, I'll be very glad of it.

If you were really paranoid, you'd have delta dash running 24/7 and go through daily logs with a fine-tooth comb

Stefan

 

Kenny -

my99, PPP, SS DP, SS BB
mine pops n bangs...

2nd gear floored... nice sound...
change up at 5 to 6 K, can hear some pops as the revs drop
floor again.. nice sound...
top of the hill, back off... brake a little... pop pop pop
running down far side of the hill.. 4th gear, 2 - 3k pop pop pop

also.. get home after very calm drive... blip engine to 2k.. no pops on drop to idle
get home after fun drive... blip engine to 2k.. pop pop on drop to idle

Hot DP and decatted makes the diff i think...

i am getting a knocklink... seeing as our cars work using this... i think its a good idea to see whats going on..

I agree on the looks tho! (and the price)
Looks like a first years electronics students attempt...

Ozzy
Id like the nicer looking one.. as long as it performs the same.

 

Kenny

You can get the remote versions still i believe from scoobymania. I've sent you some pics.

Cheers

Paul

edited to say i really should read the whole thread before posting

[Edited by paulwadams_my99 - 1/28/2003 10:48:48 AM]

 

Phil,

YHM.

It ain't no oil painting, but it's small a discreet enough to not look poo.

According to Mike, it does exactly the same job and uses an external Bosch mic.

Stefan

 

thanks

looks much smaller and better
ill be getting one of those

is the lamda monitor as useful?

 

Full De-Cat on mine and doesn't pop or bang. only ever heard it do it once when I hit the limiter changing up. Something I don't do often.

 

Phil,

Useful for indicating if the MAF is knackered as it will start to run lean.

Stefan

 

Stop being such a ***** Kenny

Just buy a brand new feckin' engine when it goes boom I mean, surely you can see how the whole experience has enhanced my life and mood

It's the only way mate

PS Buy yourself a gearbox and clutch whilst you are in there mate

[Edited by SiPie - 1/28/2003 11:47:14 AM]

 

SiPie,

Have Nobles opened her up yet? and if so, what's the prognosis?

Stefan

 

Yup Stefan

New short block was ordered yesterday from Subaru as it was only £250 more expensive than a recon one

Piston no 2 absolutely smashed to bits with debris everywhere (that'll explain that bang then).

They are still not 100% certain what caused it but they will detail all in the report. A new oil pump is being fitted with an accompanying (at my insistance) MAF, and filtration being returned back to standard. Kenny can have my old ITG and let the gunk screw his MAF

It looks probable that MAF failure has caused wonky fueling over a period of time and then boom boom

Still, the very thin silver lining is that I'm saving a fortune on the 90k service as half of it's needed for the new engine anyway and I have to say, Nobles have been thorughly decent about the whole thing....so far

Cheers
Stefan

 

A good point well made However, like insurance you have to draw the line somewhere! I'd tell them where to go if my renewal came back at £3k for example.

Off to look at the piccy's Cheers for the info and opinions. Good to hear that other people are experiencing the pops, I've noticed its heat related too.

 

Piccys are great. Provided it performs as well as the knocklink I'd go for one of those bad-boys, very small and very subtle

 

Check out the new Knocklink, as seen at the Autosport show - it's a small dial that can be steering column mounted and aside from a needle that indicates det levels the background to the dial changes colour through the usual knock colour range Ie white faced dial, goes light green when switched on , brighter green - normal, up through orange to the full bad boy red when a very bright diode blasts your eyeballs out. better position and looks like a piece of OEM equipment - v like the Sti cloumn mounted boost gauge. Distributors - BRD

 

Got any more details or pictures of it?

 

Just found them, if turbosport is working I'll put them up shortly

 

Hopefully this will work

 

That is superb Not much use to me though as I already have an a-piller boost gauge so I wouldn't have anywhere to mount it (neatly) but what a brilliant piece of kit...top marks

 

 

Anyone any idea of price? calling Bob Rawle

When you say small, how small are you talking. I don't want 60mm ones, they're just as big as the steering wheel

 

take scooby out of his wee house and get mount there

AJ

 

I sure hope scooby wasn't the pet name for your 'trouser snake' Kenny

 

I think they are 52 mm but don't quote me on that, very similar to the steering column mounted boost gauges. I think they would look good there or in a dash top box, not A pillar. No idea on price speak to BOb ( no connection etc..)