Saturday, April 9, 2011

Improving the responsiveness of your old and tired engine....

Ever wonder why your engine feels tired and breathless even after countless regular service using the best-grade motor oil....? Does it worry you that you may have to spend another whole ton of money to get your car re-tuned?

Well let me share a personal experience of mine here.... to improve the responsiveness of your engine without burning a big hole in your pocket!

My car was at its 80k mileage and I could feel it becoming breathless and almost unwilling to pull revs when called upon. To add on to my headache, I have started to experience very unstable idling and even stalling when the engine is on. Thinking that it may just be the results of a dirty filter I changed to a brand new one, which helps a little but still does not solve the problem. A friend of mine suggested that my throttle body may be dirty and I should head for the nearest garage to clean it. Well I didnt exactly follow his advice though, since anyway the change of filter did serve to improve the condition and I thought it might be just alright.

I finally got down to bringing my car to the workshop when the idling maintained at a constant 2k rpm even at neutral! And I left the garage feeling good again! The cleaning of the throttle body is a rather simple process, where the entire throttle body is removed and cleaned with solvent to remove the black sludge that accumulates behind the butterfly valve . The removal of the black stuff does help the valve to open/close more easily.

The result after the TB cleaning is refreshing, and the car manages to pull its rev again as compared to previously. Note that I am on lightened flywheel so yes I am able to observe the tacho needle rising more furiously, in case you sceptics out there thinks I am talking bull here!!

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