2.0L Engine

[Muffie]

What can I take off that isn't need in the engine bay.

I need to get the sparkplug relocation done.

I removed all the stock air induction garbage and put on a cone filter.

I was looking and theres like this plastic cylindrical container with nothing in it on the left side of the firewall with hoses that run to what looks like the throttle body. Can i remove that shit or is it needed for the vacuum?

I just want to clean the engine bay up some.

[niky]

Aside from the stock cold air scoop... there's nothing else you can take out. I hope you put the intake air temperature sensor in your new induction pipe when you removed the box and didn't leave it hanging... leaving it hanging in non-moving, hot air will have a negative effect on performance.

I'd love to see how you'd run the engine without the vacuum canister. (poke)

If you want a "clean" looking engine bay, you can move the battery to the trunk... but I don't know what you're going to do with all that extra space...

[Tzar177]

sparkplug relocation? Are you talking about the 1.8 coil swap?

[Muffie]

what i mean by spark plug relocation, the kit moves the main stuff to the side of the right side of the head and just the plug wires run over the cover, so you don't have that huge clutter on top of it.

the reason i asked about the cansister is because i was reading something about removing some line that goes to the throttle body on the forums, i can't remember exactly.

[niky]

Not the vacuum line. If you do that, the car won't idle.

It's the line to the coolant... the one that warms it up and keeps it from sticking in really cold weather.

Unless you have standalone engine management, there's not much else you can remove from the engine bay without impeding the function of the motor. Get a standalone, convert to ITBs, and you can yank a ton of junk out... :D

[Muffie]

Ok so I preplaced my sparkplugs the other day and the old plugs had white residue on them which means im running lean. Can I d/c the battery for a little while and then r/c it and drive around a bit, I know my tempo would recalibrate if i did that.

[niky]

How long ago did you install your cone filter?

If it's been a while, the might just need to reset... you also might want to check the placement of your filter, to see that it's not causing poor MAF readings, causing the car to run poorly.

[Muffie]

well everyone says running lean is ok, so im not worried.

but i know the tempo had a MAF sensor and don't the protege have a map sensor?

[justanothermp5]

running RICH is ok, running lean is not good at all
running too lean can melt a whole in ur piston or valve

[Muffie]

well how would i go about fixing the lean issue then?

I'm gonna d/c the battery tomorrow for a bit, then take a drive see if it will remap.

could it be that using 81 octane is too low? or using those fuel injector cleaner from STP?

[niky]

81? Shouldn't you be running at least 83-87? (sorry, not familiar with US AKI numbers).

As I was asking... how long ago did you do the cone filter? If you're running lean due to the cone filter, you might want to put steel mesh between the filter and the MAF to even out the air flow around the MAF, or move the cone filter further away from the MAF body to minimize flow turbulence. I gained 5 hp simply by lengthening the tube between the air filter and the MAF around six to eight inches.

[Muffie]

I will have to do that niky, since i just placed the cone filter on the end of the maf. (poor mans short ram haha)