18 rg efi running rich... guru help/suggestions needed

[4th surf]

I had this problem on a carbed 5.0 VL Commodore wagon(HEI ignition), An SD1 Rover Vitesse (you know the first ever HSV) and now on the 1UZ (Today) Commode and (G)rover wouldn't start hot and UZ loses 4 cyls under load and on hot start when ambient air temp is above 28 degrees celsius with A/C on. Issue here is/was the GT40 type coils are breaking down under load/ heat.

Now if memory serves correct there is no scanner that will ever talk to an 18R-GE (nor any similar engine of the era) as the scanners quite simply were not "Invented then". You will need to find the wiring diagrams and there is one terminal you connect to earth to "Flash" any codes out via the "engine check lamp". In other words put into "Field service mode". I have a scanner that will talk to all "Imports" (you really do not want to know what that cost) but anything basically pre-94 it tells you to "Connect this wire to ground and count the codes". Refer to places like www.troublecodes.net or rennacs for the same info.

I hate to say it but this will tear your head apart and also turn out to be "Something small and stupid which will take ages to find" and then when you find that "Small and stupid thing" you'll be wanting to know why you didn't check that in the first place. As for what the "Small and stupid" is.. I cannot tell you

Edit

The 18RG should have a vane type Air Flow Meter, now just behind the flap on the top you should find a plug which can be drilled and pulled out, under this is an allen key type screw which you can turn to adjust the mixture, You will need a 4 gas analyser up it's rear for this but you're looking for 1.5 CO2 ond and 300ppm CO. Top two numbers anyway

[Suavemechanic]

Thanks 4th , this one is before even the check engine light !
im thinking of it as an at home efi tutorial
found the air flow meter screw and i have a device called a " colour tune " like a spark plug with a window in it ....adjust flame till it is bunsen burner blue
and bob is yer aunties new boyfriend !
i have a good mate with a gas analyser
and am looking forward to " catching up
soon as i can get to grafton

current status
been playing with the timing and vac advance and its getting better.....

[Omegaman]

Hope this is sorted soon 4 u. I'm interested in final diagnosis.
i have re-built 18rgeu also, but added emange, so looking at what problems i may come up with.

[Suavemechanic]

I think the e mangle will help .wish it was in the budget
One of the things I did wrong was tune to 18r specs 6degrees of advance and 850 rpm .oops
18rgs run 12 and at least A grand at idle
My trip to work is At " five am freeway speeds" so it goes allright but no power down low ,no change of a burnout unless I dumped the clutch at four thousand rpm , again not in the budget .
Once I hit 4000rpm it goes like mad ,Ferrari driving style in a ute..
I'm sure there is more power down low to be found
The cat flap on the air flow meter is a bit rattley and the fuel pressure reg seems to be noisy when it raises pressure ( ie I gas it or load comes on)

I do one tweak
Most mornings do my fifty lays and have a think
Slow but we are getting there,some dyno time would be cool and speed up the process I ll post my figures and settings when I get it done
Cheers
Economy is not bad

[Omegaman]

All i can think of are 2 things, yr efi! so check yr TPS to make sure thats correct. 2. is yr dizzy, since you have replaced, the 18rgeu dizzy has something like 11.5 weights inside, the 18r has 8 or 9 stamped on the weights. I had changed mine to the 11.5 and any dizzy power problems were fixed. do a search on weights and an explanation of differences and affects will come up. If i find where i got my info from, i'll let u know.