Ugh! Lack of Power in 2000 WS6

Just picked up the car, and feel semi-screwed. Overall car is in good shape, some niggles here and there, but The car just doesn't have anywhere near the power it should. I've owned several F-Bodies before and can say this one feels like it's only running on 6-7 cylinders.

Now 1st question will be why in the hell I bought it like this, trust me I'm still asking myself the same ?

But it runs fine at idle and just kind of normal driving. Doesn't shake or give indication of problem there. Does seem down in torque, but might just be spoiled by my 393 rwhp Z06 I dunno. It's when wide open throttle is attempted that it just kinda falls out.

To better describe, the car will rev, but there's just a hell of a lot of racket(crappy flowmaster cat back) w/out alot of power. Not a lot of vibration to suggest major internal problem. The tranny makes a fair bit of noise, but it does have an aftermarket shifter and I think trannymount or torque arm mount is going out(another story) so I think most of the noise is from that.

So I'm thinking, plugs, bent pushrods, or timing retard??????????

Plans include fixing the tranny mount/torque arm mount and doing a tune up on the car.

Now I do have my stock 01 Z06 cam, springs, pushrods somewhere that were taken off my car with 10k miles in april of this year. Was thinking of swapping those in for a few more HP and seeing if that would cure problem.
Then again, if I'm into the motor I might just pickup a "cheater cam" package as with stock manifolds and basic bolt on's I should be able to get 350-375 RWHP out of one of those combos. I know people are in love with headers, but I don't want to dump a ton of $$$ into this car as it's supposed to be more of a daily driver type car to give my Z06 garage queen status ;)

Oh one more thought! Car has centerline rims(probably heavy) with Nitto ZR 285/40/17 tires, which I think are a bit "taller" than stock height. Any experts care to comment on this. I would assume this would in effect cause some loss in SOTP accell almost like switching to a numerically lower gear.

thanks for your help

my calculation shows the tires to be 26" tall, stock is 25.6" i think

so not much difference, not enough to feel.

ok thanks

also wanted to add, enough loss of power that car can't spin tires.

I "thought" I had the same problem when I just got my new Trans Am the other day.. However I have found that maybe my disappointment was a little premature.. My car is a A4 and anywhere over 35mph, when I mash the gas, the car does nothing, and I mean nothing.. a chevette could probably pass me up.. I have fuzion 245-50-16's on it and they wouldnt break loose unless I did a brake stand.. I have since found that just a little under 35mph, like around 33mph, If I tromp it the car absolutely screams, thats when it was getting back down into 1st, it needs the shift points changed I guess, because anything over 33ish mph and it wont downshift for me, even though it needs to.. also right about 70ish on the interstate, if I tromp it, she screams, just a little faster than 70 and she wont downshift, and again its a big disappointment.. Now with only free mods, and I guess the computer getting used to the way I am driving it, the car will chearp off the line, not like a big nice burnout or anything, but just that little bit of driving time and couple of almost worthless mods and she will semi turn them over.. Just some food for thought, but as you can tell I am NO LS1 expert at all as I have only had mine a week.. Good luck with yours

So a stock 2000 WS-6 feels down on power compared to you 393 rwhp, lighter, more aerodynamic, and better geared Z06. I think most of your problem is percieved.

how many miles are on it? Tune up would probably be good, don't forget the fuel filter also.

i agree with purplehaze...

you could also be feeling the downsides of the 2.73 gears if it is so equipped.

put it on a Gtech or go to the track...if you are running 15s with good weather and traction...something is wrong

hrm I will have to check rpo codes
I would have assumed it was 3.42 gears as a WS6 car M6

In regards to how it feels slow to my Z06, well duh the Z06 will smoke a stock WS6, but this is well beyond that. I wouldn't have made this post if that was just the case. This is markedly down in power and I would say a stock LT-1 could whip this car bad.

I've owned 2 LT-1's, one LS-1 and now this car. This is the slowest of them all and I really wished I would have flogged the car prior to buying it, but it ran decent otherwise and I was in a hurry, so leason learned :(. The price was still right if I can fix this for not a whole lot of $$$$

well changed drivers side spark plugs, one was a bit loose with some blow by tell tale. Car runs a hair better, but still loses "breath" at about 4500-5000rpm, you can literally feel it lose power but it still continues to rev to whatever I want, no bad mechanical noises.

Thinking it's gotta be ignitiion or fuel.

Gonna change the fuel filter in couple of days. Also will search around forums for how in the heck guys change passenger side spark plugs b/c I'm not sure how in the heck to get in there lol.

http://www.installuniversity.com/install_university/installu_pages/freshman_year/spark_plug_and_wire.htm

here is the write up on the plugs.
When I changed mine I have the rail for the coil packs, I removed a few bolts and slide it out of the way. Then you can get to the back side of the passenger side.

I did change the drivers side plugs last night, was a moderate pain in the ass. Looked at the passanger side and gave up for the night. Will tackle that this weekend.

re: o2 sensors, I don't think that should have effected my WOT problem.

Also, I ran the car after the drivers side plug change and was able to discriminate a bit more of the problem

off idle torque LOW, like I said, I can't break tires loose and my 98 LS-1 camaro would from a rolling start. From 2000-4500 rpms mid range is OK, still low but not missing etc... At about 4500 rpms you can feel car fall on it's face. Still continues to rev towards orange/redline, but what's the point really! There are no strange mechanical noises I can hear from motor. It starts and idles great, no piston slap I can tell.


One concern of mine though is that I found the passanger side clip of the SLP airlid to be "popped" up. or in otherwords came undone all on it's own. Took the lid off, checked filter, a bit dirty but not bad. But when I physically took lid off of MAFS I about crapped myself as there were about 6-8 bugs stuck on the screen. This clip must have been doing this somewhat for some time and letting unfiltered air through . Now this is concerning obviously, but I dont' THINK it's caused the problem I'm speaking of above. I think if the rings were shot or there was major internal wear on engine it wouldn't run and idle good. Then again, I'm not a mechanic so I'm just guessing to a point.

My plan is to change passanger side plugs, and then go from there. would be nice if I could data log a few runs, but nobody I know has autotap and I'm not sure how much it is . Will have to check on that. I have a laptop so that's not an issue.

So much for being a trusting SOB.

Autotap runs around $200 (I think). There is also a program called Pro Scan, it runs $115.
http://www.myscantool.com/ls1tech/
After you cleaned the bugs off the screen, did you clean the MAF. Its just a thought.
My SLP lid had the same problem with one of the clips popping off. One day it took a few try's and finally got everything seated right.
Have you changed the fuel filter?

yeah I cleaned the MAFS-broke 2 of those little wires though-------hehehe just kidding


I haven't changed the fuel filter as of yet. I have it, and it's on to due list ;)

the fuel filter just might be your culprit. Your fuel pressure could be dropping due to it being clogged.
I did mine in less than 10 minutes.

that would be awesome of that was all it was :O

kinda worried about the bugs on the MAFS and if internals are ok, but then I get back to thinking it idles and runs part throttle ok, no knock, smoke etc...

I cleaned my K&N filter a few months ago, and found some dead grass in mine, covered the screen right in front of the MAF. But that was because the lid was not clapping down right.

how often should you replace fuel filter. factor says 30k. any reason to do it sooner?