This is something that my car has been doing recently that I'm kinda concerned about. If I'm going along at about 35mph or so, and quickly jam on the gas sometimes it will shift smoothly and take off, and sometimes for a split second the car will just bog and backfire and then take off. The backfire is extremely loud too, enough to scare me if I'm not thinking about it.

Has anyone else had this happen??

John

 

Yup. Clean your MAF, see if symptoms go away.

I'm assuming this happens when the car is warm, and you start off a low-ish RPM for the speed right?

 

You are correct!!

Well me MAF is descreened, any problems there? Also how do I go about cleaning the MAF, I know the elements are delicate.

John

 

I recently descreened my MAF, and honestly it didn't make any difference either way.

As far as cleaning, someone recommended head cleaner to me, but it didn't help at all. Just get a paper towel and very carefully wipe away the grime. It should look like fairly new aluminum under the gunk. It is fairly easy to break off the sensors, but it isn't the most delicate part in the world. You should NOT really need to scrub hard anyways.

Please post back what happens when you have 'er cleaned

Edited.

 

I just use a tooth brush and some engine degreaser and very carefully get in between the wires... My car runs better now

 

Ok, thanks a lot guys. I'll have to post back on the results in a day or two about how it went. I'm right in the middle of cramming for some finals right now.

John

 

It COULD be a clogged cat. I used to have this problem, and I was drivin really fast and hit a bump, and my coil wire fell off, and I could see it kick flames out the back from the rear view window, so I assume it cleaned the cat out fairly well. I changed the coil wire shortly afterwards just in case, and I've never had the problem since (2 months ago). So it was either the wire or the cat. both are taken care of now... you may also want to try the coil, plug wires, plugs, and hopefully its not the opti

 

I have a straight pipe in place of my cat Anyway, is there any effective way to test the opti?? I know it's pretty much THE weak link in the LT1s, but I haven't known any good method of testing it to see if it's good or bad??

John

 

I don't know of any tests to make sure that the opti is actually working, because it either does or it doesn't

I'm pretty sure that a bad opti will usually give you a high rpm miss, while low rpm misses are caused by bad sensors in the air/fuel game.

That's just the hunch I'm going on to figure out what makes an LT1 run so bad sometimes.

 

I cleaned the MAF sensor today, it was caked with carbon. Used some spray cleaner of some sort and a toothbrush. I got on the car a few times, and I didn't have the backfire problem. I really can't tell that the car pulls any harder, but it seems to have fixed the hesitating and backfiring problem.

John

 

That's great to hear man. It's probobly only a small piece of the puzzle, but it definetly helps.

 

That's the good thing about having an 8 year old car, you can always find something to clean, fix or just make work better in general