legacycentral bbs

So last night it rained. I drove in it. I have an open element cone filter which is very very ghetto and allows some air past the filter to the maf...and water I'd suppose, too. I think I had maybe one or two spots of hesitation. First ever really. Very slight.
I started the car this morning and let it warm all the way up. I drove home from my g/fs house about 5 miles or so. No problems. It was about 35-40 deg outside.
Let the car sit for a few hours then it came time to go work. Warmed it up, all the way. Took off nice and easy got about 30 feet and there was a slight power loss followed by a quiet "POP" and then it drove normal. Car sat for 8 hours while at work.
Let it a warm up to go to back to the g/fs after work. It was rainign pretty good. Got down the street about 3 miles..pop...pop....(accompanied by very slightpower loss) I looked at the gas gauge, it had been on "E" for the last day or two (I live 1 minute from work, litterally so I havent got gas in a while) but figured I was running out of gas and so I stopped to get some. It felt like it was minus some power on my very short trek to the filling station.

Put in a half tank. Started it up and drove off towards g/fs, no hesitations. If there where I didn't notice.

Went home and it ran just fine. Still raining. Power felt good. I was actually marveling at the way the car felt very peppy, but I did not get on it at all.
About 12am I get the crave for white castles. SO, I went to get some. Still raining steady. Noticed in the drive-through I was starting to run hot. (i have steady a coolant leak on the turbo cooling line) so I pulled off to the lot, added some coolant, oil was 1/2 a qt low. Didn't add any. Cooled just fine and normal. Went to my buddys. It ran fine. Again, if it hesitated, I didn't notice.

On the way home just now, I let it warm up till I registered just above the lowest heat bar and drove in 2nd till it was warm, low throttle, staying in vaccum. Once I was warmed up all the way I decided to up the sped a bit. Put the pedal down to give myself a pound or two of boost...POP...POP..POP....(big power loss) all the way home! pop pop pop when id get around -10 vac. No power. Barley made it up a hill! It idles and free revs just fine. Doesnt over heat other than the coolant leaks fault. No mix of oil/coolant.

I'm guessing the MAF is water logged? Or fried? Any thoughts?

You can always test the maf by unpluging it and see how well your car runs. When you unplug the maf the car runs the base idol setting. So when you run the car it will run rich as all get out, but you should be able to boost, and if it works fine with the maf unpluged you have a bad maf. If not the maf is not your problem, the second thing I would check would be boost leaks, my car has done some weard stuff just find a blown Ic coupler so check that. Then what the hey do a tune up if you have not done one recently new plugs can also make a huge diffrence! As for a water logged maf I have no clue but take a look inside the maf is it wet are the sensor things rusted?

I poured in 2 bottles of iso-heet and it seems to be doing fine. Probably just moisture in the tank/lines. But I will need to drive a bit furether than I did for an accurate test.
Before that I had tried unplugging the maf and the car just died. It would not start without the maf plugged in. ( though I only cranked it a few turns)
I did a tune up about a month ago.

Sounds kind of like what I experienced with my SS. The previous owner had a lame Weapon-R intake (foam pod) and it had allowed the MAF to get soiled. I ditched the pod within a week of ownership.

I pulled the actual MAF sensor out of the intake and carefully cleaned the hot wires of the MAF. I used brake cleaner (leaves no residue), but I see that they sell an actual MAF cleaner now. Just be VERY gentle with the wires. Mine was COATED with black debris - the debris was built-up on the leading edge and was 2x as thick as the actual wire !!

My hesitation/bucking/poping went totally away and power picked up significantly (as well as gas mileage)

Hope this helps

-Chad

yes it does thanks!. Seems to be running just fine now after the HEET treatmen. But I may as well clean everything this weekend, just in case.