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Okay. I do have a check engine code that popped out. It's p0171. Not to sure what it could be. I'm guessing maybe the exhaust might be restricting? Seems to be with the fuel side of things per Google. Damn sparks has 2 mufflers on it. Idk tho so maybe someone can help out. Working on a cat back now. Thanks guys.

Actually, looking more into it, looks like the damn intake still.

post-2458-0-89997100-1445606637_thumb.jp

Edited by Do0ks
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my best guess from the info in you screen capture about it being lean is too much air, not enough fuel. you could be sucking too much and the fuel pump and such cant keep up. try disconnecting and re connecting the battery to reset the intake and all that good stuff. but very possible the rest wasn't built for this much air intake and you might have problems down the road with burning out the fuel pump.

the intake looks cool, but I have a feeling it's sucking so much air from the sides easily the "ram" air is doing little if anything too many curves too long to travel and the corrugation in the pipe is screwing it all up. if that pipe wrapped around the rest of the filter it might actually be useful as a cold air intake. just my 2 cents

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my best guess from the info in you screen capture about it being lean is too much air, not enough fuel. you could be sucking too much and the fuel pump and such cant keep up. try disconnecting and re connecting the battery to reset the intake and all that good stuff. but very possible the rest wasn't built for this much air intake and you might have problems down the road with burning out the fuel pump.

the intake looks cool, but I have a feeling it's sucking so much air from the sides easily the "ram" air is doing little if anything too many curves too long to travel and the corrugation in the pipe is screwing it all up. if that pipe wrapped around the rest of the filter it might actually be useful as a cold air intake. just my 2 cents

Yeah that's exactly what I'm thinking. Really I've tried everything. Seems like the only other thing I can do is get the fuel per pounds air ratio adjusted in the computer of the car. Idk. Maybe octane boost will even that shit out? Lol. Maybe I'll just drill a damn 3 inch hole in the stock box and tape everything else up for now. Damn

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my best guess from the info in you screen capture about it being lean is too much air, not enough fuel. you could be sucking too much and the fuel pump and such cant keep up. try disconnecting and re connecting the battery to reset the intake and all that good stuff. but very possible the rest wasn't built for this much air intake and you might have problems down the road with burning out the fuel pump.

the intake looks cool, but I have a feeling it's sucking so much air from the sides easily the "ram" air is doing little if anything too many curves too long to travel and the corrugation in the pipe is screwing it all up. if that pipe wrapped around the rest of the filter it might actually be useful as a cold air intake. just my 2 cents

Yeah that's exactly what I'm thinking. Really I've tried everything. Seems like the only other thing I can do is get the fuel per pounds air ratio adjusted in the computer of the car. Idk. Maybe octane boost will even that shit out? Lol. Maybe I'll just drill a damn 3 inch hole in the stock box and tape everything else up for now. Damn

OK..Here's the scoop: As usual Skids pretty well nailed the big picture logically. It is most likely not your MAS being dirty or defective as that would cause the check engine light to come on as well as the code. Most likely not a vacuum leak but as Skids said too much air and most likely air coming in from multiple places confuses the MAS signal since air is probably tumbling into the sensor area from the car front intake as well as the red filter and possible from other unsealed areas in the intake system that is way too long and not very smooth with the bends and ripples in the piping etc. Basically the MAS sends airflow info to various sensors that in turn send info to to the engine to keep the air/fuel ratio correct. The entire fuel system on this small engine was not designed to dump that much fuel into the combustion chambers as it is a fuel efficient system. Getting the computer changed to keep up the ratio is probably impossible without replacing the entire fuel injector and pump system changed etc. Octane boost will do nothing and same with exhaust. My suggestion is to either go to the standard short intake system made for the Spark as some others have done or revert back to stock intake before things get out of control and things get messed up so bad you will need to spend $$$ to get back to normal.

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also I personally have noticed a point of diminishing returns where too much air actually makes the car slower off the line. (this happened in my Geo metro as well) I just think its the little engine getting "flooded" with fuel (more air = more gasoline) that it can't burn it properly and there's a lag till it revs to higher RPMs to burn off all the gas in the cylinders. I'm no mechanic but it seems logical. In bigger engines we dont really see or notice this but in these little guys ... anyway..

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go to the standard short intake system made for the Spark as some others have done

Excuse me sir could I ask you about this standard short intake system? Where can I learn more about it? What difference does it make on the Spark? Thank you.

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OK..Here's the scoop: As usual Skids pretty well nailed the big picture logically. It is most likely not your MAS being dirty or defective as that would cause the check engine light to come on as well as the code. Most likely not a vacuum leak but as Skids said too much air and most likely air coming in from multiple places confuses the MAS signal since air is probably tumbling into the sensor area from the car front intake as well as the red filter and possible from other unsealed areas in the intake system that is way too long and not very smooth with the bends and ripples in the piping etc. Basically the MAS sends airflow info to various sensors that in turn send info to to the engine to keep the air/fuel ratio correct. The entire fuel system on this small engine was not designed to dump that much fuel into the combustion chambers as it is a fuel efficient system. Getting the computer changed to keep up the ratio is probably impossible without replacing the entire fuel injector and pump system changed etc. Octane boost will do nothing and same with exhaust. My suggestion is to either go to the standard short intake system made for the Spark as some others have done or revert back to stock intake before things get out of control and things get messed up so bad you will need to spend $$$ to get back to normal.

Yes. I've been doing a lot of research on this and you and skids are %100 right. I'm back to stock for now but going to work on another build. It sucks, I really wanted a short ram but obviously that's not going to work. It's just getting air to quickly making the O2 sensor detect to much oxygen in the exhaust making a lean condition. Obviously doing a cat back to solve this issue isn't going to work. I've only seen bad things to come from p0171 so I need to get this right. I just hate the idea of taking off my bumper to change a air filter. I'm going to post a picture of the layout in the next comment. Now the cia that works is the Injen cia right? So I'm going to try copying that as much as I can. Unfortunately, I can't just buy this. I'm that type of person where I'll get a lot more satisfaction if I build this and get it to work so all the support I can get from you guys I'll take. I'll explain in the picture what I'm going to do this time.

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Basically move everything up the way it was in the last, taper off from the silver 2.25" to 2.50" to 3" to hook into the 3" air filter. Does that make sense? I figured if the problem is to much air. Let's throw some curves to slow things down. It might not work but if anyone can think of things to why this wouldn't work that would be awesome.

post-2458-0-66445500-1445899766_thumb.jp

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Can't see any reason why that should not work. Also can't see any benefit to the stock system. The stock has a 'catch can' type container at the bottom just past the PCV tube to collect any excess oil from the PCV..kinda handy if for some reason your PCV valve spits out some oil that could mess up you MAS. On a carburetor equipped car without all the sensors and variable ignition timing and VVT etc the Spark has, you could get away with alot more in the way of mods..With the Spark..you upset one sensor and they all get confused.

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side note.. in playing with stock combinations of all the intake parts (we've all heard of or done the resonator tube removal) in removing the front bumper and I'm sure you saw this Do0ks when you did it as well that theres plastic panels to keep all the air coming in the grill going through the radiator I took off the one on the drivers side closest to the intake resonator box in an attempt to help with more cold air coming in (did this with my truck as well and theres the performance intake box that catches all this air off the side now made it a beet beefier with only getting the cool air) didnt really seem to do much if anything, but this morning i thought what if i block off the snorkel so its only sucking from the cool air side. taped up the snorkel mouth with some masking tape and there was a difference. my mpg went up by 6, the engine was way quieter driving and it didn't red line as easily with just as quick and even smoother acceleration off the line. going to play with this more possibly add a pipe fitting angling out to the cooler air instead of just sucking from the side as it passes by.

also got a pulsing rev at idle not big enough to affect the tachometer to move any but slightly noticeable hearing it, any ideas??

since no replies yet, spent some time at home depot finding things that would fit diameter wise to the box, got stuff, but it's so tight in there nothing will fit so ya gotta take it all back.. maybe a small hood scooped shaped thing will work.. also had the pleasure of telling some old guy in an S500 that his parking skills were terrible. lol

Edited by Skids
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side note.. in playing with stock combinations of all the intake parts (we've all heard of or done the resonator tube removal) in removing the front bumper and I'm sure you saw this Do0ks when you did it as well that theres plastic panels to keep all the air coming in the grill going through the radiator I took off the one on the drivers side closest to the intake resonator box in an attempt to help with more cold air coming in (did this with my truck as well and theres the performance intake box that catches all this air off the side now made it a beet beefier with only getting the cool air) didnt really seem to do much if anything, but this morning i thought what if i block off the snorkel so its only sucking from the cool air side. taped up the snorkel mouth with some masking tape and there was a difference. my mpg went up by 6, the engine was way quieter driving and it didn't red line as easily with just as quick and even smoother acceleration off the line. going to play with this more possibly add a pipe fitting angling out to the cooler air instead of just sucking from the side as it passes by.

also got a pulsing rev at idle not big enough to affect the tachometer to move any but slightly noticeable hearing it, any ideas??

since no replies yet, spent some time at home depot finding things that would fit diameter wise to the box, got stuff, but it's so tight in there nothing will fit so ya gotta take it all back.. maybe a small hood scooped shaped thing will work.. also had the pleasure of telling some old guy in an S500 that his parking skills were terrible. lol

This is a great idea. I'm gonna have to try that. I also was thinking about just buying a new stock box at http://www.gmpartsdirect.co/chevrolet/spark/96910364/2013-year/ls-trim/1-2l-l4-gas-engine/engine-cat/air-intake-scat/?part_name=air-cleaner-body and taking the old one and customizing it. Basically take out the grill tube and corking off that opening and drilling a hole where the resonator box used to go and throwing my 3 inch duct there. Also, drilling another hole the same size as the resonator hole is somewhere else on the box. That's just so if for whatever reason I can open that and take off the airflow from that duct I have installed in my car. That should help cold air get to point a to point b nicely. Idk these sparks need help lol. All I'm trying to do is make it so it keeps up with everyone else's car out there. :p. I have more to add to this but I'm tired and need to go to bed.

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wow thats super cheap! the freakin little mounting pegs(? those black things that are basically everywhere holding the car together) are $4+ a piece.. WTH .. This morning she was driving real nice.. I'm in los angeles theres so much traffic keeping up isnt a problem and often i'm passing people by, it's just that initial off the line getting on the freeway and merging into cars whipping by at 70mph that is worry-some .. in my playing around with different combinations I've also found that more air at high speeds gets better mpg no snorkel and no resonator tube going 70+mph gets me a stead 40+mpg but with snorkel and no tube its about 30+mpg there is some punch/passing loss though.. I'm trying to figure a simple way to get more air intake at faster speed. I was thinking getting one of those dryer vent tubes that stick outside the house with the little flap, that opens when the air blows out but re covers so nothing crawls in and taking it apart. using the top cover as the "hood scoop" on the outside to help feed air into the the resonator hole, and the the flap inside the box where the snorkel goes in hopes that the additional vacuum suction lifts the flap up and allows more air to flow in. dont know if it will work if there will be enough suction but seems like a start?? what do you guys think?

post-1584-0-18732900-1446056910_thumb.jp

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