$3.50 power and acceleration fix

[Skids 108]

well i've been playing around with combinations of air filters, resonator tube, intake snorkel, and fuel octane ratings to see which give the best performance and mpg. this last round was going pretty well running a k&n filter with 91 and stock setup of tube and snorkel in minus rubber surround of snorkel opening (will publish all findings in another post) but still had that "stalling" from take off at a stand still, especially when flooring it (cvt tranny) as most of you have experienced. not as bad as full stock but still a bit of hesitation. i was at target in the automotive isle and figured what the heck its $4 cant hurt. dumped it in an empty tank (i dont remember which STP fuel treatment it was (im sure theyre all the same) i think it said MPG restore or something on it gray/silver bottle) then filled up with 91. first 1/4 of the tank felt very slow had to gas it a lot. im under 1/4 of that same tank and its driving like a normal everyday car should. floor it from a dead stop and no hesitation im not peeling out or anything but she goes, over 30 and punch and she zips around with ease, getting on the freeway i passed an audi suv that floored it on me.. this may or may not have fixed things who knows with all this new fangled technology cvt junk, and fuel system treatment is supposedly snake oil, but hey i did it and after its been a world of difference. If you've try it let me know your results.

[austex04 48]

Have you been using off brand gas? Maybe you have deposit built up in the injectors and/or the combustion chamber. Every 10k miles I do run a bottle of Techron in a tank, even though I only use top tier gas, it makes no difference in power or anything, but keeps deposits from building up. Premium gas makes my Spark run funny and takes a little longer cranking during cold starting, so I avoid it and stick with 87 octane. I do think the oem spark plugs are not really lasting very long, at some point I'd like to change them with NGK or Denso plugs provided they even make them for the Spark.

Edited October 7, 2014 by austex04

[Skids 108]

i only use chevron. ive been going back n forth with 87 and 91 to see which runs better with which set up. it depends on the intake set up but theres definitely a difference when using 87 and 91 depending. running 87 with the k&n no snorkel and no resonator was ok putting the resonator back on ran like a top, switching to 91 with the same setup there was definitely less power, pow the snorkel back on and helpped a lot. im guessing with this little engine the slow burning 91 with massive amount of air and the computer running more fuel to keep the mixture equal it was too much fuel to burn and bogged down the engine.. im guessing, cause restricting the air made it run better.

im thinking the STP helped cause these things are coming on a boat from korea who knows how long theyre sitting at the plant, what gas they put in em, how long the sat on the ship, in port, in transit to the dealership and on the dealers lot before i bought it.. might be good just to run a bottle through a new one when you first purchase to clean it out from the get go.

[Miraj Choksi 16]

The catalytic converter is the problem for the sluggish pickup I hav removed mine and running a straight pipe all till the muffler and its running better now.im gonna remap my car there are remap files for the 1.2 spark check on google.

[austex04 48]

The catalytic converter is the problem for the sluggish pickup I hav removed mine and running a straight pipe all till the muffler and its running better now.im gonna remap my car there are remap files for the 1.2 spark check on google.

That's nice, but most of us here need the converter in place becouse we have emissions inspections. It would also void warranty, which is a good thing to have on these cars.

[Retired old Gearhead 201]

i only use chevron. ive been going back n forth with 87 and 91 to see which runs better with which set up. it depends on the intake set up but theres definitely a difference when using 87 and 91 depending. running 87 with the k&n no snorkel and no resonator was ok putting the resonator back on ran like a top, switching to 91 with the same setup there was definitely less power, pow the snorkel back on and helpped a lot. im guessing with this little engine the slow burning 91 with massive amount of air and the computer running more fuel to keep the mixture equal it was too much fuel to burn and bogged down the engine.. im guessing, cause restricting the air made it run better.

im thinking the STP helped cause these things are coming on a boat from korea who knows how long theyre sitting at the plant, what gas they put in em, how long the sat on the ship, in port, in transit to the dealership and on the dealers lot before i bought it.. might be good just to run a bottle through a new one when you first purchase to clean it out from the get go.

I think what you used was 'STP Octane Boost' and you are right. Unless you run the engine hard and hot, there is no advantage to 91 over 87 and on a cold engine the 91 will not completely burn as it is a slower burning fuel. I run higher Octane for long fast trips and get better mileage, but for around town...87 is definitely cleaner and better and the added Ethanol (usually 10%) keeps the head, valves & fuel system cleaner. My Mechanic has actually shown me engine heads that were always run on the 10% Ethanol blend and Engine heads run on no Ethanol blend & the Ethanol heads were very noticeably cleaner. Obviously comparing two heads from completely different cars is not a good comparison, but he says that he has noticed this over the years. Ethanol may slightly reduce gas mileage, but it contains more Oxygen than gas without Ethanol. Ethanol alone has an octane rating of 110.

[Skids 108]

I got another bottle for the misses sonic. it said complete fuel system treatment.

I'm running a K&n filter with the snorkel and resonator tube off with 87 octane and its driving like a normal car. no lag no issues. Hauls ass on the freeway. mpg is a little less than I was getting with other variations, 34 vs. the 36 city i was usually getting with out hyper miling it and just driving normal. but for 2mpg to be able to keep up with other cars and even go faster than some of them (made an asshole driver in a civic SI look like a fool cause he didnt know how to drive stick and smoked him off the line)

[eleceng1979 1]

I live in Ohio so gas blends are very different than Cali. I strictly use 89 instead of 87. The reason is due to lower mpgs and poor performance with 87. There is a noticeable difference in throttle position vs speed as I drive the same 45 mile route to and from work every day. I have a tablet with dash command + odb adapter and track mpg and engine parameters separately. After two to three tanks of either fuel there are noticeable differences. It takes a tank or two to make a notice. The engine does advance timing further running the higher octane fuels, so this proves the engine is learning from the knock sensor probably. Remember... The solution to pollution is dilution, so adding a can of octane boost simply jumped the tank octane up. If you would stick with same fuel source and octane for a couple of tanks you would see the same. I have proven to myself using data that 89 is actually better dollars per gallon due to additional mpgs for the additional cost. Not to mention better performance/driveability. Nothing above 89 is cost effective due to more cost and less mpg increase. I have tested 87,89,91,93 all from same source to figure this out.

[Skids 108]

im running 89 this tank to see if theres any difference versus 87.. seems about the same to me mpg is the same and performance about the same maybe a little slower.. but comparing 87- to 91 theres definitely a difference. didnt put an octane boost in it. figured 91 made it slugish why bump it up and for the price of a gallon not worth trying

[Smikster 10]

almost at 18k and stuck some seafoam I had on the shelf in the tank...OMG guys these cars cloge up fast! night and day night and day!

[Retired old Gearhead 201]

almost at 18k and stuck some seafoam I had on the shelf in the tank...OMG guys these cars cloge up fast! night and day night and day!

Seafoam is mostly effective on high mileage, larger engines and will remove most petroleum/carbon deposits. An 18k Spark engine should have little to no deposits if proper oil and fuel is used and the car is run at operating temps. The smoke you see when using Seafoam is mostly from the product burning off rather than deposits burning off. The oil in the Spark's 1.2 engine should not foam or sludge if proper levels of 5w20 are maintained. Like most additives, Seafoam does nothing to a newer engine run with proper fuel, oil at operating temps.

Engine sludge in a small engine will quickly present itself as sludge under the oil filler cap and a rough idle on VVT engines.

[Smikster 10]

Seafoam is mostly effective on high mileage, larger engines and will remove most petroleum/carbon deposits. An 18k Spark engine should have little to no deposits if proper oil and fuel is used and the car is run at operating temps. The smoke you see when using Seafoam is mostly from the product burning off rather than deposits burning off. The oil in the Spark's 1.2 engine should not foam or sludge if proper levels of 5w20 are maintained. Like most additives, Seafoam does nothing to a newer engine run with proper fuel, oil at operating temps.

Engine sludge in a small engine will quickly present itself as sludge under the oil filler cap and a rough idle on VVT engines.

what in gods name made you think I ran it threw my intake? it's only got 18k man! If I seen smoke oohhh man

and yes at 18k I must of had gunk somewhere threw the fuel line to the exit at the butt (hehe) made a bit of a diff.

[Retired old Gearhead 201]

what in gods name made you think I ran it threw my intake? it's only got 18k man! If I seen smoke oohhh man

and yes at 18k I must of had gunk somewhere threw the fuel line to the exit at the butt (hehe) made a bit of a diff.

I realize you put it into your gas tank as that is clearly stated in your post and the proper place to add it. Seafoam is an excellent product and put in the tank it is designed to dissolve deposits in both the fuel system and upper cylinder components such as valves etc. Those deposits are then burned off in the combustion process and depending on the degree of deposits there is some smoke at the tailpipe as these deposits are burned off. No smoke indicates you have little or no deposits and the cat is working as it should. I have used Seafoam on an older V8 that had a lot of deposits in the upper cylinder area (valves mostly) and it smoked a lot for several miles until most of the deposits were burned off.