Loss of power during hard cornering

Post by **Cornholio** » 11 Aug 2006 01:14 pm

Whilst barrelling around corners at high speed, I'm sometimes losing power (not traction). This can be a bit worrying if I'm trying to execute a swift right hand turn in front of an oncoming vehicle.

It soon recovers though, probably within a second or so.

It happens whether the fuel tank is running near empty or full, although it does seem like a fuelling problem. Not that I know anything about cars...

Would anyone have an idea of what the cause may be? The Volvo is due for a service soon so I could leave it for them to sort out, but I'm always happy if I can save a bit of money.

Won't be around now until Monday, but hope you all have a nice weekend

Post by **Chesh740R** » 11 Aug 2006 01:37 pm

Keep your fuel tank topped up more, your getting fuel starvation, the fuel is sloshing to one side of the tank during the corner, and the pick up pipe is trying to pump just air.

The pickup up pipe might be damaged though, go through the inspection hatch and have a look

Post by **redline** » 11 Aug 2006 03:13 pm

stop trying to run it on hobgoblin and try unleaded instead lol

Post by **Chris_C** » 11 Aug 2006 04:13 pm

Who would ever run a car on hobgoblin??? Sacralidge... and dearer than petrol!

Post by **Gulbrandsen_Racing** » 11 Aug 2006 05:56 pm

i also have this "problem", but thats only when the tank is nearly empty..

Post by **pettaw** » 12 Aug 2006 06:02 am

If you're cornering really hard, it might even be the fuel in the float chambers of the carb sloshing up against the sides and causing problems, I'm not sure there's a cure though

Post by **redline** » 12 Aug 2006 08:21 am

[/quote]

my cornering usually gets much worse when my tank is full

Post by **Sam340** » 13 Aug 2006 11:29 pm

I have had this happen to me quite a few times when I have tried to get the car sideways a bit.

The car normally splutters a bit and loses power but quickly sorts itself out.

I have tested it with a full and empty tank and the same thing happens.

Very curious!

would like to find out why, gonna be pretty useless for drifting if it keeps losing power!

Cheers
Sam

Post by **redline** » 14 Aug 2006 08:07 am

as opposed to petrol starvation it could be petrol surge so you are temporarily flooding the engine ,
that would explain why it happenes with a full tank of gas

Post by **Cornholio** » 14 Aug 2006 09:06 am

Thank you all for your replies. Very helpful.

Mick, you know me so well. Although I prefer to run the Volvo on something a bit higher-octane

I'd thought it may have been caused by running near empty, but last time the tank was quite full. Maybe I just need to take the corners a bit slower?

Yes, but:

I'm the sort of fuddy-duddy who obeys the speed limits. This can be infuriating for the repmobile behind, but it is always great fun to leave them standing on the twisty bits

Post by **foggyjames** » 14 Aug 2006 06:47 pm

Definitely float chamber related. The float chamber is there, amoungst other things, to provide a reservoir of fuel to stop this happening. I'd suggest you have a misadjusted or holed float.

People often complain that carbs have no power around corners, but I think those would be the same (usually incompetant, and thus blaming it on the hardware) people as think my Solex carbs are crap

cheers

James

Post by **Chris_C** » 14 Aug 2006 06:56 pm

Now, Foggy, do you mean that people say:

a) Solex carbs are crap

or

b) Your carbs are crap... cos they STILL arn't set up right

I've heard both mentioned

Gavin, do you have the will to take the carb top off and have a look? It's a fairly easy thing to check, and the dimensions are in haynes to check the floats, and float heights. Only thing you have to do is make sure you *just* touch the ball bearing in the valve when you do it, it makes a lot of sense when you see it.

Post by **foggyjames** » 14 Aug 2006 07:10 pm

If I could get the exhaust off to get my WB in....see rant in 990's DP thread

cheers

James

Post by **Cornholio** » 15 Aug 2006 09:21 am

Thank you, Chris and James. I may get out the Haynes and have a tentative probe, depends if I can pluck up enough courage.

At least it's driveable at the moment...

Cheers!

Gavin.

Post by **Sam340** » 24 Sep 2006 06:31 pm

Did you ever investigate this problem Cornholio?

I am finding this to be a problem now as i have been trying a little to practice getting sideways in the 340 ... as above the car splutters a little, loses power for a second or two and then comes back to life.... Im not confident enough in my own abilities to start taking carbs apart although this could be a major flaw / setback in the drift project!!