First off is the apparent loss of low end power due to one of my VRIS valves not behaving. This has been going on for a few months now and I have not had the time to investigate it further. I think I've narrowed it down to being the one closest to the drivers side (stock K8 setup, unfortunately). If I start the car and watch the valves that one does not look like it's opening through the powerband. I occasionally get a couple of codes flagged at me, just went out and checked and got a 23 and 24 (thought it threw something like a 41 once too in relation to this, not doing it now though), only happens when holding at mid rpm's while going down the road.
Giving it more gas clears it, sometimes comes back. Has not been a big issue lately so I have not gotten around to doing anything about it. Is anyone here familiar enough with the intake system to give me an idea where to start in fixing this? I checked with a dealership, the solenoid was about $90. Wondering if it's the solenoid not talking or has the mechanical part it controls gone out? Does the solenoid directly control the valve function or does it just report when the vacuum itself causes the valve to open? Is it possible or would it be a problem to zip-tie that valve into the open position just to see if anything changes? I thought I read somewhere once about someone who manually controlled those valves using switches in the car.
EDIT: So I just noticed that 23/24 are apparently RHO2S issues. Not sure how I missed that before.
Second issue I ran into just tonight is I think my recently replaced (with a cardone reman unit in May 2011 if I remember right) distributor is going bad again. Symptoms are almost spot-on what happened when the OE dizzy went dead last year. Losing power intermittently, shaky idle, seems to clear up a bit if I go over 3k on the tach. Sounds like she isn't firing on all six, or if she is, firing very weakly. Checked some of the obvious things, alt and battery are fine, picked up a new set of NGK plugs since she needed a tune up soon anyway (I have some cheapie Auto-Lites installed right now that someone at a parts place said were pretty good. He was wrong. I wont stray from NGK's again.) Plug wires are just over a year old, again a full NGK set, still in good condition.
For the dist, I know how to change out the part, what I cant seem to remember right now were the specifics on setting the timing. I remember having to adjust the dist last time and using a light to get it set. Does anyone have a good resource on the net on how to go about this?
Is there anything else I should be looking at? The car is pretty well maintained, no real other problems out of it over the years, just under 163k on the clock, just tossed a new set of Falkens on it a month ago. Lots of work planned for it in the future when things finally quiet down, a suspension overhaul, maybe a new engine, replace the headliner and if I have time for it a new coat of raspberry metallic all over.
Thanks guys!
