Alright I need some insight in what is going on.

I got my Z out of storage the other day since it’s been sitting for the last month. It’s been rainy and I have a mid mount turbo with a K&N filter over the inlet. It sits where the passenger car went with no under tray.

Anyways I’ve been driving through standard rain, avoided all big puddles and been driving pretty slow so I’ve basically stayed out of or in low boost all week. Well for lunch today I went to pass a car and went into boost and I thought I blew my engine for a second.

it wouldn’t rev over 4K, smoked like mad out the back and made 0 power. After finally realizing it’s not happy I pulled over and it idled fine. I went back to driving slow and it was perfectly fine aside from a engine service light (probably from the misfire).

Well it’s stopped raining and it’s been a few hours and I was able to hit some boost, but as soon as I get into the full 12lbs of boost it bogs and almost feels like a limo mode.


Anyways, I’m thinking the filter is waterlogged and choking the turbo. Turbo probably sucked some water but there is no way it’s getting into the engine. Does that sound about right to you guys?

That or I have bad gas, but that wouldn’t explain why it runs fine and better the less wet it got. And why it only happens at more boost.

I don’t hear knock or any engine issues, no bad turbo sounds. Just terrible bog when into boost and 0 power and tons of exhaust smoke. White/blue smoke like it’s super rich. Which my gauge is saying it is like 10 AFR rich...

Any ideas or opinions? Going to try a couple small pulls tomorrow when the filter drys out to see if it’s gone

And if you ask no the turbo and filter were never submerged, but there were a couple good puddles that probably wet the **** out of both all this week.

 

How have you been?

obviously dry things out and maybe an oil change?

If you wanted to go a few steps into it go do a compression check - that'd be a good indication of how your cylinders are doign

I would continue to run the car in low loads, gradually getting into boost ...

can you get a splash shield for the filter?

 

Been good man. Just trying to win this thing called life.

i have a filter over the inlet. I have a water cooled so it doesn’t use oil it uses grease and I regressed it last oil change. still on like 800 miles since then. Don’t drive this much.

Now it’s running fine but I pulled a knock sensor code so I thought maybe I got bad gas or used 87 instead of 91.

Filled with fresh 91 this morning and it runs great until I put it under big load. Like 3rd gear WOT it sputters.

But no codes yet, but it’s going super rich on idle and won’t correct it self. It sits around 9 AFR until I shot the car off. Let it reset and then it runs fine again until I do a pull.

im so confused. I would say spark plugs or injectors. But that wouldn’t let shutting the car off and turning it back on to fix it....

Anyone?

 

Couple of quick questions-

• Have you pulled your air filter to see if it's heavy/water-logged, touched the bottom surface to check if damp?
• Pull the MAF, see if there's any droplets of water?
• Pulled the intake tube and shined a flashlight inside for evidence of water?

I get you're frustrated as I would be. Your initial thought was water in intake air, so take some simple tools and look rather than guess about AFRs. Something you haven't really touched-on besides your car being stored- did you treat your gas before storing? If you're running Ethanol it's known to gum up and gel, affects everything including injectors and fuel pump. Regardless of gas brand a $10 bottle of Techron might be useful.
GL!

 

Filter is dry, been a couple days since the rain.

I haven’t pulled the intake pipes. I figured the water would have been gone by now. I’ve been driving in dry weather for a week now.

as for the gas no, which is also what I suspected. But I have a full tank of fresh gas, but that wouldn’t explain why it goes full lean.

And again if it was mechanical, shutting the car off, and back on shouldn’t fix it. Which is why I’m so confused. It almost seems like some how my tune got changed due to sitting or because the battery was disconnected the whole month... But I was told that wouldn’t change a tune or effect one at all.

Of course my tune shop is closed due to COVID so I can’t call them or take it in to have the tune looked at.

 

IF you are running Ethanol gas I believe the combination of our comments points to the answer! -
You state the engine is lean after storage and turning off/on solves it.
I say Ethanol can completely or partially block fuel flow. I once had a lawn mower than ran great until I stored it without running all the gas out. I talked to a small engine mechanic who showed me how to reopen flow in the venturi with a wire. I pulled out a lot of gum. When you turn off/on the ecu starts a brand new "handshake" with the injectors at a higher fuel rate for stable idle (closed loop). If you're running ethanol gas I am convinced your injectors need cleaning, the water may be just a red herring.
Gl!