Throttle body backfires

From: Jon Steiger (jon@dakota-truck.net)
Date: Fri Apr 07 2000 - 04:04:38 EDT


    Does anyone know what causes a backfire through the TB? I've got the
4bbl bolted onto my Dak and the sensors sort've hooked up. (Nothing
permanent, just to get the engine fired up.) Anyway, after checking the
readouts on the sensors I fired it up. It ran exremely rich for maybe
20-30 seconds or so, then started to level out. The temp came up a little
bit and it went into closed loop; the computer seemed to be able to switch
rich/lean to maintain stoich without any difficulty. I don't have the
throttle cable hooked up yet, so I just moved the throttle linkage by
hand. I never let the rpms get really high, but I noticed if I opened it
slowly, it seemed ok, but if I snapped the throttle open relatively quickly
like what might happen if you blipped the throttle, I would sometimes hear
a pop inside the intake, which sounded like a backfire to me. Is it
possible that the engine needed to warm up some more? (I think the coolant
temp got up to about 150-160 or so.) Or could it be something else? I
didn't push it; I had visions of this expensive work of art blowing off my
engine and taking my hand with it. ;-) Speaking of which, how much power
can a naturally aspirated intake backfire create? Enough to damage the TB?

    Anyway, I think I'll let the truck warm all the way up and try again,
but I thought I'd throw this out there to see if anyone had any ideas, and
to find out exactly what causes a backfire through the TB. (Could it be
too much air?)

   For the record, the engine is a '96 318, MP computer, 4bbl TB, MPI
intake, JBA headers with 1 5/8 primaries dumping into a 2.5"->3" Y pipe,
then 3" all the way back through a Gibson muffler (no cat).

Thanks!

                                               -Jon-

   .--- jon@dakota-truck.net -- or -- stei0302@cs.fredonia.edu ------------.
   | Jon Steiger * AOPA, DoD, EAA, MP Race Team, NMA, SPA, USUA * RP-SEL |
   | '92 Ram 150 4x4 V8, '96 Dakota V8, '96 Intruder 1400, '96 FireFly 447 |
   `---------------------------- http://www.cs.fredonia.edu/~stei0302/ ---'



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