Multiple Issues

[cdigerlando]

I am dealing with multiple issues and would appreciate any advice in that regard. I was having some idle issues. So I blocked off the idle air controller and the cold engine air recirculation lines for testing. Before warming the car up, I checked the cold engine recirulating valve to see if it was open. It was. After warming up the engine it still seemed open which concerned me a bit. Then after setting the idle manually I connected the idle air controller and the idle jumped to 730 rpms. I manually adjusted the idle down, but I thought that the idle air control valve should have been shut. Shouldn't it only open if the idle is off, or their is something like the AC that comes on? Anyway I turned it down.

Overheating is still an issue. I am starting to think I have a bad radiator. I can monitor my engine temperature digitally, and when I turn the heater on the engine heat drops immediately. When I turn the heat off, the temp climbs immediately. Its like the radiator does nothing. I'm going to flush the system again. Both the radiator and the block separately. I may even shove a snake in to see if something is clogging it. The radiator is relatively new. I don't want to start replacing parts until the problem goes away. If I do replace the radiator, I will probably go with the PWR radiator.

Another issue I have been dealing with is tuning with the engine management. I have two O2 sensors. One is a narrow band, which is tied into the engine management. The other is a stand alone wide band, which I am monitoring separately. I can get the injectors set (not the easiest task), but then when I try to let the engine management tune using the narrow band, the readings go wack. I even tried messing with the calibration curve and the sensitivity of the changes that the sensor has. No go. I am an engineer, and I deal with control issues regularly. It seems ludicrice to try to tune based on the readings from a narrow band. The values swing so suddenly, I think it would be impossible to get anything set right. Am I the only one that thinks this way? I am seriously considering permanenely installing the wideband, and running an output to my engine management. Fortunately the the electromotive will let me do this. Either that or setting up the narrowband as more of a failsafe, in the event that the mixture goes way too lean, like around 15.2 or so, the EM will kick up the fuel a bit. But leave the settings alone otherwise. Most folks don't allow EGO correction over 1800 rpms anyway. They let the management do the work. Besides the SVX has a good habit of stalling when it gets too lean (or so I have found out).