[T3] running rich and mystery material

[Dennis Stiefel]

Hey Dennis,

I pulled the insulation 'board' out of the back of my Squareback to do some
rust repair and have been looking for a good replacement for it, too.
Currently, I'm using that double sided silver 'foil' bubble wrap style
insulation.  It was super easy to cut to a prefect fit and the thickness is
fairly close to the original insulation (pretty cheap, too).  However, I
think it's less than ideal for a long term solution for a few reasons.

I've been looking into something more like a thicker, stiff rubber or
flexible plastic with a foil backing.Possibly like this stuff:
http://www.summitracing.com/search?keyword=THE-14610&dds=1
or maybe something along these lines:
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/sum-879012/media/images 

The stuff in the first link comes 36X24" and if I remember right, the rear
area is 36" wide and 24" should more than cover the depth on your trunk.  I
feel like something that can't hold water, is thin enough to fit under the
metal lip at the rear of the trunk, and provides decent sound and heat
suppression would be best.  I'm not super keen on the adhesive backing but
it would keep it from shifting around and could help seal out water, if
pressed down tightly enough.  

On the fuel injection problem:  It sounds like there's maybe a misfire, too.
At least it's running really rough, I'd probably check the plugs to see if
they're fouling yet.  Also, I had an issue with rough running and cutting
out and it turned out to be in my wiring harness, in particular the injector
plugs.  I'm not sure what all you've done in regards to the harness but it
might be a good place to start, cleaning and tightening all the contacts and
in the sensor & injector plugs.  I wound up building an entirely new harness
and adding extra direct ground wires for the relays and engine block and it
runs pretty nicely now (used to lose power, stumble and run very rich).
I've also seen the system go super rich when either the MPS was disconnected
from the harness (loose or dirty plug) or vacuum line (hose off or leaking
badly) and running it with the incorrect MPS for the ECU your using.  I've
used this page from Russ Wolfe's old site to figure out what part # combos
are ne  cessary.

As you probably already know, sometimes going over the total basics again is
a good place to start (ignition system, grounds, harness connections).
There's a ton you can dig into with the D-Jet system, so sometimes it's best
to just make sure the simple stuff is all correct.

My $.02,
JeremySF, CA'71 Squareback, MT, FI


I used material similar to that when we were putting in the headliner and
carpet.  I just wish it was a different color besides silver but it may be
an option.  I doubt it's a connection because it only dose this when it's
cold.  You can watch the video I posted before this one and see how it runs
at operation temperature.  I'm very pleased how well it runs when it is
warmed up.  But it won't hurt to check all that.  It wouldn't be the first
time I was wrong on something.  Everything in the ignition is new except the
coil. The coil I have in it is temporary.  When the car was in basket case
mode one of the many things it was missing was a coil.  I had heard a lot of
bad stuff about a Bosch blue coil so I'm hunting for an original black one.
In the meantime it has a coil off a 69 Ford 302 engine it was just something
I had laying around.  I wouldn't think that would cause this but like I said
wouldn't be the first time I'm wrong.

Dennis