Lack of power

[JBDrifter]

My car is a standard Series 1 VS, V6 Executive... no power mods or anything so I ain't expecting heaps of power from it, but it just doesn't have the power it used to have.

It used to be my mum's car, so i drove it all the time as a learner, and then drove it occasionally when I got my P's. I remember it having heaps more power back then, than it does now. Even when I was given the car a year ago, it had a lot more go than it has now, although not as much as the first few years I was driving it.
It is mainly bottom end, taking off from the line that it is slow, feels like there is nothing there, whereas it used to accelerate hard off the line. Just to give an example, not that I want to do this, but I used to be able to plant it off the line and tyres would spin with ease. Nowadays I put my foot down and get nothing.
Accelerating off the line the whole car shakes, which indicates that i need a new torque converter apparently... just wandering if this would have any affect on the way the car takes off.. reduced power?
I also had someone tell me they had the same problem once with their car and it turned out to be the accelerator.... cable wasn't pulling in completely or something, could this be the answer maybe? Or maybe the throttle body isn't opening all the way?
Just really wanting to know if this is a common problem and if there is usually a simple fix? Looking for suggestions as to how to fix the problem...
Or is it just that the engine is old and worn, time to buy a new car? There is approx. 240,000km's on the clock. Recently converted to gas too, but had this problem before the conversion, so it's not just that I'm running it on gas now.

 

[The Darkness]

you can grind off some of the throttle stopper to get it to open 100 percent

 

[Hillerus]

Have you bothered to give it a service at any stage?

 

[hako]

The shakes from the driveline low down under full acelleration is almost normal for most Commodores - some are worse than others.
Part of your problem may just be transmission slip due to the miles done and wear in the transmission. You can put a shift kit in which will harden the shift and make the car more responsive.
Other than that its just clean and check everything.

 

[JW 304]

Its an auto?
I just had my 4L60E rebuilt in my VR, added corvette servos - made a huge difference as mine was slipping through the gears before also. Although part of the problem was the wiring from the throttle position sensor to the gearbox.

Im not sure if you r having the same problem but I have heard from a few ppl that 4L60's tend to screw up after 200,000k's

Hope I made sense and was of some help!

 

[DannyboyDS]

Ive said it once i'll say it again, and its allready been said but ill elaborate.

SERVICE!!!!!!!!!!

OK lets make a quick list.

Start with your filters

Replace Fuel Filter
Clean or replace Air filter (whicher it needs) Even try a high flow panel filter.
Oil filter + new oil

chuck some injector cleaner into a tank of 98 octane premium fuel, just to help clean her out, that fuel wont throw you back in your seat but it is a nice helping hand to clean the fuel system.

Then move onto new spark plugs and leads.

Clean the throttle body and even pop the air inlet manifold open (Easy on the ecotech) and clean the inelt manifold a bit too.

ont he front of your airbox there is that dicky little snorkal, I find its better to either remove it, or get a Cool Air Intake, Holden sell them at a reasonable price I guess.

Thats a fairly basic service there, should have it feeling allot better, you could go one further and service the tranny too.

 

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

Change the fuel filter too, while your at it you may as well do an auto service, easy enough to do. Price wise, you are probably looking at a couple of hundred $$ in parts and maybe 1/2 a day if you know your way around the car.

 

[Immortality]

Ive said it once i'll say it again, and its allready been said but ill elaborate.

SERVICE!!!!!!!!!!

OK lets make a quick list.

Start with your filters

Replace Fuel Filter
Clean or replace Air filter (whicher it needs) Even try a high flow panel filter.
Oil filter + new oil

chuck some injector cleaner into a tank of 98 octane premium fuel, just to help clean her out, that fuel wont throw you back in your seat but it is a nice helping hand to clean the fuel system.

Then move onto new spark plugs and leads.

Clean the throttle body and even pop the air inlet manifold open (Easy on the ecotech) and clean the inelt manifold a bit too.

ont he front of your airbox there is that dicky little snorkal, I find its better to either remove it, or get a Cool Air Intake, Holden sell them at a reasonable price I guess.

Thats a fairly basic service there, should have it feeling allot better, you could go one further and service the tranny too.

that just about covers it.

try some oil flush before you change the oil, really cleans out the gunge from the engine. keep puting in injector cleaner once a month to really clean out the injectors. use some carb cleaner for cleaning the TB, works a treat. there is also a "How to" clean the TB in the "How to" section. definitly get the tranny serviced, normally about $200 for a full flush job. with the shaking/vibration with hard acceleration i'd suggest you check the centre hanger bearing for the driveshaft. also repalce the bushes forthe top control arms for the diff, ifthey are the original rubber onces they will be well shagged after 200,000kms. maybe change the diff oil whilst your at it. when you've done all that, check for fault codes and then reset the ecu.

http://forums.justcommodores.com.au/showthread.php?t=22307 (fault codes)
http://forums.justcommodores.com.au/showthread.php?t=3948 (fuel filter)
http://forums.justcommodores.com.au/showthread.php?t=4516 (changing coolant)
http://forums.justcommodores.com.au/showthread.php?t=20055 (100% open TB)
http://forums.justcommodores.com.au/showthread.php?t=5313 (clean TB, alsmost the same for VS)

 

[cano1]

Just supercharge it, trust me it will improve but thats only if you have the money.

 

[JBDrifter]

Thanks for all the replies.

I guess I should have mentioned that the car is serviced regularly, as my dad is a mechanic so I get it serviced basically for nothing. It's last major service was done when he did the gas conversion, which included new spark plugs and leads, to prevent back firing, which was less than 10,000km ago.
Honestly I'd just go straight to my dad and ask him about this power issue, but he's flat out working 7 days a week with gas conversions so he won't want to be spending his time figuring out my car's issues. He's also a Ford man, so working on a Commodore (even if it is mine) won't be the greatest joy for him. Which is why I asked here.

I'll have a look at that throttle body "how to" and give it a good clean, see if that makes any difference. And I'll have a talk to my dad about servicing the tranny... if he is able to do it that would be great, but otherwise he should know someone that can do it for a good price for him.
As for installing CAI, I already spoke to my dad about that just after we did the conversion and he reckons the car will struggle to idle running on gas... apparently it'll stall at lights and sh*t. So I won't be doing that.
Anyway I'm not looking at getting more power out of the engine, I just want to restore it back to the way it was before, because it just seems so gutless compared to how it used to be. If it's just that the engine is old and worn then I'll live with it, I can't afford a rebuild right now. I was just hoping that maybe it was common for these engines to lose power like this and the cause of it could be narrowed down to a few different things. It's ok though, I appreciate all the replies and I'll do what I can from what people have said... and when I have the money I'll get the tranny serviced.

EDIT: Thought I'd just add that all filters are new, and error codes were checked within the last couple of weeks. Showed up all good.