Weird WOT Behavior

[Jon Pennington]

As some of you know, I have a '01 SE/PP.  The only "mods" to the
powertrain are 19* timing and a Ghetto Box with an Accel panel filter.  I
run Valvoline 5w-30 synthetic oil, Nissan or Purolator PureOne filters,
MT-90 gear oil (thanks, Rick!).

Ambient conditions in Kansas City are about 10*F, 72% humidity, 30.5"Hg
(rising), and a 14MPH Northwind.  This morning, I started the car, smoked
a cigarette, dusted off the light snow, and *then* drove off to work.

Ten minutes later, I was in second gear, engine at normal temperature, on
level ground, and snapped the throttle open to get around some traffic.
This was the first time I hit WOT all morning.  At about 5000 RPM, it felt
like I had hit some sort of governor.  RPMs fell off to 4800-ish, and the
engine pulled again to 5000, where the cycle repeated.  It wasn't as hard
as a rev limiter, but I can't get over 5000 RPM at WOT.  Maybe like a
severe ignition retard, I don't know.  If I keep the pedal at 75%-ish, I
can keep wheezing the engine up to the mid 6k range, but once I hit the
WOT threshold, I lose a LOT of power.  I tried this in second and third
gear with the same results (though I wasn't able to spin as fast in third,
that's about 80 MPH).  The engine continues to growl, as it does at super
high loads in that RPM range, but I can't accelerate.

No check engine light, no electrical fluctuations, no other indicators of
something going wrong; I just can't accelerate over 5k at WOT.  What's
wrong with my car? :'(

--
-=|JP|=-        "Stays Fresh Longer!"

'01 B15 SE/PP  |   http://members.cardomain.com/cowboydren/   |  <//><
'95 SL2 Auto   |         cowboydren @ b15sentra . net         |