Hi this is my first post. I own a 02 281e. Bought it brand new in 02. Have had a ton of problems, nothing worse than the most recent. I rarely drive the car. Last week it i noticed a hesitation. Turned out its was misfiring. I pulled the plugs (What a PITA) and there white and junk (looks like burnt coolant). Im still getting the misfire so im going to do the fuel filter tommorow. At the dealer at the last oil change they said the intercooler is leaking. i noticed the resivior a little low. It always smells like burning coolant and its on its second radiator. No visible leaks.Gauge is reading ok. Anyone have intercooler problems??im gonna check the water pump and raditaor tommorw.The oil is also doing a disappearing act too. No blue smoke but oil is disapeearing, no leaks, pan looks dry, seals look no. The car has been through 2 alternators,1 raditaor, clutch, hubs, set of tires, and now needs brakes all round. Mileage is at 18k!!! Anyone with any info is appeciated. Like i said im gonna run through the car tommmorow but if anyone has gone through this and can help letme know. Also anyone know where i can get brake pads, rotors online???thanks
I HAVE AN 04 NOT AN E CAR JUST A REGULAR S/C CAR.I HAVE HAD PROBLEMS WITH MINE TOO.FROM THE DAY I BOUGHT IT I SMELT ANTIFREEZE.IT TURNS OUT THAT THE LINES WERE LEAKING,THEN A YEAR LATER I SMELT IT AGAIN.LAST MONTH THE INTERCOOLER PUMP TOOK A ****.THAT WAS THE SMELL.IT WAS LEAKING.SO I WOULD SAY CHECK THAT.ALSO CHECK THE CAP ON THE BOTTLE.THEY ARE KNOWN TO LEAK ALSO.I HAVE 15,000 MILES ON MY CAR.IT'S BEEN THROUGH 4 SETS OF WHEELS,6 BELTS,TIRES ALL AROUND,AND JUST A TON OF OTHER STUFF.SO DON'T FEEL BAD.GOOD LUCK
that sounds just like me. i smelt coolant from day one. Then i blew a coolant hose off. After the dealer replaced i always smelt coolant and sometimes it would smoke. never overheated. Insted of the dealer trying to figure out whats going on they just kept throwing parts at it. I'm going in the garage now to check the ic pump. Another question is there any forums out there deicated to saleens with info and such??? Thanks again
ok so i changed the plugs and fuel filter. i noticed there was rust in the filter. STILL misfiring. Anyone have ANY ideas. Also where is the ic pump. Im almost ready to sell it .
Oh, man do I feel your pain. I just went thru an engine rebuild on my car due to very similar problems. I think I have the answer for you (which you might not want to hear) but I have a question first. Does your car sound like a diesel while cold and then get quiet once warm? Or does it pretty much always sound like a diesel? Another question, do you notice the car pinging?
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2002 Saleen S281E #12 - SOLD
Chicane Intercooler and Pulley, JBA Headers, Magnaflow X, 3.73 gears, a bunch of other stuff
THE INTERCOOLER PUMP IS LOCATED ON THE RIGHT SIDE FRAME RAIL BEHIND THE BUMPER.IF YOU HAD A FENDER WELL COLD AIR KIT,IT WOULD BE RIGHT THERE IN FRONT OF YOU.
Here is the answer to my problem and it sounds like yours as well.
If you car sounds the same when hot as it does cold, meaning the diesel type sound, then you have the exact same problem. That noise is most likely piston slap. Maybe in a good E motor its just the noisy Arias pistons used, but when the sound continues its a problem with piston to wall clearance. The oil you are losing is getting past the rings and into the cylinders, causing the octane level of the mixture to drop. This causes misfiring and pinging. Overtime the problem will get worse and could cause serious damage. I decided to bite the bullet and tear it down before it got to that point. I replaced the arias pistons Saleen used with Mahle, the same pistons used in the cobra. They are quiet and slightly lower in compression, which will allow me to run more boost.
I have a vacuum or exhaust leak somewhere right now, but I got in the car the other day for the first time after 500 miles of break in and it hit so hard under boost that it hurt my lower back. No joke. If you want the car right, tearing it down is probably the only real choice. Then you can improve on it if you want, as I did.
Hope this helps.
< Message edited by ExtremeSaleen -- 6/26/2006 1:13:29 PM >
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2002 Saleen S281E #12 - SOLD
Chicane Intercooler and Pulley, JBA Headers, Magnaflow X, 3.73 gears, a bunch of other stuff
Extreme Saleen would you recommend changing all the forged internals from Saleen to Mahle? I purchased a new 06 extreme and have read quite a few post where people have changed out their forged internals to mahle.
All the components in my motor where top notch, even the pistons. But the Arias is more of a racing piston and noisy, and I wanted something a little different and much more quiet. The rods were Manley and the crank is from a cobra so Saleen did a good job on the motor. Mine just had some issue. Maybe it was abused when new, I don't know.
I don't know what Saleen used in the new cars so I can't tell you what would be best, but if it were me, I wouldn't touch it.
< Message edited by ExtremeSaleen -- 6/26/2006 1:43:48 PM >
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2002 Saleen S281E #12 - SOLD
Chicane Intercooler and Pulley, JBA Headers, Magnaflow X, 3.73 gears, a bunch of other stuff
My car never did throw a code, but it was pinging like mad none the less. Compression checks didn't seem to show any problems either. My car never looked like it was burning oil (exhaust) but I would loose about a quart every two weeks.
My car was also loosing anti-freeze for a while so I though blown head gasket, but it turned out that the fluidyne radiator had two very small splits on the seams that were leaking but they were hidden. The leaks were small enought that it didn't pool on the ground, it just evaporated off the hot radiator.
But I'm certainly no expert. Given your other problems you could very well have an intercooler leak that is causing some of your issue. I don't think that would have anything to do with the oil lose though, so that is why I say its probably the rings.
< Message edited by ExtremeSaleen -- 6/26/2006 2:51:35 PM >
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2002 Saleen S281E #12 - SOLD
Chicane Intercooler and Pulley, JBA Headers, Magnaflow X, 3.73 gears, a bunch of other stuff
yeah when i didnt see oil burning though the exhaust my first though was the rings. ughhhh i guess shes trying to tell me she wants more power lol . im gonna send it to the dealer i have no time to get into the motor.
Extreme did u do the rebuild or send it out??? i think im gonna take a few weeks off and work on it. I just don;t want the headake thats why im debating on the dealer.
Thanks for the help guys i aprriciate it. and if i do a rebuild shes getting more boost and maybe some spray.. ill post pics and how tos. well see!
My father and I did it. It took us a month with some delays due to getting the parts. Not that difficult all in all, although putting it back together was a pain. The cam timing was one of our biggest problems. It takes a special tool to do it and finding one was hard. If you took the time off, I'm sure you could get it knocked out in that time. You'll save yourself a lot of money too.
_____________________________
2002 Saleen S281E #12 - SOLD
Chicane Intercooler and Pulley, JBA Headers, Magnaflow X, 3.73 gears, a bunch of other stuff
Hi this is my first post. I own a 02 281e. Bought it brand new in 02. Have had a ton of problems, nothing worse than the most recent. I rarely drive the car. Last week it i noticed a hesitation. Turned out its was misfiring. I pulled the plugs (What a PITA) and there white and junk (looks like burnt coolant). Im still getting the misfire so im going to do the fuel filter tommorow. At the dealer at the last oil change they said the intercooler is leaking. i noticed the resivior a little low. It always smells like burning coolant and its on its second radiator. No visible leaks.Gauge is reading ok. Anyone have intercooler problems??im gonna check the water pump and raditaor tommorw.The oil is also doing a disappearing act too. No blue smoke but oil is disapeearing, no leaks, pan looks dry, seals look no. The car has been through 2 alternators,1 raditaor, clutch, hubs, set of tires, and now needs brakes all round. Mileage is at 18k!!! Anyone with any info is appeciated. Like i said im gonna run through the car tommmorow but if anyone has gone through this and can help letme know. Also anyone know where i can get brake pads, rotors online???thanks
Ok, first of all, where is it leaking? Is the heat exchanger leaking? What does your max H2O intercooler temp get to under hard driving? First things first.
ok so i looked over the car. Noticed a small leak in the bottom corner of the raditaor. Theres no intercooler leak. I cant figure out what is causing the go. Its along the core seam. I did a pressure test and under pressure it doesnt leak. After a drive it leaks when off. So i figure i may of been getting boost pressure blown into the raditaor. Hook up a gauge and went upder boost and all is good. Any ideas on this??? This will be radiator 2-3 now
Now on to the oil disapearing.While checking through the problems i datalogged and used a dyno to monitor and see whats going on. First run i made 319hp and 361tq. It was hesitation severly. Hp and Tq curve is up and down you can see the hesitation on the dyno sheet. So we looked at tps,ect, o2 ,spark,ltft,fp etc. Everything looked normal operating. Then 15 minutes later we ran again no tuning just montoioring and mad 331hp and 363tq again choppy and ugly and again all sensor were all normal. Then off the dyno went to a compression test and was around 180psi. Then i 5 gased it at idle it all was normal at idle a/f at 15.1 when under load on the dyno it was 11.1 which is a tad rich but not bad. No oil is on the pan i replaced the pcv for the hell of it.What i am thinking is oil is getting past the rings possibly down to upstream o2 and causing the o2 to become lazy (due to oil on the o2) therefore effecting the a/f and ltft causing the hesistation. Open loop it runs normal closed loop it acts up thats y im thinking o2s but no codes.
I called saleen they want a few bits of data but there kinda stumped too. I also asked about the motor, I know its forged and a saleen seriesiv s/c. Like in my last post im asking specs to find out what the motor was built with. Does saleeen make there own pistions rods etc or do they use others. Whats done to the head. I was told whipple makes the blower for saleen is that true??My car is only making 7-8psi of boost. saleen tech said he thinks i should be at 12psi are you guys running 12 or 8???Im looking for info like that if anyone can help
Tommorow im going back on the dyno getting the info saleen wanted. Still visible leaking coolant, missing oil,Hesistating, missing out on the summer. Thanks for reading ANY help info or anything is appreciated!!!
Also EXTREMESALEEN why did you go with the cobra pump and tank just curious??? Mike
< Message edited by mikeg -- 7/12/2006 8:26:38 PM >
Does saleeen make there own pistions rods etc or do they use others. Whats done to the head. I was told whipple makes the blower for saleen is that true??My car is only making 7-8psi of boost. saleen tech said he thinks i should be at 12psi are you guys running 12 or 8???Im looking for info like that if anyone can help
Saleen uses pretty good aftermarket components. The E car motor is basicly as strong as an 04 cobra motor. The heads are aluminum and ported and reworked. (Upgraded valve springs as well) You should be seeing at least 10 psi. The early 02 S281E's had a slightly bigger blower pulley; I believe it was a 4.25'', while the later ones were all 4.0''. Even if your car has the 4.25'' pulley, you should still see 10 psi. Saleen may upgrade your pulley for free if you mention it to them.
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02 S281E problems - 
