I'll start by saying I've been plagued with this for a long time and never knew it was happening. Finally, after getting a new high octane tune from Trifecta, I started have problems with the ECU pulling power in the mid range. It would knock me down to 10psi and felt like I was dragging an anchor. I ran data logs and Steven discovered the cause. My IMAT was up over 160 just cruising. He gave me a simple way to test if there's an air pocket issue which I'll share.
(with trifecta tune)Put the car in service mode and switch to track. The tune turns on the coolant pump all the time in this mode to help cool things down between track runs.
Listen for the pump, you'll hear it, and if it cuts off after 5 seconds it's sensing cavitation (air pocket or no coolant) and turning itself off.
If you never hear it there's either a pump issue or the fuse or relay are bad in the engine compartment.
If you don't have the tune you can turn on the car, put it in track mode, and listen for the same things from pump.
Mine was cycling off every 5 seconds.
Materials you'll need:
At least 12" of clear plastic hose, with a 3/4" internal diameter.
1/4" dowel about 20" long
Funnel that fits snugly in the hose
Gallon of distilled water
Pull the cap off the fill valve and push on the hose. One the other end push on the funnel. Insert the dowl through the funnel so you can push down on the valve to open the fill port.
Now turn on service mode and switch the car to track. Go to the funnel, fill about halfway with water and push the valve open with the dowel. You may or may not see bubble come out. I did right away and then it stopped. It slowly drank what was in the tube.
When the pump cycles off pull the relay and reinsert. Keep repeating the cycle for a while and squeeze the two hoses coming off the manifold to burp off bubbles. You'll know you've got the air out when the pump stays on.
I also powered the car up every so often since the pump runs at a higher speed with car on.
I reached a point where nothing else was happening but when I watched the water in the hose it was slowly going down into the system. Thats a good thing. Eventually everything leveled off but my pump was still cycling on and off. I played the long game and kept repeating.
On my last cycle I started the car for a few seconds and then went back to pulling the fuse to reset the pump and keeping water in the tube. All of a sudden I heard the pump start gurgling and in a few seconds there was a rush of bubbles coming up out of the hose as it drank down the entire tube and then some. Now my pump stayed on...YAY!!!
I let the pump run for a bit while squeezing hoses and watching the water and eventually there was no more bubbles and no more drinking of the water.
Problem solved.
Now I need to see how my IMAT look.
From what I read on the corvette forum when the pump senses cavitation it will cycle off after 5 seconds but reset after 3 minutes, and then repeat if it still senses cavitation. This would explain why my temps were high but not through the roof. It cycled enough to keep things controlled but not low enough.
All of this is from my research but mainly from Kenneth Rabyand Steven J Weller for guiding me through it. There's a good video on youtube for a Corvette intercooler fill
https://youtu.be/QgNS9fVJbco
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(with trifecta tune)Put the car in service mode and switch to track. The tune turns on the coolant pump all the time in this mode to help cool things down between track runs.
Listen for the pump, you'll hear it, and if it cuts off after 5 seconds it's sensing cavitation (air pocket or no coolant) and turning itself off.
If you never hear it there's either a pump issue or the fuse or relay are bad in the engine compartment.
If you don't have the tune you can turn on the car, put it in track mode, and listen for the same things from pump.
Mine was cycling off every 5 seconds.
Materials you'll need:
At least 12" of clear plastic hose, with a 3/4" internal diameter.
1/4" dowel about 20" long
Funnel that fits snugly in the hose
Gallon of distilled water
Pull the cap off the fill valve and push on the hose. One the other end push on the funnel. Insert the dowl through the funnel so you can push down on the valve to open the fill port.
Now turn on service mode and switch the car to track. Go to the funnel, fill about halfway with water and push the valve open with the dowel. You may or may not see bubble come out. I did right away and then it stopped. It slowly drank what was in the tube.
When the pump cycles off pull the relay and reinsert. Keep repeating the cycle for a while and squeeze the two hoses coming off the manifold to burp off bubbles. You'll know you've got the air out when the pump stays on.
I also powered the car up every so often since the pump runs at a higher speed with car on.
I reached a point where nothing else was happening but when I watched the water in the hose it was slowly going down into the system. Thats a good thing. Eventually everything leveled off but my pump was still cycling on and off. I played the long game and kept repeating.
On my last cycle I started the car for a few seconds and then went back to pulling the fuse to reset the pump and keeping water in the tube. All of a sudden I heard the pump start gurgling and in a few seconds there was a rush of bubbles coming up out of the hose as it drank down the entire tube and then some. Now my pump stayed on...YAY!!!
I let the pump run for a bit while squeezing hoses and watching the water and eventually there was no more bubbles and no more drinking of the water.
Problem solved.
Now I need to see how my IMAT look.
From what I read on the corvette forum when the pump senses cavitation it will cycle off after 5 seconds but reset after 3 minutes, and then repeat if it still senses cavitation. This would explain why my temps were high but not through the roof. It cycled enough to keep things controlled but not low enough.
All of this is from my research but mainly from Kenneth Rabyand Steven J Weller for guiding me through it. There's a good video on youtube for a Corvette intercooler fill
https://youtu.be/QgNS9fVJbco
