The good news of the day is that I finally ordered the Gale Banks cat-back exhaust system I was wanting for the Formula. I actually snagged a great price on it. Engine Technologies in Utah sold it to me for $304 shipped, which is great considering this is an all-stainless system and one of the best-sounding and best-flowing kits out there for third-gens. It’ll be shipping in about ten days.

In the meantime, I’ve been calling around to various local shops to see who will install it. The first place I tried wouldn’t do it unless they also installed catalytic converters for me (since I currently don’t have any), but the next shop I called—one of the most reputable shops in town—said he’d just “look the other way” so long as I wasn’t asking him to actually remove any emissions equipment. So I’m going to take the car down there sometime early in the morning and have them check it out, see what it will cost me.

Also, I didn’t post about this, but on Friday night I conducted my first test of the ALDL diagnostic cable I’d ordered from Poland. Took KITT out for a ten-minute drive and recorded the entire trip to disk, at a rate of approximately 8 samples per second. Learned quite a bit. It mostly left me with more questions, but I think I am on the right track. Read on for the technical details.

First off, I have to say, TTS’ DataMaster software is incredible. It was pretty nifty driving around the neighborhood with a laptop on my passenger seat, its glowing screen broadcasting a variety of real-time reports, ever-changing digits and line graphs. Felt like one of those Ford guys I always see driving around here with computers mounted in their test vehicles (this town, ironically, is Ford’s “home away from home” where they test prototypes and other subject cars). Anyway, after the trip, I came home and started analyzing the data.

First off, I think I found the direct cause of the car’s irritability. As I suspected, it’s running rich—too much fuel. But rather than it being a mechanical issue, I see that the ECM itself is actually causing the problem by electronically adding fuel to the mixture. The reason? The computer is constantly reporting that the engine is running 15-20% lean. I’m not inclined to believe that. There is no spark knock, no pinging, and the plugs look fine. And once the ECM begins compensating, that’s when the car starts to run like garbage—too much fuel, from what I can tell. At this point I am thinking it is either a faulty O2 sensor (low voltage = lean mixture), or there is an exhaust leak letting air into the system (which is, in turn, fooling the O2 sensor into reporting a lean condition).

Anyway, if replacing the O2 sensor gets me nowhere, I’m thinking that when I take the car in to have the exhaust installed, maybe the shop can look into this problem. By then I will be about out of ideas.

Ah, it’s 5:00. Can I leave now? It’s way too nice of a day out there to be stuck in this OVEN of an office building. I’m making crab cakes for dinner, and I’m wanting them NOW. The only thing left to decide will be what to watch during the meal: Miami Vice or The X-Files? Got plenty of both on the TiVo hard drive…