Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Duratec Maintenance Quick Secondary Check

I own a 99CSVT with 56K no mods except SHO Shop Cold Air Filter Kit and center muffler replaced with a glasspack. The car pulls up to the rev limiter but sometimes it just seems to take forever and other times it feels like it has more power.
I know it has been discussed a million times before but for some reason I simply cannot find a forum discussion that tells me how I can easily check to see if my secondaries are working correctly or not. I am tired of searching and thought it would be easier just to ask.
Can someone please help me by telling me a quick way to check and see if the secondaries are opening properly or something is broken?
Also, even though the factory says you do not have to change the sparkplugs until 100K how often should they really be changed?
What are the best replacement plugs to use?
Thanks a lot

Usualy the secondaries fail under high temp. So if you have been sitting in traffic usualy thats when they will fail(they just dont open) Try taking the little plastic cover off. And if they still fail to open. Take the box of and mount it on the backside of the heatshield on your intake. I had the same prob. and i have the same intake and when i moved the imrc box over to the intake and off the valve cover it hasnt failed since.
and regards to your sparkplug ? Everyone uses the stock double plat's. If you do a search im sure you can find a part #

Thanks for the info. Regarding the plugs, should I change them now or wait until 100K miles?

still nobody answered the question about how to tell if the are or are not working. I did the Berryman's B-12 thing on my
SE yesterday and now I swear the powerband is different. Seems doggier. Also dismantled and cleaned TB very good with new gasket of course. Seems like low end power is lesser and don't feel any secondary kick. I woner if I goofed up the IMRC by manually tweaking the secondaries with my finger down there. I have pop'd the cover off of the IMRC and as far as I can tell the gears, motor and cable are fine. Did I goof something up? How to test the IMRC? Can you test it in the driveway?

Well if you look down on the drivers side of the engine you should be able to see the linkage that activates the butterfly valves. I just grabbed the trottle plate and gave it some gas, and I could clearly see it moving.

ok I'll try it and at least that will tell me if it moves. My concern is that maybe I through it off and now for example it could always be somewhat open and the computer wouldn't be able to tell etc. Not sure how the computer would read the home 'closed' position or maybe the spring will always return i to the home position and there is no worry. I also bought some Berryman's B-12 (last time I used seafoam only cuz I couldn't find the Berrymans). I don't suppose there is any harm in cleaning i twice in a row and then changing the oil. Oughta be pretty clean then. Also put a can of Berryman's in the tank too.

Where could I buy Berryman's locally? VIP didn't have it.

Wal-Mart has it, Pep-Boys has it, those are the 2 that I know of for sure..