My cousin is installing a tpi motor in my monte carlo ss. I have faith in him, he's a gm certified master mechanic.

He has everything put together. He hasn't looked into this yet, but he can't check codes and he doesn't know why. he has the harness hooked up to the aldl connector. He mentioned a bad IAC valve, but currently the car barely goes down the road, and he can't check codes with a scanner. He can check them without it(checking the flashing SES light). Its very odd cause the computer seems to be working, it gave him a bad MAF code. He changed the relay and now thats gone.

The engine along with the harness/ecm sat outside in the rain for awhile before i bought it. Would the car run if I had a bad ECM? The IAC valve shouldn't really effect going down the road. The car doesn't have any power going down the road. It isn't burning any oil, nice clean emissions from the tailpipe. So i don't think its jsut a crappy engine. Anyone have an idea? I was thinking possible junk ecm.... but on the other hand if it was junk a FI car wouldn't run.

 

p.s. if it is a bad ecm..... its an 87 iroc engine... 5.7.. i was bored and checking a junk yards inventory online.. they have an 87 vette ecm..... will that work? The only difference i know in a vette engine is the EGR valve and the fuel rails being opposite.

 

Open the ecm up and check for water damage.

Will be stained or seperated looking and or greenish runs.

Water in ecm or related connectros = junk.

Make sure the ALDL is wired correctly for the year and application of the engine harness.(including resistors and/or the actual CEL itself)

I find this to be gofed up alot in swaps.

later
Jeremy

 

in addition to running with no power, the dual fans both kick on once the engine is started even when cold. I'm thinking maybe something is grounded.

 

Well to anyone who is interested.. My cousin got the car running alot better. Not perfect. The distributor was turned the complete wrong way. Checking the codes isn't working yet, but he can jump the computer and read the ses light. But he said he can now smoke the tires with no problem and everything seems to be working decent. I just need to pick up a new MAF. He did the tap test and the engine died. It starts back up, however, I'll definately have to get a new one.