i was merging on the highway, had it to the floor. it seemed to make a huff noise and all of a sudden had no power. i thought it was the trans blowing up like it had before, but when i pulled over the car was misfiring hard and would hardly run. i checked the plugs to make sure they were tight. the driver side exhaust manifold was warm, the passenger one was so hot i burnt myself on it.
tow truck showed up right away.

towed home. checked compression. 150-155 across all. has spark. changed out the coil, and the distributer module under cap and rotor... checked for injector pulse at the #1 injector... it has it.. dont know where else to go. check engine light itsnt on. im stumped.
i turned the crank by hand till i saw the line, it appears to be pointing at cyl #1 when its there. but may be possible i skipped a tooth. any input?

 

Check an injector on the drivers side for pulses. Both exhaust manifolds should have been hot enough to burn yourself on. Check the fuses, there may be one for the left side injectors and another for the right side injectors of the engine.

RBob.

 

i checked all the fuses under the dash. in the fuse box... is there any one i should be looking for?

 

i just had the same thing happen to me last month. exactally the same. it was the power wire that went from the fuse box to the passenger side injectors that went bad. it was burnt up. i had to take it to the dealer to get it fixxed. that fixxed the problem but now i think ive got a bad injector cause it idle is low and wants to stall sometimes.

 

ok he checked the wiring going to the injectors but not really from under the dash. also changed the timing chain hoping it skipped a tooth.

i pulled open the dash, but i have this fancy remote starter keyless entry installed and its a mess under there, i cant tell whats factory and whats not. also the wires going into the fuse box are so short i cant pull it down to look at it. so what wire going to what fuse is the one going to the injectors? i suck at reading diagrams.

we also shanged the injectors to one from a car in the wreckers and he said it ran better for awhile. but now its back to running like crap.

funny thing is the check engine light isnt on..

anyway also while its running like crap if i wiggle wires under the dash the car stalls.

its the long weekend so i have some time, but i just returned the rental car ive had for a week.

i didnt know what to do so i pulled off the plenum and valve covers thinking maybe a rocker came off. they all seem ok. should i turn over the motor by hhand to make sure they are all moving?

dont really know where to go from here.

 

could the computer be fried?

 

help?

 

i figure as long as i can fix it all this is ok. cause as long as i have the top of the motor off i can fix the leaking exhaust manifolds and valve covers...

but i need to fix it asap!

so any ideas?

 

my buddy had a fancy alarm system in is car and it caused a bunch of problems. He took it out and then the car would run sometimes and others it would run like crap or stall. it was running rich puffing black smoke. He then just bought a cpu off ebay and put it in and the car works great. We took it on 800 mile trip from arkansas to minnesota. No problems.

I remember one trip my family was leaving for Florida and we started off and when we were going on to the bypass the car started stuttering and shaking, blowing black smoke and running really choppy. We tried everything but nothing worked. When we got back from the trip we found out it was the cpu that went out.

 

****. on tuesday before the car started running like ****, one of the fuses in the alarm melted a bit and made it not want to disarm.
i pulled the fuse and thought nothing of it... think it cooked my cpu?

ill have to see if i can get the alarm pulled out and maybe get a cpu
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ok theres only 1 2.8 fbody in the junkyards around me... what other ecu's should be the same?

 

I was told the 3.1 use a map and a 2.8 uses a maf sensor. If you got one the car wouldn't run just right. I've found the cpu's on ebay.

 

just my luck... woke up with my new cellphone in a glass of beer.

 

hey also this is strange. while the car is running (albeit running shitty and has no power feels like 3 spark wires are off) we started unplugging things.

with maf iac and tps unplugged, it all had NO effect on how the car ran, also it did NOT set off a check engine light.

is that ecu ?possibly?

 

How much pressure is at the exhaust tip?

Possibly a clogged cat.

 

i thought that too, maybe cat came apart inside. tomorrow if it runs after i put it together (im not the greatest mechanic...) ill see if it runs better with the 02 out.. that should give me an idea if the cats plugged.

 

Try this, unhook the est by the blower motor and see if that sets off code 42. It sounds like to me the cpu is bad. I know mine is working and when the est is off I get that code. When you unhooked a sensor you should get the check engine light to come on. I bet if you could get it to a dealer they can hook it up to their machine for $50 and they can tell you right a way.

 

i had it runnning awesome yesterday. funny thing is i dont know what i did.had it taken apart down to the fuel rail made new gaskets and put it back together. other than a tuneup there isnt really any new parts on it. although i replaced the o2..

then after i had it all together it ran great. i was spinning it around and driving, it stalled a few times at idle. but other than that it was great.

then same thing happened as when it messed up originally.
i was doing about 100kmph and floored it. car started to sputter and now it runs like crap.

i dont know what is wrong with it. check engnie light isnt on same as before.

i feel like crap and im missing work at my new job.
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also i put gas in it so its not the gas...

 

i went to the wrecking yard today, tried a ecu out of an 86 cinnmonbun the #s on the ecu were different but the car ran the same.

when i switched back to my stock ecu the car ran alot better though than it did earlier today... for some reason... not quite what it was before and i didnt trust it to get me to work.

 

when it is running, unhook the est line and see if a code appears. If it doesn't then the signal is not getting back to your cpu. It should also change the way the motor runs if it is unhooked. I know since mine has been running for a little bit, if I unhook it the car runs rough.
My buddys car would run fine one day and not the next. When he was trying to figure out what is wrong he wasn't driving the car so his car could have been doing what yours is doing.

 

i unhooked that coupler and the check engine light came on.

but yesterday when it was running horrible we were unplugging all kinds of things and got no engine light. today its runing but not the greatest. it sounds like a big block at idle and stalls. and i bet if i take it on the highway and floor it ill limp home like im on 3 cyls. for some reason it only happens after i floor it at hwy speeds. but i dont know what i did to make it run a little better after it did that... maybe disturbing the ecu and its couplers?

 

its actually running like it has a vacuume leak, and it very well may have one now... but the car has a much more serious problem

 

man all i can say is i feel for you. mines just been runing like crap to.

 

hows your fuel pressure? my buddys truck was doing the same thing and hes like its plugs n wires i kept telling him no but he insisted. i told him to give me his checkbook and ill have it fixed by dark.......fuel pump and sending unit were shot.......truck was running great by dinner time

 

well right now its got a vacume leak thats hurting the performance (from me ripping it apart all the time) so i got a full set of gaskets. i uped the idle to 1k rpm and the tps to compensate for how **** it runs... and i was trying to get it back to the state where the check engine lgiht wouldnt come on for the life of it and it wouldnt move hardly at all... but it seels not to be doing it.

im gonng to get the vacume leak fixed as i think it needs to be running good to break it back to the state it was in... so i can get it diagnosed and fix it. you know? then im going to drive with a fuel preessure guage under the wipers for a bit.

and if thats not it... im going to be parting the car, and getting another (hopefully with shot suspension brakes and steering)

 

It sounds like a wiped cam lobe to me. I'm 100% green as to anything that's not a tiny ticking 4cyl from Japan - but that's my 2 cents.

 

wouldnt be intermittant if it was cam lobe

 

could it be something electrical - maybe a wire or sensor the fails when it's too hot - like a wire touching the exhaust manifold?

 

had a guy at work look at it. he put the compression tester on it while it was running on cyl 6 and it showed less than 100 psi...

im home now and going to recheck it.. doesnt make sence as i tested the compression 2 weeks ago and was all 150 155.. although i did it cranking and he did it running.

if its a dead cyl..then im going to park it till spring and probably use it as a parts car then. maybe buy another one.

 

ok this is weird... i put my new compression tester on it, it got 150 psi cranking and 170-180 running....

i changed the plug in that #6 and it seemed to run a little better.. the tach wire was split and touching the block to body ground.. ran a little better...

the car will do a burnout now but it still running like poop.

also this tune isnt related to the problem i had when it needed to be towed...

 

i realy think you are on to something with the injector wiring. throw a test light or DVOM on the injector curcuits and see whats up. cars should not stall when you move wires under the dash.

i would also check your TPS sensor. i had my wires for TPS resting against the EGR tube once and when it got hot t would act funny.


good luck.

 

I've heard that the screws of the distributer module actually ground the unit. I've also heard that anything other than a GM replacment doesn't work right. Maybe try cleaning that area down to some clean bare metal and get a new d. m. ? ?