Went to a drag rental tonight. Arrived early, got a good spot and put on the drag radials. Reviewed my notes, 16 psi in the drag radials ..... check. I did 8 or 9 runs in a row, hot lapping and trying something a bit different each run. Well, a short burn out of 4 seconds works beautifully. (Thanks Steve) I ran 12.0x time after time after time. I decided to cool of the car and get that 11 sec. time slip I've been wanting. A car broke and oiled down the end of the track so my car had plenty of cool off. Now for that 11. Did my burnout and the car quit. Restarted it and it's only hitting on 4 cylinders. Miss fire codes on 3 and 6 as well as a few O2 sensor codes. Oh crap. Track worker says it threw a cloud of white smoke. Got the car back to my parking, cleared the codes and restarted the car and it's running OK. No noises, no smells, reved it and lost those same 2 cylinders again. I'm thinking a couple of pistons popped. If I need a new engine anyway, I'll drive a mile or 2 before calling roadside assistance. Packed up, talked to a few mechanics near me, and eased out of the facility. Firing on all 6 at first but as soon as I had to give it some gas, lost 2 cylinders. I drove o, 1/2 mile up a hill and pulled over at an exit. Cleared the codes, restarted the car, all 6 again. Going down the exit hill I got to around 35 mph and re entered the highway. Hey, not missing yet! Maybe I can get a little farther from the drag strip before making the call! I slowly added more speed, then more, more, more and eventually I'm motoring along at 65. Shock of all shocks, I made the 100 miles, including over the mountains, and the cars in it's parking place. The only obvious fault I could find on the way home was the IAT sensor. It was reading at ambient for a while which is impossible. Then it started reading below ambient. Then 20º over which is more or less normal. Pulling into my neighborhood it was reading 102º and by the time I parked it read 66º. Outside it's 80º. It's fried. Tomorrow I'm pulling the plugs and the sensor to look for more clues. My current thinking is I need to gap the plugs down and figure out what happened to the sensor ...... and that I don't need a new engine.

Les

 

Hopefully you just popped out the air temp sensor at the Y-pipe and the engine is undamaged. Good luck Les.

 

Totaly weird there man. That set of symptoms sounds exactly like what I endured two years ago when my NA threw a shoe. Mechanics and insurance agent decided to call it Hydro lock but I swear there was no water involved.

But , I had the same issues with cylinders failing to fire and then firing after a shut down. In the end, after a top end overhaul, it turned out to be a failed fuel pump.

I am not suggesting this is your issue at all. But it was erie reading your list of symptoms. I do hope it turnds out well for you.

 

Sorry to hear this Les. I'm sure it'll be minor; your car is the "Immortal"! Good luck.

 

Pulled the plugs this morning and they all look normal. Gapped them down to .035 from .039 while I had them out. Breather covers are leaking again. IAT sensor is clipped in place like it's supposed to be. The only problem I found was the hose had popped off the bottom of the secondary air injection ..... at least that's what I think it is. The big round whirring dervish at the front, drivers side of the engine bay.
The codes, I got a P0158 and P0161 along with the miss fire codes. After erasing the codes the only one that has returned is the rear O2 sensor heater circuit. I'll be ordering an IAT sensor on monday since it's acting strangely and keep an eye on the O2 sensor codes. I took a couple of pictures that I'll post up later, if they came out decent.

Les

 

That's fantastic news. I'm glad there appears to be no mechanical damage.

 

I just received my new Pierburg from Rob believe it or not so I've got that covered.

Les

 

All the plugs looked exactly like this one. A few header pictures for the curious. Passenger and driver views and where the headers are against the heat shield. BTW, my mph was down yesterday. I never saw more than 115.

Les

 

good news !!!! now back to the track. most likely it was the hose ,, as far as the o2 my code comes up a lot i just clear it with Rob's dashdaq.

 

Well, it looks like I've some work to do. Started the car and the AFR's were pretty rich but I figured the PCM needed to adjust to the hose being plugged in. Off I went to the supermarket and all was normal. I even accelerated sorta fast. On the way back, punched it, multiple miss fires on 3,4 and 6 along with P0161. IAT's dropped to 69º. I like things black and white and hate searching for problems. Plan of action: Fuel pump because I already have it. The IAT sensor seems to be involved so tomorrow I'm calling Rob for a new one and a fuel filter, might as well.
Oil is clean. No coolant or strange smells. All spark plugs look normal, no visible damage. Cars not smoking. I suppose a compression test would be a good idea to rule out serious internal problems. I'll pull the fuse for the meth just in case it's malfunctioning.

Any more suggestions?

Les

I have a spare throttle body too. I'll give it a try as well.

 

Bad injector.

 

believe it or not Les...right after reading thru your problems as I was tucking away wires and giving up on finishing the zeitronix/dashdaq install I got similar codes. I was getting rough idle and TPS codes, and I would unhook something then try again. Well, as it turns out while I was trying to fix one problem I had created another without knowing it. When I unhooked the wires in 1, 2, and 3 of the PCM and would plug them back in, it seems a little piece of plastic had broken off the latch and had fallen down into the wire connections. I was not getting all the wires making contact causing all kinds of codes. I had unhooked everything by now thinking I had wired up something wrong. Took out the piece of plastic, carefully lined up the connections, and thank god I was back to running. But unfortunately for me, I had just unwired everything I had just done. I am done, if Rudy isn't interested in wiring it up, or maybe a Rob wire to wire explanation over the phone...to hell with it... But I had similar codes that you had. Hopefully nothing has come loose in the PCM wiring or any connections you may had made in that area... Probably not, but I wouldn't have thought so either. Hope you figure it out...

 

I'll take a look at my wiring connections this afternoon. Fried PCM? I don't want to think about that possibility.

Les

 

The deposits on that plugs are very orange. Is that from the meth? Or something in the gas there? I usually see more gray / tan.

 

I was running a mix of no name 93 and Sunoco 100 octane along with a 50/50 mix of water methanol. I was surprised by the color too. Looks like the same color that MHT deposits on plugs. I'm thinking the 93 was loaded with MHT to reach 93.

Les

 

Instead of starting a new thread I'll keep updating on this one and hope it gets seen. This morning I warmed up the car, took off the CAI, coil packs, pulled one plug from each cylinder and did a compression test. The lowest was 148 1/2 psi and the highest 149 1/2 psi. I did 5 rotations and left the gauge for a minute after taking the reading looking for the leak down cylinder by cylinder. No leaking, not 1 psi after a minute. I'd say the compression and leak down is as close to perfect as you'll ever find. Great news! So, I continued taking apart the top looking for my problem. Not a darn thing wrong I can see. For the curious I'll include a few pics of where the meth nozzle is, boost sensor, vacuum for the meth etc. The only possible problem I found was a full catch can and a bee behind the throttle body. It's all apart while I wait for gaskets and an IAT sensor so nows a good time for ideas and suggestions ...... and upgrades? Hit me with your thoughts. I DID check the electrical connections for the Zietronix and don't see a visible problem. The only reading that's off is the IAT sensor. I did find a little moisture in the Y around the silicone connectors going to the manifolds but hardly a sneezes worth. And, who can give me a good way to clean my greasy manifolds and make them look new? I'll start with dawn soap and progress from their unless someone has a brighter idea.

Les

 

This is not based on any experience but now that you've got alot ripped down you might as well look for any loose or corroded ground straps and terminals in and around the engine bay. You know how finnicky the electronics on these cars are. Did you change out the CPS just to rule it out?

 

How does that work ?
Are you just the luckiest stiff in the world and all 6 cylinders stopped with all 3 valves shut for that one minute ?

 

Yep, I was stiff and lucky, I guess. Or lucky and stiff .....

I think I found a problem just now trying to coax the IAT sensor out of the Y pipe. I started looking at the meth nozzle. Nice piece BTW. I has a little screen on it (had some foo on it) that screws into back side of the nozzle. (where are we going with this .... stiff, lucky, back side)? I'd checked the nozzle to Y pipe tightness earlier. What's this? A little brass wrench place on the screen assembly? Dang thing popped out when I found a tiny wrench for it. It's spring loaded and was all the way loose. Praise be! Could that be it? I'm thinking so.

I'm realizing how many backup parts I have. I've got injectors, a CPS, fuel pump, throttle body, don't have gaskets darn it. And a bunch of other assorted back ups.

BTW, I post all this garbage because it makes me analyze from different angles and helps me get to the root of the problem.

Les

 

I got everything cleaned up and back on the car. The IAT sensor is still un plugged and half way out to make it easier when the new one arrives. Car started up and seems to be fine. Revved it up a few times and no misfires. No O2 sensor codes, yet, just the P0112 IAT sensor fault code from being unplugged. The fans are running on high for some reason, maybe the lack of a signal from the IAT sensor? We'll see when the new one arrives. All in all it was a fun weekend of playing with the car.

Les