Victory! unfortunately it wasnt clogged like i had hoped...o well...hopefully im going to pick up that cat delte pipe this afternoon just waiting on a PM from the guy...once i get that on i will throw it on and start diagnosing the high idle.

If it's empty look for stuff plugging the muffler.

and im assuming the only way to do that is to remove the muffler? i was really hoping to not have to deal with all those dam springs.

You could run the car with the cat removed, would be loud, but would reveal if your exhaust piping downstream of the cat is messed up.

Bang on it with your fist. If it rattles yeah theres stuff in there. How important is it that it runs well after your finished? So if you weld the cat on, and your still short on power how are you going to get the stuff out?

idk how much stuff is in there or if it's a problem. I do know what I would do if I were working on my car and in your spot. Yeah those springs suck

[This message has been edited by phonedawgz (edited 08-12-2010).]

Ok so update:

Took it to a friend who knows these engines inside and out, he found out the distributor was turned about 75 degrees advanced, im still amazed it was running at all. Also, the EGR had been blocked off. So after fixing the timing and replacing the EGR, it runs, idles and drives almost perfect. It finally has power and idles just a hair under 1000. So now my new problem, if i start it cold, i can go out and roll into the throttle and it will go all the way up to redline. Once the temp gauge starts warming up, it becomes a dog again. If i try to roll into it, it will sputter and fall on its face anywhere between 3-5k rpm. If i let it cool down, it runs fine again.

Now im fairly convinced that this is being caused by a bad o2 sensor, once it warms up, it tricks the engine into thinking its running wrong.
If anyone has any confirmation or other ideas, im all ears! thanks.

[This message has been edited by Williamsr815 (edited 08-30-2010).]

Well one way to check would be to unplug the O2 sensor. You will get a SES light. The ECM will run the engine in open loop operation.

Now if your problem still occurs then for sure you know it's not coming from the O2 sensor. My guess is that it isn't the 02 sensor HOWEVER any testing is always better than guessing and replacing random parts. It's a whole lot easier to unplug the O2 sensor than it is to take it out.

Check your air temp sensor and your coolant temp sensor to see if the resistance is about where you should be seeing them. Both sensors use the same chart and both are read by measureing the resistance pin to pin and comparing them to the following chart. NOTE the Temperature Gauge Sender is NOT one of the sensors that you need to check for this problem. All the temp gauge sender does is send a signal to the gauge. The ECM does NOT have access to that signal, so it makes no difference in drivability what that sender does.




Info on the sensors and where they can be purchased if yours are bad
http://www.fierostore.com/T....aspx?Part=v6sensors

Great thanks that gives me a place to start, is there a how to on checking resistance? Do i just remove the plug and use a DMM to read the resistance on the plug?

Remove the wire connector from the sensor and connect hold the two leads of your ohm meter to the two pins of the sensor. Read the resistance of the sensor of course, don't connect the leads to the wiring harness plug.

Both sensors are tested the same way.

Great, thanks. Looks like i have a project for tomorrow, updates will be posted.

When you say air temp sensor, do you mean the one in the airbox?

So i drove it to work which is about 20 miles both ways, it ran perfect untill it started getting a little warm and after that it sputtered and lost power once...any ideas?

Check the codes again see if the 34 came back. The MAP is needed to run the engine. Without the MAP the engine will run like poop. So if the MAP connectiom is an issue that surely sounds like it could be causeing both the 34 and the drivability issues.

When hot runs like crap and has stalled before? Sounds like an Ignition Control Module going bad. You can have them tested for free at places like Autozone. The Ignition Coil has also been known to get weak when overheated.

For the O2, IIRC the car goes Open Loop when you are at WOT so the O2 doesn't play a part.

OK i'm alittle new to this as well, but check your Coil. my car ran very bad, coil was bad. Two days to fig it out. it had gas,air and spark just not enought spark. hope this helps

The MAP code has not come back yet. I will check the coil tomorrow and also check the code again. Thanks guys.

Ok so i attempted to check the resistance of the coil but my leads for my DMM were too large to fit into the slots so i cut 2 wires and put them in there as leads. I couldn't get a reading at all for the 2 that are supposed to read high/infinite. The other reading was around 12 Ohms.

I then removed the distributor cap and removed what i believe is the ICM, can someone please confirm?



when i removed it, the connector that is inside the cap that plugs into the ICM was very loose then i found out:


One of the wires in the connector had separated but it was still attached to the prong, could this be the cause of my problems?

Also, the plate that the ICM sits on looked like this:


Is that supposed to be bare metal to ground the ICM? There was thermal paste on it though. Im going to take the ICM to autozone here in a bit and have them test it.

Thanks!

[This message has been edited by Williamsr815 (edited 09-02-2010).]

pic#1 is your control module
pic#2 is you pick-up coil ( looks like it came out of it's connector) Clean it up and test it or just replace it $10 part (more work) change O-ring to if you do take it out, no oil leaks from there!!!
or get whole new distribtor for $150ish if that's an option (Much less work) and you'll know that it good.

Great thanks

New Update:
Replaced the coil and ICM today. Took it out, ran perfect, didnt run hot. We stopped and got dinner. Got back in the car and wanted to find out if it still sputters when its hot so i drove it semi hard, just enough to get the temps nearing 220. At a stoplight, idled fine but when i gave it gas, nothing happened, lost all throttle response and sputtured at the light. I gave it a second, it finally caught up and i got going again. Stop sign right by my house, came to a stop and it stalled. started it back up, lost some throttle response but enough to get me going. Backing into my driveway, stalled again but refused to start back up. Voltage read fine, cranked fine, it would fire and just die. Pushed it into my driveway and here i am now.

Note: When installing the ICM, the pick up coil was loose and moving freely, it would like spin but it was not secure, is this how its supposed to be?
Also, the 2 screws that hold the ICM in place were too short, i got one of them started enough to hold it in place until the dist. was put back on. The other screw would not start at all.

So im thinking either:
1. ICM lost contact at either the pick up coil or grounding plate
2. Pick up coil failure
3. Fuel pump just died
4. Fuel filter clogged
5. Something wiggled loose from the install earlier

I will go back over everything tomorrow and make sure nothing is loose.

Any ideas on this new problem?? Thanks

test your pick-up coil
make sure ICM is secured
check your coil and ICM connection as well
test fuel pump
and yes again check your coil i know it's new but never hurt to check
Check your fuses too!

good too hear it ran good for a shot time, that promising your on the right track
hopefully i'm still on the right track with you lol

Yea me too! thanks for the ideas, ill be checking those all out as soon as iget home from work today, hopefully this beast is running for a beautiful labor day weekend.

Whats up with your rotor?

It looks all messed up. Is it running into the top of the cap? It should NOT.

That pick up coil is toast.

As per previous posts replace that O-ring. It's cheap now and it WILL leak oil if you don't replace it.

[This message has been edited by phonedawgz (edited 09-03-2010).]

Wow, thanks for all that! Im just going to go ahead and replace the distributor. It should be in sometime early next week, hopefully that solves my problems but ive said that with every part so far.

Ok so, new distributor, coil and ICM. Runs great, I still feel like there's something a little bit off with the car.

On our first drive after the new parts, it acted almost exactly the same as before. Took it home, found out the coil plug was loose. I tightened that and went to run an errand in it. It ran perfectly the entire way. On my way home, i was coasting down a large hill and it just dies. I start it up while i was still moving, it idled barely then died. I came to a stop at the bottom of the hill and tried to start it again, it sputtered and kind of started, i needed to get out of the way because i was on a tiny bridge so i turned and babied it up to about 10 mph and it dies. I coast off the road and it doesn't start until my dad comes about an hour later. We spray starting fluid into a vacuum line. Starts right up...wow i ran out of gas.

The gas gauge has not worked since i bought it. I had intended on fixing it this weekend since its now running. I was using the trip meter to get an idea of mileage on a tank. Well it ran out of gas at 140 miles...and it was full...I know it was full because i had the receipt for the fuel in the glove box the day before.
So my questions are:
What else would cause the car to randomly lose a slight amount of power and idle a little funny?
What would cause me to be getting only 140 miles to a single tank?? I know i was running rich but not that bad, what is the regular mileage you guys get on one tank?

Thanks for the help, thanks for the help guys, its been a livesaver.

Fuel Sending Unit repair

http://docs.google.com/Doc?...dfNmRwa3drM2hr&hl=en

(assuming it's a bad sending unit - test first - ground the sending wire at the firewall plug (PURPLE wire on the YELLOW plug) and watch the gas gauge)

How many gallons does it take to fill up the tank after 140 miles?

Running out of gas can kill your fuel pump

If your timing is off (ie you didn't jumper A-B AND have the SES light flashing, or you set it by 'ear' and didn't use a light) your power will be off and you will get terrible gas mileage.

[This message has been edited by phonedawgz (edited 09-11-2010).]

right after i rn out of gas, i put about 2 gallons in it at the pump thinking i was going to drop the tank the next day. That didnt happen so i went and filled it up and it took about 7.5 gallons, what is the capacity of these tanks?

88 would be 12 gallons