Resolved 2G Engine Rebuild

[RubyEclipse]

Hello everyone! I just purchased my 1996 Eclipse GST a few months ago, had some issues with a few different things. Most recent was car was smoking and running very uneasy, so I decided to pull the engine. I am going to do a full engine rebuild-ish, I bought new wisco heads, still looking at the rods I want, if there’s anything anyone thinks I should buy and upgrade I would love help! Trying to push more power but not an insane amount seeing how I want this to be more of a daily but not quite. Thank you guys!

 

[pauleyman]

Thank you so very much, that means absolutely everything coming from you. I’ve been trying my absolute hardest and I won’t lie it’s been hard to keep motivation but I’ve been doing it somehow. Been told by so many people to cut the losses and sell it but I just can’t, the car may suck but I’m attached to it and will make it run if it means another 3 grand.

Yes I just flushed the coolant system with fresh and new coolant, the right kind. I wasn’t seeing any leaks at all this time around. Car struggled to idle badly when I first started it today, it would die within 2 seconds of running, and every time I’d pressed the gas it died immediately. So after some more starts like 10 I pressed the gas and floored it, from there on out it would idle, after letting off the gas it dropped to about 500 RPMs and then slowly brought itself back to 1kish. I did install an intake manifold gasket to the head, besides that I have not touched the manifold. The hoses I can’t really tell, most of them to be honest I can’t even see. I don’t know what the brake booster hose is but I will find and check it.

The car was running ok ish, I did leave my fuel injectors out in the sun and whatever other debris for a few months, so it would not surprise me to have issues. I’m thinking since the code is that 1 fuel injector is stuck open it could make sense that it’s just dumping fuel and that’s where the smokes coming from, don’t you think? I will check the harness, it doesn’t look the best so I would not be surprised if that’s an issue. Again, thank you so so very much for everything and all of your help. Couldn’t have done one thing without you all.

Yiu can pull the plugs and see if that one looks/smells different. Won't tell you the root cause but will tell you if one cyl is flooded.

 

[jed344]

I would double check everything is plugged in to right place. Then if so you will need to diagnose if a wire broke ect. These car's are old and every one we ever have touched we had to repair parts of the harness after disturbing it.

You have all the grounds back on correct? This includes the ground from the intake manifold ect.

The fuel injector code you could test with a noid light to confirm the ecu is firing that plug or not. That would tell you if it is a stuck injector or harness issue.
The other option is pull that injector and pulse it with a 9v battery. You can feel and hear it click.

The compression numbers are totally fine.

 

[RubyEclipse]

I would double check everything is plugged in to right place. Then if so you will need to diagnose if a wire broke ect. These car's are old and every one we ever have touched we had to repair parts of the harness after disturbing it.

You have all the grounds back on correct? This includes the ground from the intake manifold ect.

The fuel injector code you could test with a noid light to confirm the ecu is firing that plug or not. That would tell you if it is a stuck injector or harness issue.
The other option is pull that injector and pulse it with a 9v battery. You can feel and hear it click.

The compression numbers are totally fine.

I will double check all of the harness. I think I have all of the grounds, which ones are the grounds in the manifold I could miss or not do?

 

[jed344]

Factory there is one from intake manifold to firewall. This is a braided ground.

My memory says they will not run if crank or cam is not plugged in. That is possible to do as on a 2g the AC compressor plug is the same as the crank sensor plug just different colors. They will reach and can be accidentally swapped. I am quite certain though the car would not even start if you made that mistake though.

I could be wrong but the way the ecu checks and throws a code for a injector is when the car is key on but not running. The one side of the injector plug is fed 12v via mpi. The other side to ecu floats open and it expects to see 12v. When it does not see 12v it will toss a code.

The ecu ground's the circuit to fire the injectors.

 

[RubyEclipse]

Factory there is one from intake manifold to firewall. This is a braided ground.

My memory says they will not run if crank or cam is not plugged in. That is possible to do as on a 2g the AC compressor plug is the same as the crank sensor plug just different colors. They will reach and can be accidentally swapped. I am quite certain though the car would not even start if you made that mistake though.

I could be wrong but the way the ecu checks and throws a code for a injector is when the car is key on but not running. The one side of the injector plug is fed 12v via mpi. The other side to ecu floats open and it expects to see 12v. When it does not see 12v it will toss a code.

The ecu ground's the circuit to fire the injectors.

Ok got it, I will definitely check my plug ins and stuff. But why would the car be running so great, then bam, all of these issues happen at once. I mean the car drove, and ran beautifully, idled amazing and everything but now runs like junk, makes a whistling noise, and can barely idle. Plus, smoke from the Intake Manifold.

 

[pauleyman]

Ok got it, I will definitely check my plug ins and stuff. But why would the car be running so great, then bam, all of these issues happen at once. I mean the car drove, and ran beautifully, idled amazing and everything but now runs like junk, makes a whistling noise, and can barely idle. Plus, smoke from the Intake Manifold.

This sounds more like a boost leak than anything to me.

 

[RubyEclipse]

This sounds more like a boost leak than anything to me.

Ok, how should I go about this? Me doing that boost leak test that I tried and must’ve failed, because it did absolutely nothing. I don’t know what I did wrong or am not doing, but there was zero whistle or noises when i tried.

 

[pauleyman]

Ok, how should I go about this? Me doing that boost leak test that I tried and must’ve failed, because it did absolutely nothing. I don’t know what I did wrong or am not doing, but there was zero whistle or noises when i tried.

Run the test again. Very possible something happened.

 

[RubyEclipse]

Run the test again. Very possible something happened.

You got it!!

 

[RubyEclipse]

I couldn’t really test because my air compressor kicked dust on me right now. But, something’s wrong with my exhaust in the catalytic converter. It’s got almost like holes in the bottom and is smoking through them, bad. Bogs out really badly when I gas it still, sounds like either too much fuel or air. The way it dies doesn’t sound like electrical or something alike. There’s still a whistling like noise on the intake side. I can’t tell what, I spray water try to listen, no matter what I do I just can’t seem to find its source.

This is the video of the cat.

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This is the one of it bogging/whistling

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.

She almost sounds like she’s got a MEAN cam!!

 

[CKOPOCT]

Bogging could be due to a plugged cat. That smoking seems odd... it's possible when you had the oil leak it went on long enough to cause the honeycomb in the cat to get partially plugged. Then when you got the car back to great, the extra pressure from the engine working properly dislodged and shuffled the cholesterol in the cat causing a large blockage. The cat developed hot spots and burned/blew through the weak areas. Now you've got bogging due to severely restricted exhaust flow.

I would take the cat off (since it needs to be replaced anyway) and see how the engine runs with it disconnected. Not for long... just enough to see if that makes a major change. Also allows to see if there's any burning of oil coming from the engine vs. leftover crud in the cat.

Thoughts guys?

 

[RubyEclipse]

Bogging could be due to a plugged cat. That smoking seems odd... it's possible when you had the oil leak it went on long enough to cause the honeycomb in the cat to get partially plugged. Then when you got the car back to great, the extra pressure from the engine working properly dislodged and shuffled the cholesterol in the cat causing a large blockage. The cat developed hot spots and burned/blew through the weak areas. Now you've got bogging due to severely restricted exhaust flow.

I would take the cat off (since it needs to be replaced anyway) and see how the engine runs with it disconnected. Not for long... just enough to see if that makes a major change. Also allows to see if there's any burning of oil coming from the engine vs. leftover crud in the cat.

Thoughts guys?

You got it, is that a stock cat? I was told by the dude I bought it from; it’s got a cat back exhaust but I don’t know what that means. I think there’s still issues with my injectors, I unplugged the one in cylinder 4 and it did nothing. I unplugged all the others one at a stone and it made a hugeeee difference.

 

[CKOPOCT]

Catback just means the exhaust from the catalytic converter to the tail pipe was all replaced. If unplugging injector 4 did nothing, then ignore my suggestion and work with that injector.

 

[RubyEclipse]

Catback just means the exhaust from the catalytic converter to the tail pipe was all replaced. If unplugging injector 4 did nothing, then ignore my suggestion and work with that injector.

Should I take just that one in to get replaced or what do I do?

 

[pauleyman]

Should I take just that one in to get replaced or what do I do?

You need to find out if its trying to fire. quick and dirty is to swap 2 injectors. If the problem follows the injector then you know. If it doesn't it's a wiring or ECU problem.
If you have proper tools you can just put a noid light on it and see if ecu is trying to fire it. The free version is just swap 2. Only costs you time. It will leak fuel, make sure engine is cold.

 

[RubyEclipse]

It’s indeed not the cat, even tho I will be needing a new one. I unplugged that injector today and the car died, so it definitely is doing its job compared to yesterday. Now I’m back to square one with a horrible whistle leak that I can’t find and it’s driving me nuts, a rough idle, and no power.

you guys might find this funny like I did. She sounded pretty mean not going to lie, it sounds choppy like a v8 with a cam, it’s got that weird sound but I love It I just know it’s not right.

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[RubyEclipse]

My injectors look a little black on the ends, these are also the ones I cleaned out.

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I put my injectors back in, in no order. Number 4 is causing the hissing sound. I took off the plug, no more hissing. What does this mean? Car ran better without the injector plugged in. This however did not fix my bogging issue, it still sounds like it’s dying out when I put on the gas, last thing. My oil, smells like fuel…? Like a lot like fuel. It’s sort of clear and a bit more runny, but this is also a new oil change so I do not know.

 

[pauleyman]

Sounds like you have a stuck injector or possibly an ecu problem. Did the problem.sray in the same cylinder when you moved injectors?
Change the oil.

 

[RubyEclipse]

Sounds like you have a stuck injector. Get another stock set or have those cleaned. If you didnt have somewhere to go locally fuel injector clinic can do them. Change the oil.

Ok I will, kinda sucks to change the oil, I literally just did. like 50 bucks down the drain too. I’m going to take them to get cleaned right now.

 

[pauleyman]

Ok I will, kinda sucks to change the oil, I literally just did. like 50 bucks down the drain too. I’m going to take them to get cleaned right now.

Hold up a sec. I revised my post. Still not a bad idea to get cleaned but I had another question posted above.

 

[RubyEclipse]

Sounds like you have a stuck injector or possibly an ecu problem. Did the problem.sray in the same cylinder when you moved injectors?
Change the oil.

Yep, just moved it around, same injector. Going to go get it cleaned and whatever right now, should I just do the others while I’m at it?

 

[pauleyman]

Yep, just moved it around, same injector. Going to go get it cleaned and whatever right now, should I just do the others while I’m at it?

If problems didn't move sounds more like ecu. Can you remove it and show us the board?

 

[RubyEclipse]

If problems didn't move sounds more like ecu. Can you remove it and show us the board?

The problem did move. The injector is stuck closed. The bogging on the other hand I still have zero clue, where is the ecu? I’ll send a picture. It’s in the dash somewhere right?

Just got the injectors taken in, he said he’ll give me a call in a few and let me know. Until then, what can I even do?

 

[pauleyman]

Sounds like you're on the right path. Be patient. Change the oil.

 

[RubyEclipse]

Sounds like you're on the right path. Be patient. Change the oil.

Ok sounds good. I still feel like the issue of it bogging is not the injectors, I could be wrong because I don’t know anything, but it was doing this before I even pulled the head, or got the timing messed up. I think maybe airflow or turbo. Oil was back in my intake, I cleaned it out and there doesn’t seem to be anymore in there, but I don’t know. What do you guys all think? Maybe it’s my TPS or something alike? Thank you all for the help once again. : )