Miss Under Boost - No Boost Leaks

[lacroixdp]

I have a odd problem that started yesterday. Tues, I blew a coolant hose on the oil cooler plate doing 70MPH and the car heated up - never made it to the last peg on the dash thermostat though. I had it towed and the hose was replaced and I got it back Wed. Car ran great until later that night - anytime I attempted to use the turbo it would miss. Wires are new, plugs are getting replaced tomorrow. Everything's completely stock on it at the moment. I checked for intake leaks and none showed up Saturday. No water in the oil or vise-versa. Oddly enough, Saturday on a highway trip I had the check engine light flicker a few times, but it would not stay lit more than 20 seconds or so. Also the dip stick is coming out under boost - I have a new one on the way. Does this miss sound like ECU caps to y'all? I'm hoping the dipstick is PCV valve. Thanks!

 

[DSM4me44]

Your problem will be fixed with

1. New spark plugs, that you are getting, hopefully either NGKbpr6es or NGKbpr7es.

2. Gap set on all plugs to exactly .28

As far as your other problem, if your dipstick is really old, that might fix it. Otherwise you need to get rid of some excess crankcase pressure.

You can do this by...

1. Getting an new OEM pcv valve.

2. Hooking up a line form your valve cover to the intake, if it isn't already. You will probably want to run an inline filter as well.

 

[lacroixdp]

I'll give those a shot - thank ya much!

 

[habitatguy187]

It probably is the spark plugs/wires, but you might want to do a compression test for the dipstick popping out, if the pcv valve is ok that is.

Also you need to see what the CEL is for, you can do this with nothing but a analog voltmeter ($10 at autozone) It could be a coil pack or maf or any number of things. You could be running so rich that it causes a misfire.

And if your caps haven't been replaced you need to change them, because they will leak (just went through that mess) I'm also in indy and I have a datalogger if you want to check your CEL or just hang out.

 

[lacroixdp]

Yah those plugs were a mess. Totally not the right plug for this car. Fouled up beyond belief and had a very excessive amount of wire lube on em. I replaced them but its still missing. I'm going to re-check for a vacuum leak. The ECU didn't have any codes stored, so I'm thinking I have a leaky cap causing the flickering CEL. Greenwood eh? I'm northeast side near Castleton. Nice to see a fellow Hoosier on here

 

[DSMtsi23]

what do you mean by it would miss? Are u running stock boost? could be fuel cut. My car also was having the engine light flickering on and off. Few weeks later wouldnt start. Turned out to be a bad ecu. Swaped a new socket eprom ecu and away i went.

 

[BklynsDsmer]

yea sounds like the Ecu ,..

 

[lacroixdp]

Sounds like it to me too

 

[habitatguy187]

Did you get the right plugs/gap them to .028? If not that could still be your miss. And the ecu probably has problems, but I wouldn't automatically suspect it to be causing this particular problem. There's a guy named John Hopkins (hop) up on the northeast side who can fix ecu's. If you haven't yet visit please wait... and sign up, send him a pm and he'll take a look at it for you, he's a real cool guy.

 

[lacroixdp]

I installed a pair of new NGKs gapped at .28, but before I jump the gun on the ECU I'm going to swap wires and double-check for a boost leak today. Thanks for the site - I'll have to sign up there

 

[habitatguy187]

just pull the ecu out and look at it real quick, 4 screws and 3 bolts (10mm if I remember correctly) it's much faster than changing plug wires.

My ecu was bad and caused a heavy misfire at consistent rpms, so it's not exactly common but it does happen.

 

[lacroixdp]

I'm going to yank it out tomorrow and check the caps.

 

[dsm4fun]

hey my car was doing this for a while as well.. my fix was new plugs and an o2 sensor.. id be driving and my cel light would come on for anywhere between ten an twenty seconds.. i found it odd. i drove it the next day it was fine but i got on it at wot and it overheated all the way.. well i replaced the thermo flushed the radiator and it was still saying it was overheating but the motor wasnt feeling any hotter than normal.. so i checked the voltage on the coolant temp sensor with my friend, it was fine.. we even thermo gunned the motor not that hot.. but check the sensor plugin on the side of the coolant sensor make sure that its makin a good contact.. after i screwed with mine a lil my temp gauge started reading alls fine. but as for the dipstick that reverse crankcase pressure.. has it blown all the way out or just comes up a little and oil leaks out? try getting a breather filter for the valve cover instead of the hose that runs back to the intake.. that should help or fix it completely.. Ive had a couple of my friends with that problem and that fixed it.. good luck man

 

[lacroixdp]

Yeah - seems I've got a few juicy caps. I'm back in Indy so I'm going to hunt for someone that could give me a few day turnaround with these.

 

[Jetrosr]

Yeah - seems I've got a few juicy caps. I'm back in Indy so I'm going to hunt for someone that could give me a few day turnaround with these.

Hey, if Hop can't do it in your time frame, these guys did both my ECU and TCU. Price is right and they did the TCU while I waited!

BTW, baking soda will neutralize the acid coming out of the caps.

 

[lacroixdp]

I'm pending an account so I can message Hop on there. How much did they charge you to do your caps?

 

[Jetrosr]

I'm pending an account so I can message Hop on there. How much did they charge you to do your caps?

It's been about a year, but I think the TCU was $125 and ECU was $150-160 w/ 1 yr warranty. Pretty cool guys. WAAAAAY out in the boonies if you have to drive there. At the time they were shipping for $5 each way.

 

[lacroixdp]

I got a message off to Hop - I'll find out soon what the damage is