need help!!!

[96s10]

i need some help guys. i'm having a problem with the truck (go figure). i can get it to start, but it'll run for about a minute and then shut off.it would only shut off though when i was trying to drive it around the yard. when it dies, the starter will turn but there's not spark. i figured out that its blowing a fuse. its the ecm fuse. i can't figure out why its doing this. what i need from you guys is any and all possibilities for why. also, ls1 guys, what amp fuse if your ecm fuse? please help me soon. i really need to get this thing going.


also, i'm still not firing on all cylinders. anybody know a good easy way to find out which one is not firing? all of them are getting power. thanks guys.

[Slush]

sounds like one of your sending units is sending a ground on a wrong wire....

[Slow ET]

I also say there is a bad ground somewhere.
There are 2 PCM fuses:

PCM BAT : 10A
PCM IGN : 15A

But if you know its a fuse, you should be able to tell which you need. I would check the coil packs and associated wiring to make sure they are not swapped, but i doubt you took the coils off. Maybe just a bad plug or two. EFILIVE of ATAP would let ya know for sure which is missing.

[96s10]

the coils came off but i know they're in the right position because thats why the engine wouldn't start before. i had to switch the coil wires at the computer because the driver's side was wired to the pass side and vice versa. its at the exhaust shop right now. i'll pick it up in the morning. i don't have 2 fuses like the camaros have. i have one ecm fuse and its a 20 amp. the guy who wired my harness it supposed to call me back tonight and tell me exactly what functions are on that wire. then i'll go from there.

i also bought a coil wire tester but it wasn't working too well. i just need to find out which cylinders aren't firing. what do i have to do to run the atap? my gf has a laptop i can use and do it.

[Slow ET]

Just install ATAP or EFILive on the laptop, plug one end of the wire into the computer and the other in the port in your car. Run a misfire parameter, fire the motor and start logging.

[Tally TransAm]

you could use a timing light to see which ones arent getting spark

everyone has a timing light

[redmach1]

Could also use a thermocouple with your volmeter or a temperature gun on each cylinder at the exhaust manifold. The one not firing will be much colder than the others.

Sounds to me like you could have a bad ground or a wire harness shorting. Check any wires that run near heat sources (ignition feed off starter, o2 wires, etc.).

[cary00silve]

you can use an ignition tester, which can be purchases at autozone for about five bucks. You just plug it into the spark plug end of the plug wire and look for the spark. I have one if you need to borrow it.

[96s10]

i was looking for one of those the other day but they didn't have one. my uncle found his the other day so i'll get it from him tomorrow. i was really hoping to bring it back after this weekend but it doesn't look like its going to happen.

[96s10]

does anybody have the atap software or know where the best place to get it and the cable? i'm gonna try to find out the problem tonight but i might need it next weekend.

[toofast]

me being so far away its hard to really help you but it seems to me that the coil or coil's are over heating and then shutting off they will do that i would have your coils tested.make sure a wire isnt screwed up and crossed or a go threw all ground wires make sure they are grounded right.double check the wiring order and check it again!its something in the coils or in that department thats causing your problem this much i know

[96s10]

i checked and all the coils are putting out spark. whether or not the plugs themselves are firing though remains to be tested. they're new plugs so that shouldn't be the problem though. i'm about to start testing injectors. maybe an injector is clogged up or just not working :shrug:. right now i'm focused on trying to find out why the engine isn't running on all cylinders. thats my focus at the moment.

[96s10]

ok. new question. i don't know if i can do this or not, but its all i could think of at the moment. i cranked the engine up and let it run. then one by one, i unhooked the wiring to the injectors to see if the engine would bog or anything. it bogged down when i unhooked the 4 injectors on the 4 corners. the 2 injectors towards the center on each side didn't cause the engine to change at all when i unhooked them. i think the engine it running on more than 4 cylinders though. is it possible to test the injectors this way?

[toofast]

i wish i was down there dude i would love to help you and get that bruiser on the road.that fucker is going to scream

[96s10]

do you know if i can test the injectors that way?

[asa67_stang]

do you know if i can test the injectors that way?

i'm not that familiar with injection, but it makes sense that you could do that
that should cut off the fuel, so it'd be basically the same as depriving spark to test the ignition, you eliminate one of the needed elements for combustion and you should get a bog if that cyl was working correctly

makes sense to me

[96s10]

do you know if i can test the injectors that way?

i'm not that familiar with injection, but it makes sense that you could do that
that should cut off the fuel, so it'd be basically the same as depriving spark to test the ignition, you eliminate one of the needed elements for combustion and you should get a bog if that cyl was working correctly

makes sense to me

it makes sense to me. it just doesn't seem right that only 4 cylinders are firing. i'll call around tomorrow and see if any place has injectors. i'm willing to try anything at this point.

[Slow ET]

EFILive software isnt cheap. Around $500. An alternative would be to get a hold of a scan tool assuming everything is connected. It should be able to tell you which cylinders are misfiring and/or possible trouble codes causing your problems.

[96s10]

i'm gonna try to change out the 4 injectors i think are bad tomorrow. if that doesn't work i'll figure out something else.

[asa67_stang]

is it possible that you got some of the wiring switched between the injectors?

[96s10]

the way the injectors are wired, they won't reach any other injector. i had a custom harness built for the engine. it fits like a stock one. its possible the guy wired it wrong though. he wired my coil packs to the opposite sides of the engine. if they're backwards, i can switch them at the computer. i'll call the guy tomorrow and make sure they're right.

[asa67_stang]

well, if he messed up the coil packs, it's easily possible that he messed something else up in the process, i know i've done that enough times here at work making cables

sounds like a plan

[IUP99snake]

Wiring gremlins suck.... SUCK!!

Doesent sound like a bad ground. but check it anyway. Its blowing a fuse because there is excessive current draw in that circuit. What kind of injectors are you using? (low impedance, or high impedance) are they a matched set?

-Homer

[96s10]

Wiring gremlins suck.... SUCK!!

Doesent sound like a bad ground. but check it anyway. Its blowing a fuse because there is excessive current draw in that circuit. What kind of injectors are you using? (low impedance, or high impedance) are they a matched set?

-Homer

i'm using the stock injectors. i don't think the fuse blowing has anything to do with the injectors. i talked to the guy who made my harness and he said to put a 25 amp fuse in there instead of a 20 amp. since there's a v8 in there now instead of a 4 cylinder, there's a lot more electronics running off of that one fuse. he said to try that.

i also talked to a mechanic at church this morning and he said it sounded like a vacume problem. i'm in the process of locating all the vacume lines and checking them. where are they all at so i make sure i don't miss any of them??

[IUP99snake]

since it's running, you've definately got something right. You better be extra careful putting a bigger fuse in that circuit. its blowing for a reason.

The other day, I watched one of the new guys at work put in a remote start system. It kept blowing fuses. He went from a 25 amp fuse to a 30 amp fuse, and smoked some wires. He's real lucky that he didnt fry the whole truck.

so, let me get this straight... you are running your entire FI system off of the stock FI circuit in your stock fuse block?

That is right.. you are running a lot more electronics...and that could be the problem.

See what codes its throwing... any bad sensors? Id recommend having the guy that made the harness hooking the main power and ground up. see what he thinks.

-Homer

[slmdLS1]

another vote for painless. :tu:

[Slow ET]

another vote for painless. :tu:

werd... ordering a pro-street harness soon :P

[96s10]

well, i've only had 2 problems with the harness. if i find out for sure that wiring is the problem, i might reccomend a painless. i still prefer the one i have because of the connectors and loom and the fact that i didn't have to work the abs.

[96s10]

here's the last update for the weekend. i still can't get the truck to fire on all cylinders. i'm thinking its number 4 and number 6 that aren't firing. i'm pretty sure on those. i let the engine run for about 15-20 seconds, then i felt the manifolds. they were substancially cooler than any of the other cylinders. it still doesn't account for the fact that i can unhook the wiring to the injectors of numbers 3 and 5 and nothing happens. i changed the spark plugs from 2 of the good cylinders to two of the bad cylinders and it still did the same thing, so i know its not the plugs. when i took the plug out of the number 4 cylinder, it smelt like gas and appeared to have gas on it. so i guess the injector is firing. i really have no clue on this one. i really don't know why it isn't firing on all the cylinders. i checked for vacume lines and i didn't have any loose. i don't know. anybody have a clue?

also, does anybody have the atap software i can borrow?

[toofast]

its a spark issue

[96s10]

i checked and all the cylinders were getting spark. rather, the coils were putting out spark. when i changed the plugs from the running cylinders to the non running cylinders, there was no change. 1-2-7-8 would still fire. thats what makes me think its not spark.

[96s10]

well, a big thanks goes to jon for letting me borrow his computer to run an atap on my truck, but it won't ready anything. it won't read any misfires or anything. i'm about to take my injectors off and take them up to napa to have them tested. hopefully that will be the problem. nobody in town has any in stock, hell, advanced didn't even have any injectors in their computer for anything above a 97. i'll let you guys know if thats the problem.

[Slow ET]

did the ATAP even see the VIN?

[96s10]

did the ATAP even see the VIN?

i had to enter a vin for it, thats the thing. i don't have a vin for the engine, all i have is the vin for my truck. i'm sure theres a vin on the engine somewhere but i don't know where. i had to put in the vin for my truck to even get it to run. the only thing i could get atap to read was the o2 sensors and i believe something about the injectors. jon might remember, i had him on the phone when i tried it.

[96s10]

i also got a call back from napa about my injectors. he asked if the engine had been sitting long, and i said yeah. he said he's gonna have to let them soak overnight before he can do anything with them. i'll know by 10 tomorrow morning what the verdict is.

[Slow ET]

The PCM that came with the engine should have the VIN already programmed in it and if the diagnostic port works correctly it should be able to send the VIN to ATAP right upon start-up. Does a regular scanner work?

[96s10]

i haven't been able to take it to the parts place. i haven't been able to drive it and i didn't want to spend 75 bucks on the scanner. i'll try it again, but it made me put in a vin the first time

[Slow ET]

ATAP only makes you put in a VIN if it isnt hooked to the port yet (has not received a VIN from the PCM). If you plug it into the port and it asks for a VIN its not gonna work, from what i have seen.

[96s10]

why did it read o2 and injector stuff though?

[Slow ET]

Dunno, never saw that happen. If you could log those parameters, the others should work also :shrug: How long does the car stay running when you log it?

[96s10]

Dunno, never saw that happen. If you could log those parameters, the others should work also :shrug: How long does the car stay running when you log it?

i can keep the truck running as long as i need to if thats what you mean.

[96s10]

talked to the guy at napa and he said they flushed a whole lot of crap out of my injectors. i'm headed up there now to pick them up.

[96s10]

injectors are in and it seems to have helped a little bit, but not much. still not running right. now i have a new problem. i let it run for a minute and smoke started coming from behind the pass side head between the firewall. i jacked up the truck and crawled under and there's an orange fluid leaking. it was on my exhaust causing the smoke. i couldn't smell it, but it looks like coolant. so now i have to find out what could be leaking back there. any ideas?

edit: a fuckin heater hose decided to leak a little bit and it was going down my firewall and dripping on my exhaust. now i'm out 97 bucks for cleaning the injectors and still have the same problem. :hissy:

[toofast]

spark dude check for spark on all cyl take a screw driver and take the plug plug wire on 1 end and see if it arcs and sparks if it dosnt then your not getting spark

[96s10]

checked it again and im getting spark, just not at the right time. i took the plugs out and number 5 and number 6 were squeaky clean. i found out what the problem was though, there were a couple wires in the harness that were wrong. i had to change the coil wires over from the pass side to the driver's side. i did what the guy who made my harness told me to at the time, but i figured out today that a couple of them needed to be switched. fired right up and sounds mean as hell. now the race is on to get it done before the end of the weekend.

[towelie]

thtas aweosme man so are all problems fixed that you know of so far cause I cant wait to see that thing :q:

[toofast]

man thats great that its running good got a sound and video clip yet?

[asa67_stang]

glad you got it squared away man

[brandboZ28]

Thats awesome Brian!! You get it together yet? :mrgreen:

[96s10]

Thats awesome Brian!! You get it together yet? :mrgreen:

truck is finally put back together, mostly anyways. fuckin pisses me off though that i couldn't drive it back today. i worked nonstop the whole weekend on it. i finally got to drive it today. there's still a few issues to work out on it. sounds like i have some exhaust leaks, but that was expected. the reason i didn't bring it back today was cooling. i drove it about a mile and my temperature pegged out on me. probably air in the system or something. the other thing iit could be is the thermostat. my dad is gonna change that for me this week. the other thing is my fans. they're not coming on. temperature is pegged at 260 and they dont' come on. checked and they're hooked up properly. took the wire out at the computer and grounded it and they come on. so for some reason, the computer isn't sending the signal for them to turn on. i'll try it one more time once the new thermostat is in. if that doesn't work, i'll wire them onto a switch and turn them on manually. once i get it here i want some of you guys to listen to it and help me find all the kinks in the engine. i'm not that familiar with everything about this engine and how it should sound and perform. i'm just happy to get it all back together.

[JD]

You're over the top of the hill. It's all downhill from here. Congrats. :tu:

[96s10]

what thermostat do you guys think i should get? should i go ahead and get the 160 deg? wheres a good place to get it? autozone's website showed it for like 60 bucks.

[17TH SVT]

60 bucks! you should be able to get that thing for like 6 bucks. i sell em everyday at advance and all of ours are 6 for the good ones. i would stick with a 180, because sometimes it can run so cold that you lose power because you are lowering the combustion chamber temps so much. just a thought...

[cary00silve]

what thermostat do you guys think i should get? should i go ahead and get the 160 deg? wheres a good place to get it? autozone's website showed it for like 60 bucks.
That seems about right for an ls1. The thermostat and housing are sold as one unit.

[96s10]

what do you guys think i should do about the fans?

[brandboZ28]

I would try to get them to run but the switch would work just as fine but your going to have to keep a constant eye on that temp gauge. I have no idea what could be your fan problem, the only thing that I could think of would be your wiring, maybe a bad ground or something.

[96s10]

well, there were 4 wires in the harness for the fans. 2 for power and 2 for grounds. i connected the power wires and ground wires. the relays are getting power and everything is wired right. i took out the blue connector and grounded wire 42, which is the fan control wire, and the fans turned on. for some odd reason, the fans just aren't getting signal from the computer.

[Davidz28]

i don't know what to tell you about the fans. But I would go with the 160 t-stat. But if you want it, I have a 180 still in the box here in my room.

[96s10]

well, my dad just pulled the thermostat and put it in some boiling water and its opening up he says. which leads me to believe that its the water pump. when the engine was running, i noticed that there was some coolant spraying around in a couple places. my dad said it was coming from a hole or something on the pump. i didn't get down there to look. i was trying to figure out why my fans weren't coming on. he's gonna get me another water pump. i don't know if he's gonna put it on though. i don't know how much room i'm gonna need for it. i might end up taking my radiator and stuff back out just to change the pump. this sucks.

[pendrgn]

what engine do you have in that again?

[96s10]

ls1

[96s10]

i think this video sounds a little better than my last one

http://www.stang.cc/tmcaalbums/album04/Mov00573.mpg

[brandboZ28]

Yummy!!!!!!

[towelie]

sounds awesome man :tu:

[redmach1]

mucho bueno

[sstony]

good stuff man--is it in t-town yet? i can't wiat to check it out. :tu:

[96s10]

its still in pensacola. have to work out the cooling issues and it'll be done.

[brandboZ28]

And an exhasut leak

[96s10]

how can you tell bo? just the sound? im pretty sure its the drivers side manifold but with the service i got at the exhaust shop, it could be anywhere.

[brandboZ28]

Yea, definatly sounds like an exhaust leak. From the video, it sounds loud so I would imagine its on the drivers side since thast what side the camera is on.

[96s10]

i'll take the manifold off on the driver's side and try to fix it. do you think i should use some of the high temp gasket sealer? or maybe double up the gaskets on that side?

[brandboZ28]

You light have to use a good high quality gasket(like a percys) to get it to seal.

[96s10]

who sells them? the only gasket anybody sells around where i live is the cheap felpro gaskets

edit: i checked jegs and its gonna be almost 50 bucks with shipping for the percy's gaskets. do you think it would be worth it to spend that much?