The "not have to drive a RWD car in winter" repair
- Thread starter 81cutlass
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So I took it apart and found the number 5 piston had some serious issues. Skirt, ringland, and top was ugly. Not sure what happened but it was trashed. Block was great thankfully! Crank was good, timing chains were wore. Sent heads off to get redone, ($105 for valvejob and complete cleaning, $50 to surface, I love my machinist). Needed 1 new intake valve, got warped from piston bits running through. Cleaned up the old pistons to find #6 was also wore on the skirt and cracked ringlands. Just bought all new pistons.
Going to hang accessories, and bolt it in tomorrow. Another day after that to throw the rad support, rad, plug in wiring again, and it will be back up!
Going to have to diagnose no blower fan and see if the fan is shot or hopefully just the relay. So at worst its pull the dash, fix that, and I wont have to rust my olds out this winter.
Going to hang accessories, and bolt it in tomorrow. Another day after that to throw the rad support, rad, plug in wiring again, and it will be back up!
Going to have to diagnose no blower fan and see if the fan is shot or hopefully just the relay. So at worst its pull the dash, fix that, and I wont have to rust my olds out this winter.
When I saw the compression gauge I was thinking it spit a follower (rocker). Pretty common on the 3.7/4.7 engines. Mysterious miss that can't be tuned away.
The plug for the blower motor is behind the glovebox. Green and black wires that are usually twisted together. If you have power and ground at the plug -- it's time to pull the heater box. Drop the column and swing the dash away from the passenger side. The 7/16" nuts on the engine side of the firewall can be a b*tch to get to. Once you get the heater box out it has to come apart to replace the blower motor. Stupid design.
The plug for the blower motor is behind the glovebox. Green and black wires that are usually twisted together. If you have power and ground at the plug -- it's time to pull the heater box. Drop the column and swing the dash away from the passenger side. The 7/16" nuts on the engine side of the firewall can be a b*tch to get to. Once you get the heater box out it has to come apart to replace the blower motor. Stupid design.
So I got the motor in, and changed the blower fan.
Put motor in, ran good. But its winter in MN so I had to change the fan. Got a new motor and promptly broke the squirrel cage. Sat and waited for a new one. Put it in and drove it 15 miles and was happy. Took vehicle out and lost power and died, intermittent start. Towed it home, changed cam sensor, started and worked great. Put 15 miles on and as soon as I got a block away from my house it ran rough, got into my driveway and died. Would start, pops through the exhaust, hits hard against starter like timing is way advanced. Assumed I got a bad sensor. Put a new one in today and after a lot of cranking (assumed it was flooded from trying to start it the day before) it started. Took it around the block, ran good. Blew the trans cooler line off. Put hose back on and started it up to see and it was fine. Put #1 replacement cam senor in and it was fine. Put #2 sensor in and it was fine. Put original OEM dodge sensor in and runs fine. Filled trans back up and was going to take it out again and started running rough. Waste $70 on 2 cam sensors. Never throws a helpful ECM code. FInally had an ECM code that I can scan, #7 injector, do some internet reading and TPS sensors can cause issues. Hook up HP tuners scanner and it says 13%, no movement, assume sensor is bad, buy new sensor, put it in, no start, fires against starter again, sensor didnt do anything. End up reading and found out dodge uses .5-4.5 volts unlike GM's 0-5. Waste $50. Can get it running but runs like garbage. Surging idle, wont start most of the time, dies easy, runs like junk at 2000-3000. Ill go out tomorrow morning and it will be fine.
I hate dodges already...Cant fix anything educatedly since there are no codes, nothing consistent that is broken to know if its fixed or not. Too cold to drive anywhere to tests well since Ill die of frostbite.
Put motor in, ran good. But its winter in MN so I had to change the fan. Got a new motor and promptly broke the squirrel cage. Sat and waited for a new one. Put it in and drove it 15 miles and was happy. Took vehicle out and lost power and died, intermittent start. Towed it home, changed cam sensor, started and worked great. Put 15 miles on and as soon as I got a block away from my house it ran rough, got into my driveway and died. Would start, pops through the exhaust, hits hard against starter like timing is way advanced. Assumed I got a bad sensor. Put a new one in today and after a lot of cranking (assumed it was flooded from trying to start it the day before) it started. Took it around the block, ran good. Blew the trans cooler line off. Put hose back on and started it up to see and it was fine. Put #1 replacement cam senor in and it was fine. Put #2 sensor in and it was fine. Put original OEM dodge sensor in and runs fine. Filled trans back up and was going to take it out again and started running rough. Waste $70 on 2 cam sensors. Never throws a helpful ECM code. FInally had an ECM code that I can scan, #7 injector, do some internet reading and TPS sensors can cause issues. Hook up HP tuners scanner and it says 13%, no movement, assume sensor is bad, buy new sensor, put it in, no start, fires against starter again, sensor didnt do anything. End up reading and found out dodge uses .5-4.5 volts unlike GM's 0-5. Waste $50. Can get it running but runs like garbage. Surging idle, wont start most of the time, dies easy, runs like junk at 2000-3000. Ill go out tomorrow morning and it will be fine.
I hate dodges already...Cant fix anything educatedly since there are no codes, nothing consistent that is broken to know if its fixed or not. Too cold to drive anywhere to tests well since Ill die of frostbite.
Yep, Doesnt matter what sensor is in it when it runs and doesnt matter whats in it when its not. TPS doesnt change. Change nothing between running and no running condition. I wont be surprised it it starts tomorrow morning or if it doesnt.
What bugs me is its not mechanical, have fuel pressure and checked cam relation to the crank since that can be screwed up and sometimes they shear, it was all good. ECM doesnt throw any codes. It will be running but banging, stinking and surging at 1800-2500 but no O2 or miss codes. With my 3800 if it runs bad it will throw a code.
What bugs me is its not mechanical, have fuel pressure and checked cam relation to the crank since that can be screwed up and sometimes they shear, it was all good. ECM doesnt throw any codes. It will be running but banging, stinking and surging at 1800-2500 but no O2 or miss codes. With my 3800 if it runs bad it will throw a code.
But it has gone from fine to shitty to fine then shitty again? 100% sure it isn't mechanical? Mechanical problem would probably be a consistent problem. Electrical problem could be more intermittent.
Yes, only reason I rule out mechanical because it runs great when it does and bad out of nowhere. I guess the hydraulic lifter/plungers for the valves could be collapsing randomly and not opening valves far enough but i dont see why, have good oil pressure.
Maybe keep an eye on the CTS value while it's running. Could be wigging from normal to -120* and back. That would explain most everything except the cranking like it's out of time. What are your fuel trims doing?
Thats one thing i gotta figgure out. The only thing my hptuners is reading is TPS and RPM. Hopefully ill find out in the next few days.
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