Bringing up an old topic with a current problem

stang67fb · Post by **stang67fb** » April 20th, 2005, 12:50 am

DavidOS · Post by **DavidOS** » April 20th, 2005, 1:18 am

so you know your vris is working?
you are running a kl36 ecu in your ze and not getting power above 6000rpm?
i would do a engine flush and a carbon flush, just to clean out the injectors and junk build up. Id also change your fuel pump for the hell of it if you can hear it (unless its a bigger one) it might go soon.

Also compression is important no matter what ppl say about 3% of each other. Ze Compression tests on the motors ive seen were closer to 190 in each cylinder. At high revs you might be loosing some compression, which leads to leaks? gaskets? that kinda stuff.

do you have bad lifter noise? (if so things could be clogged up as suggested)
do you hear or feel any weird vibrations at certain revs? (hairline fractures in crank)
do your rpms slip or move around when shifting under a fairly heavy load ie: higher rpms 4000 and up?(clutch slipping, flywheel warpage)

Any werid squeaks? bearings possibly.

also where did you get your tranny from?? i want one for that much.

andy · Post by **andy** » April 20th, 2005, 7:37 am

I'm with David, Its cheap and easy to just tie the vris plates open and see what happens. If the power still drops out above 5000 rpm's check that off the list and move on to the next.
I have read on the Probetalk board of cases were the timing belt jumped one tooth on the rear cam giving them some of the symptons your describing.

If I am unsure of a power loss I would start with replacing plugs,cap and rotor,wires,fuel filter, set the tps and timing and idle.

It might be worth it to check the timing marks. its not to easy but would give you peace of mind.

Andy 93 GS

stang67fb · Post by **stang67fb** » April 21st, 2005, 10:20 pm

Ok well as i said before im pretty sure its not an engine problem because my last engine ran real good for 3 weeks then the 4th it started running slow and even when i swapped this engine in (because i thought it might be the engine screwed up) it ran EXACTLY the same. So it would have to be something with the chassis or parts i swapped over. As far as the fuel pump its quiet as ever before even with 185k on it.

And andy ive tried all the basic stuff plenty of times.

As you can see though through all my old threads i kept having some HUGE distributor problems. I got the small rotor disty through autozone. I dont remember ever trying the large rotor. I have no idea what the difference is in them, neither did the guys there. After it ran for a short while over the couple weeks of time the car just ended up as slow as it is today. I ran it pretty hard for those few weeks but still, what would make it do this?

faried · Post by **faried** » April 22nd, 2005, 12:49 am

Check your cat (maybe it's partially blocked?)

DavidOS · Post by **DavidOS** » April 22nd, 2005, 1:25 am

I think the other thing is you said you were running it hard, which means heating up alot, i find when i run my ZE harder in warmer temps it runs rich... not a bad thing, but also after running for awhile i dont get the same performance cause the engine runs very hot... Could be overheating or thermostat related issues as well, also i still recommend a external coil swap found in the faqs, this will remove all your worries about distrib coils going bad and if you have the right one.

Loss at higher RPMS normally means something being restricted normally air. I forgot which post its in, what size exhaust are you running??
and have you fixed your brake problem yet as well??

andy · Post by **andy** » April 22nd, 2005, 7:50 am

I do much better diagnosing things in person. I can't seem to help much over the internet.

Sounds like your car is running in safe mode. Maybe try reseting the ECU.
If your sure its not motor related, that doesn't leave to many options.
Just recently I had the same problem, no power above 5000 rpm. I was darn sure it wasn't motor related. thru some investigative trial and error I found that the fiberglass had blown out of my resonator and pluged up my stock muffler. Put a dynomax on and the car has never run so good.

I'm at a loss for this one, good luck.

Andy 93 GS

Gro Harlem · Post by **Gro Harlem** » April 22nd, 2005, 11:38 am

so you drive it up to 100+ mph, then the car shuts off?

sounds like its STILL your ignition module. Do the HEI upgrade and eliminate that peice of faulty crap!

If it is some other symptoms, list them. Could be a number of other things, vac leak, bad CTS or O2 sensors, bad wiring connection to ecu, etc.

stang67fb · Post by **stang67fb** » April 22nd, 2005, 8:22 pm

My cat is gutted out.

Actually i just recently did the HEI module upgrade and i have an external coil just waiting on the power tower cap right now.

I have 2 1/4 exhaust from the cat back or actually from behind my huge resonated glasspack ( that needs to get ripped out and replaced with piping).

Yes the brake problem seems to be fixed now. It seems like they kept getting stuck when i used the e-brake all the time while parking it. i now no longer use the e-brake, just slap it in 1st gear.

Ive tried resetting the ecu tons of times, never seemed to help.

stang67fb · Post by **stang67fb** » April 23rd, 2005, 10:16 pm

also one last thing that i still remember is that the day my disty first went out 2 years ago, i can remember that i was going over 100 mph in a short distance. Now too this day my car has the hardest time gaining speed above 90mph. In fact with the stock engine and just the intake/exhaust setup it was faster back then then it is now as far as 100mph and up. Last i tried i couldnt even get my car up to 125. I really need to make a video and post it. If i can get ahold of a camera soon i will do this, because everyone on here needs to see what is going on to really help me out.

DavidOS · Post by **DavidOS** » April 24th, 2005, 12:46 am

hmm ground wires??? short circuit somewhere? fuses?

Chronicle-Rod · Post by **Chronicle-Rod** » April 24th, 2005, 2:44 am

It runs, then dies, the amount of time before it dies varies, and it will - after sitting for a minute - start up again.

Anyone dislike you? Those are the same symptoms you get when someone's put a plastic bag in your gas tank. It floats around until it gets to the feed, suctions against it and kills the engine - then, released from suction, eventually floats back around the tank, which allows gas flow again.

Drives people nuts, and can get engines torn apart looking for the 'problem'...

That's probably not it, but it's fun to remember anyway

stang67fb · Post by **stang67fb** » April 24th, 2005, 1:18 pm

Im with you david....I think it has to do with some sort of short or bad connection somewhere. The thing is a few weeks after this happened i took the harness completely out and ripped it apart. I found that it appeared to be fine, so i taped it back up and slammed it back in.

I posted this problem a few months ago.

I have also done tons of testing with the DVOM with all the sensors, they all came out fine. I am thinking that it has something to do with the CKPS or disty wiring though. The reason is because when i was at school i hooked up the digital oscilloscope (snap on Vantage) to the ckps and i was getting no signal, nore would the engine die when i disconnected it. Then i went and switched the + and signal wires around and i got signal and the engine would die when i pulled it. BUT, with the wires backward the car ran like s---. It had a radical misfire going on, but i had noticed that it pulled better in the upper RPM's with it like that.

Oh and that platic bag thing i dont think could be likely in my situation becuase it runs the same all the time. But it does sound kinda funny and thats actually the first time i have ever heard of that.

Chronicle-Rod · Post by **Chronicle-Rod** » April 24th, 2005, 4:16 pm

It doesn't change the way it runs at all - it just makes it die at random times, then start again without changing anything. It's like having a switch that shuts off the gas to your car, killing it immediately.