V8 swap issues.

[Blacksheep Josh]

Did not swap in a 19lb injectors, just the one 'faulty' injector that the tuner said was bad. Upon talking to him further, he said that in the small time he had the hood popped, all he did to diagnose the faulty fuel injector was popping up the spark plug wires and cylinder 3 removed showed no change in performance. After changing the 'faulty injector' I let it idle, tried to drive it, started popping, after driving it and being at operating temp and coming to a stop the engine died just like it was before. It was also throwing lean codes on both banks again.

I'm just lost at this point. Seems like if the fuel pressure was too high, it'd be sending too much fuel but it's throwing lean codes instead. Changing the fuel injector didn't change the behavior at all.

The only thing I can think is that the injector possibly isn't firing AT ALL, and it's just pumping a whole lot of air into the exhaust, possibly causing the lean codes? Likely?

Now that I have an income and am working, I can afford to work on this thing. I'm gonna throw a few things at it and see.

Things I'm doing this week:
1. noid light all fuel injector harnesses, make sure the ECU is sending the signal.
2. Test for spark on all spark plug wires.
3. Test for spark at all coil posts.

Something isn't working correctly somewhere, either an injector, a coil, a spark plug, a spark plug wire, or the ecu/tune. The more I definitively eliminate the closer I can get it. Something is bound to turn up being incorrect or broken. Makes no sense why it's throwing lean codes if the fuel pressure is technically sending too much fuel through the injector.

If I can't figure it out, I'll make someone a deal on this.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

I’m going to add one thing. I just finished pulling out a v8 and putting another in. The truck was doing the exact thing yours is doing. It gave me a lean bank 2 O2 sensor. What I found was it looked like the injector on one of the cylinders was plugged in but not enough for it to make contact, and also the pcv valve pulled out somehow when I was putting the upper intake back on. After I found those 2 things it ran like a top

 

[Blacksheep Josh]

I’ll definitely check those out. I’m off work tomorrow so I’m gonna go hunting for some 19# injectors and I’m gonna check as much i can on it.

 

[boominXplorer]

How did you extend your engine harness to mate with the v8 harness? I'd also recheck any splices you might of done for any pulled out wires.

 

[Blacksheep Josh]

How did you extend your engine harness to mate with the v8 harness? I'd also recheck any splices you might of done for any pulled out wires.

Sorry for the long absence. New job got to me and I haven't done anything but try to get caught up on bills and now the IRS came outta nowhere with a 2013 audit. Awesome.

For the engine harness I used a donor portion of harness and the two connectors from a junk yard vehicle and essential made a "harness extension" that plugged into the engine harness and fuse box harness. All wires were soldered and heat shrunk and tested for continuity as I went to ensure it was 100% good to go.

I'm about to head out in a few minutes to bring the truck back home. I've decided to purchase the SCT software myself to account for the changes in the motor I've all ready done and for future upgrades. I will also be sourcing a set of good, used 19# injectors to swap in once I bring it home. Gonna bring it as "close to stock" as I can within reason. The injectors being part of that setup, plus it's the common thought everyone's had. Once I get the truck back and get the software purchased, I can make the necessary changes and see how it goes.

Will update in the coming days, hoping to get the software tomorrow.

 

[93XploderMS]

I would go back to basics. Everyone keeps bashing the 24’s but you can run 10:1 af and still not misfire, it will be sluggish being NA but... all the mechanic did was walk the cap so to speak. That means #3 is misfiring, that’s it. That doesn’t condemn the injector anymore then it condemns the plug. I have seen a lot of cracked porcelain causing misfires. To tell you the truth, clearing up with rpms tells me spark more then injector. Years ago I had a 4.0 ohv do the exact same thing, I thought it was a partial plugged injector. So I said oh well and went and played in the sand, I kept the rpms above 3k at all times under load. I was dumb dumb, it was a crack plug and all the abuse caused me to replace the rod bearings prematurely. I’m sure they weren’t perfect before.

My point is pull the plug, is it wet? Do a compression test on #3 and at least one other, compare. Within 20% put new plug in. Start truck, fixed? If no, pull #3 plug wire at coil while running (plastic pliers), if rpm doesn’t get worse (sometimes it gets better) then swap plug wire. Retest, did problem move? No, is plug still wet? Then running compression test.

 

[410Fortune]

lean both banks does not point to one bad cylinder It points to problems on both banks
Injectors can be cleaned/tested quite easily out of the truck with a battery and a can of carb cleaner
Any other codes in computer memory?

 

[93XploderMS]

No, lean codes on both banks doesn’t point to one bad cylinder. The tech who was about to dyno it and found #3 bad, does.

 

[Centaurus5.0]

It doesn't sound like a bad injector but a bad plug or wire on #3.

My advice at this point:
1. Don't ever go to that "tuner" again
2. New plugs and wires. If that don't fix it..
3. Refurbished 19# injectors and stock tune. If that don't fix it..
4. Keep playing the guessing game or contact Lasota and see what he thinks from a data log.

 

[Blacksheep Josh]

Nothing to report, battery was dead when I went to pick it up and shop was closed, so no chance of a jump start. Gonna try to get it Thursday..

 

[Blacksheep Josh]

So after 3 weeks of fighting this thing on my off days, I finally got it running again and home. The solenoid on the starter went bad while sitting which was disguising itself as a bad battery. Starter swapped out and it's now home. Did the same behavior on the way home, transmission acting all kinds of weird but until I get the Dakota Digital box figured out, there's no way to know what's causing that. So on my to do list:
1. figure out the property rate for the Dakota Digital speedo box so it supplies the correct signal to ECU and maybe that fixes trans shifts.
2. Check for spark and/or swap all spark plugs. It feels like it's idling better with new coils on it, but it's been over two months probably since it ran so maybe I'm imagining things.
3. I bought a laptop today from a pawn shop, so I'm going to be data logging in a few different scenarios (from cold and just idle, from cold to idle to driving with different revs, from cold to idle to revving while parked) and I'll inspect and post.

I did notice with the little OBD dongle I have, when it started to stumble during idle, it said Fuel Status (4, open loop; system failure)

But I'll be purchasing the SCT Advantage III software within the next week. I don't think this is too far off from being a running and driving vehicle. Just needs a few quirks figured out and I think we all have an idea on how to get it squared away.