hey guys, this problem started today and is getting worse...
car will turn on, but run like hell for a few seconds and die... idles around 500rpms vacuum around 10, and then slowly everything turns off.
I made sure everything was connected, I pulled all the plugs theyre good, timing marks line up, I did a leak test, no major leaks, the small leak at my shaft seals remain, nothing has changed from weeks prior though...
anyone have any ideas? I was sooo hoping to get to the track Sunday and the car was running so nicely up until todAY... thanks guys

another thing to add to this, if i unplug the isc motor, the car will idle better and longer....
it will stay idling for maybe 20 seconds before it gradually begins to die...

I should have suggested earlier, that you check the battery voltage.

Beyond where you've looked at already - I'd say coilpack or ECU.

Didn't you rewire your fuel pump recently?
Maybe something happened with that wiring.
Take a look, and also check the voltage at the pump.

Is there gas in the gas tank?

ya full tank of 94, and upon closer inspection I now believe the exhuast cam to be 1 tooth advanced...

This must be contagious or something.First time ever today was driving and car just stalled out.It was warm and everything.Then sort of caught itself or something it was weird as heck.

Then a bit later made a really hard turn in parking lot messing around and the car also stalled but this time had to restart it .It restarted fine and drove ok in stop and go traffic after that.What the heck..wonder if its related to your thing? I have new fuel filter,pump and injectors and afpr.I have new plugs and wires,new coilpack too.

Very weird.I have a pretty good battery I thought and alt tested ok awhile back.I have never looked at my ecu keep meaning to and even bought new caps for it.Have to do that shortly.Probably find a mess on the board.

It was the injector resistor pack.
We swapped mine in and the situation improved greatly.

Someone, please cough one up for Nigel so he can get to the track tomorrow!

Allan, how are your battery terminals?

rob its not that
i got another one, put it on fires up better, but still wants to die... and it does die... so now im even further confused.. what else is there to replace aside from a new car

My terminals are brand new brass and have opti battery pretty sure they don't corrode.Will take a look at them,maybe just loose.I had half a tank of fuel.The one time did a real hard sort of circle in the parking lot for fun..does that stall out these cars? But the other time was just sitting there and it died but then seemed to go again on its one.Like I said very weird.
Hope it don't start doing this all the time.

Hey Allen,

I have also had the problem of the power going off in my car when making a really hard turn in a parking lot, twice actually. The car would easily start up again.

It has been suggested to me that there may be a loose wire in the power steering. I have never checked it though, too lazy.

ok guys, another update, i changed the power transistor unit, along with a new coil pack, and known good wires, car is absolutely no better at all...
anyone have any ideas?
im starting to get fed up with this thing.

It should be mentioned that only one of the wires is sparking.
Isn't that right Nigel?

ECU, coil pack, transistor and wires all changed.
Is there anything else between the ECU and the spark plugs?

yes, i killed the fuel supply, and then had my old man crank the car over as i was pulling plugs, and only one was shooting spark out of the other end...

CAS?

I was guiding Nigel through some tests.
He pulled the CAS off and spun it by hand, the injectors and coils all fire, except for one of the coils which fires every few turns (which explains the missfire he's had, way before this problem).

But now this has probably all become irrelevant.
He did another boost leak test and found a HUGE leak at the intake manifold. It turns out that one of his injector insulators got fragged.

Leak at the manifold = car runs like ass

Fix that up first, that should solve the bad idle for sure.

No kidding.

It wasn't just a bad idle... The engine would not stay running at all even if you stepped on the throttle. You could just not keep the rpms up.
But then, every once in a while, it would run half as bad and sort of stay running.

#2 had the fragged injector insulator.
#3 had the missfire from the coil pack.

The missfire is intermittant, which must explain why sometimes the engine would sorta run.
I'm sure not having proper combustion in #2 AND #3 at the same time caused some major issues

Its funny.
When he was asking me about swapping the Intake Manifold I told him about a few months ago when i was about to do mine, but i found the cap of my injector was broken causing the car not to run properly.

Oh if only he checked his when I suggested that on msn

He actually did swap injectors at some point I think
But I guess that was just to see if the injectors were culprit as you said the tip of yours was broken. Could miss the insulator I suppose

hey guys another update, fixed the injector leak, car still runs like total ass..
i held the revs around 2500 for a few minutes to get the temp to around 200 degrees, something liek 197 I believe it was on the laptop..
anyways, the warmer it got the better it was, after it reach this temp i let off the gas totally and it idled on its own without dying, but the idle was at like 500rpms, and the whole engine was shaking... and the vac was around 8-10in hg.
so any ideas lol....

Since you had your CAS off, maybe it is now 180 degrees out of phase.
There's a little indent on one side of the cas "spinny thing", and a dot adjacent on the slot in the head. Line thoes up and it's in properly.
Also, did you mark the position of the cas before removing it, so that it could be installed in the same position? If not, the ignition timing could be way off.

update... cas was off 180*, timing was like 17* BTDC or something like that, rob was working the light, I was working the cas... anyways, its now 5*, the car idles much smoother now, but I think I still have a misfire, and am assuming its my spark plugs.
I took the car for a spin, and it still goes nowhere, builds boost strong, but has no real acceleration, and my vacuum is like 10-12inhg at idle. I'm praying my intake manifold gasket isnt blown... I dont wanna fix that, I'll update tomorrow if I find any pesky leaks etc..
I wanna thank everyone whose helped especially Rob who came out on two different occassions to lend a hand.
thanks

well, I cant get it to run at all, and the vac is extremely low, I thoroughly inspected everything, and will now begin removing the intake manifold,

what about ECU caps?

well, i opened the ecu up, caps looked perfect, no visible leakgae at all.. but then I swapped in another ecu just to see, made no difference..

ANOTHER update, changed the manifold gasket, removed emissions, no possible vacuum leaks now, car still acts 100% the same, reads like 5inhg at idle....
any other ideas?
ps. i filled the coolant back up, with like 75% water, 25% coolant, and as the car was warming up, it was pushing coolant from the thermo housing, and it was crazy frothy...
blown headgasket? compression is 155psi across though

check for errors in ECU

and then unplug your MAF, see if that makes a difference

your MAF could be shot or your injectors acting up.

im nto sure how to check for errors in the ecu, and Im not getting any codes...
also, I have the maf-t, its not sending any errors, but I also put back in my old stock maf, and it didnt fix the problem... i had leaks at the injectors, but I dont have these problems anymore?
how can i check the ecu codes?

TMO
or the old beeping method where you hook up a volt meter to get a signal from the diagnostic port and it gives off a certain patter that translates to an error code.

I dont know the page off hand but im sure you can search and find it.

ya, I figured out how to check for codes, there were none.... what a surprise..

Dam Nigel your car is royally jacked.

You said it was pushing coolent?

Could be a cracked headgasket around a coolent passage. I had that once. Compression was fine but it was pushing coolent into the overflow like crazy after a bit of boosting... But the car ran fine and diden't stutter like yours.

Do a leakdown test and see if your pushing out air anywhere I guess..

I'm not to sure if the car is "pushing" coolant or not, there was alot of froth at the thermo housing, but the car doesnt overheat after a few minutes of me revving it to warm it up, it also blows no white smoke what so ever...
I'm thinking the froth was air in the system becuase theyre was quiet a bit of bubbles, it looked like the top layer of a hot tub sort of..

another thing to add, I checked the voltages at the pump, by using tmo to activate the pump relay, here are the results, I cant get any voltage at the pump itself, but I can get voltage at the wire leading to the pump off the relay?
is this because the relay power wire is feeding that wire? therefore giving it voltage...I will try again in a sec by pulling that wire off and checking it that way.

edit, I pulled the wire that leads to the relay off the relay, and checked it that way, im getting no readings... so does this mean the fuel pump is killed?? would that explain the bad vac readings I dont know... so confusing

Im a little confused. Can you say that again but specify which wire to the relay you are talking about.

The relay should have 4 wires.
Feed Wire From Battery, the Ground, The 12V stock wire coming from the plug, and the 12V stock wire going to the pump.

So which one isnt getting readings, and is this with the relay activated or not?

ok james, the wire i removed off the relay was the 12v wire that runs from the pump, to the relay... ie, the stock wire that goes towards the fuel pump...
i put one end of the multimeter on that, and the other on ground, activated the relay using tmo, I could hear it making noise, and I got no reading, hopefully that is clear.

I had a hard time reading your electrical work there but I might be passing by today. let me know if you want me to check it over.

just get 12V to the pump and see if the car runs.

ya sorry about my confusing jargon, but I ran a wire straight from the battery (rewire), and hooked it directly to the pump... car still acted the same way..
amin, I'm headed to the yorkdale meet, but youre welcome to come by after 2 if youre schedule permits you to, if not thanks for the offer anyways.

well another update, since I last posted, I got my ecu re capped, changed the fuel pump, and changed the isc to a known working one..
and guess what.... still fubar.
anyone else care to take a stab at it.