My SHO quit on me.

[peganit]

I'm really close to giving up on it. It has been the most troublesome car I have ever had.

94 atx.

runs great for about 30 seconds then starts to flutter at idle for about 30 seconds, then dies. Then cranks strangly, like it hydro-locks. Floor it and it starts up and idles properly, for 30 secs or so and then repeat the process.

I can keep it running by keeping the revs above 1500.

The codes are for front o2 sensor rich or lean, egr malfunctioning, fuel pump ground and shift indicator/neutral safety switch out of adjustment, and #2 coil pac primary curcuit malfunctioning.

The plugs are sooty black, like it's rich. No indication of any one of them being wet from hydro-locking. When I checked them last week they showed lean.

It passed the cylinder balance test. Vacuum pulls low 20 hg when it's idling fine.

#2 spark plug well had a LOT of oil in it. (I'm putting new seals in it.)

I cleaned the Idle control valve last week, and after the car quit I changed it completly. no change.

A question about the coil pac. I changed the coil pac out to one I had from a spare 3.2 I have. The connector on both the one that was on the car and the one I put on it didn't have the lower "prong" in the same spot as the on on the plug connector. Someone ground off the "prong" on the original one, and I ground off the one on the one I put onto it. Whats the difference between the coils with the different "prong" location?

Any suggestions on what's causing my idling problem?

And before I lay it all on an idling problem, RIGHT before I pulled up to the stop sign were it first died, it started acting up by not being able to go over 40 or so MPH and , unable to get more then about a quarter throttle, absolutely dying trying to get there.

 

[hawkeye18]

Sounds like a faulty/intermittent spark plug/wire/coil/DIS. Probably in the front cylinder bank, from the O2 code. If one of the three coils is bad, or one of the three outputs to the coil from the DIS is bad (also very likely), then both #2 and #5 (front middle) will show a lot of issues.

A lot of coil packs will have that stupid little prong in the wrong spot. It'll work just fine. Just carve the prong off, if you haven't already.

Sounds like either your DIS took a shit, you lost a ground somewhere, or one of your wires/plugs decided to stop firing, which will in turn cause two plugs/wires to stop firing, due to the cheap nature of the SHO ignition system.

 

[Troywakeling]

Sounds like a faulty/intermittent spark plug/wire/coil/DIS. Probably in the front cylinder bank, from the O2 code. If one of the three coils is bad, or one of the three outputs to the coil from the DIS is bad (also very likely), then both #2 and #5 (front middle) will show a lot of issues.

A lot of coil packs will have that stupid little prong in the wrong spot. It'll work just fine. Just carve the prong off, if you haven't already.

Sounds like either your DIS took a shit, you lost a ground somewhere, or one of your wires/plugs decided to stop firing, which will in turn cause two plugs/wires to stop firing, due to the cheap nature of the SHO ignition system.

X2

When mine had oil in the plug wells it run fine for a short while then stall often and run like crap.

 

[bubba]

had the samething. replaced the plugs and wires. and a few other things too boot. and she's running stronger than It was the first day I bought her:woohoo:

 

[RiceeatingSHO]

first word that came to mind when i saw the thread title was, "surprise!"


But seriously, don't give up.

 

[peganit]

did a lot today

new well seals, new cam cover seals, new plug wires(BOSCH), different DIS module, cleaned plugs(BOSCH PLATINUM), made sure I have no vacuum leaks.

Very little difference.

The plugs are fouling again. It will idle longer, but it's still very rough. And very doggy.

I'm going to get a damper puller tomorrow and check my timing. And do a compression test.

Any other suggestions?

 

[revhardSHO]

You should be running stock plugs (agsp32pp or the new version). I dont like the Bosche plugs. The wires should be replaced, especially if you've got oil in the plug wells, once again the stockers are your best bet. 02s may be giving a decent reading but you'll want to replace those as well.

 

[peganit]

You should be running stock plugs (agsp32pp or the new version). I dont like the Bosche plugs. The wires should be replaced, especially if you've got oil in the plug wells, once again the stockers are your best bet. 02s may be giving a decent reading but you'll want to replace those as well.

I concur. I have had nothing but bad luck with Bosch components.

 

[shobote]

Bosch platinum plugs absolutely suck; I put plus 4's in my Diamante and they fouled within 1000 miles.

 

[peganit]

After trying to **** working on this PITA on my son, no such luck, I bit the bullit and took the front of the engine off to check the cam timing.

Two teeth off.

There was lots of debris inside the cover. From the lower timing cover. A peanut shell too.

Check this out.

For those that don't know, that curved window slicing through the middle isn't supposed to be there.

How did this happen, and is it common? It looks about the right size for the outer damper ring, but the one I took off is in good shape, except one of the 8 mm bolt holes looked like the about half the threads had been pulled out.

And before I search and can't find iit, how do you test the CPS?