Junkyard_Mad-Scientist
SHO Member
I have posted on various threads with my various wins and losses (more losses than wins it would seem) pertaining to my car which refuses to act right for longer than an hour or 2. Lets recap: I stopped driving the car last march as my daily due to an unidentified noise (grinding gravelly noise, only under load but not under WOT) I drive the car periodically to keep things flowing and I have someone cut in front of me and cause an accident. Car goes to the body shop for 2 months, get it back, panels are misaligned, paint in some spots wasnt buffed, buffing compound residue all down the side of the car, was told I was waiting so long for OEM parts, find Tong Yang stamped into the fender. it goes back for a couple more days so they can correct a few issues.
I get it back, the noise maker delete plug mysteriously flys off, whats worse is the retaining clip is no where to be found. so I have to make a solution. I made a charge pipe for it, tested it, seemed to be working okay for a prototype and before I could get to making the version I intended to use permanently the oil pressure light comes on. thats okay, I have a gauge now, oil gauge dies the next day. so that prompts a deep dive into oil pressures, oil weights, sensors, sending units, gauges, etc. I install an underhood mechanical shockproof gauge to see real oil pressures and ground the factory oil pressure switch since it was constantly and randomly going off (just replaced the switch 2 years ago with OEM). I did a mechanic in a can job of seafoam in the oil, the fuel tank, and the intake. After a 300 mile interval I drained the oil and scoped the pan to check the pick up and overall condition, a little bronzing in the corners but overall really clean and clear. I followed that up with new plugs, fresh heavier oil, and some light engine bay cleaning and verified all of my intake connections (scoped the intake too, light carbon build up but nothing serious). all done at hot idle I had 15ish psi of oil pressure, good enough for 137k post failed water pump that was probably not caught in a timely manner by the PO.
Take it for a drive to work, charge pipe I made that had survived a lot of abuse over a couple months explodes, no time to make another one I JB weld a noise maker plug to my stock charge pipe.
Take it for a test drive, and the ACM craps out, didnt know it was the ACM so I bought an APIM instead, realized it wasnt the problem, went and bought an ACM, problem mostly fixed, a few bugs but nothing I cant get used to for a cheap quick fix.
Take it out after getting the interior back together and 20 min or so into the drive I am at the drive through and the temp gauge is laying on the bottom of the screen. "well that doesnt seem right" so I hook up the obd adapter and check the ECM and PCM coolant readings, both show the same temp - 124 degrees, check the cylinder head coolant temp, a whopping 1 degree warmer. Assuming these are different sensors providing the same consensus, I drive to the auto parts store, grab some coolant and proceed to my nearest hill and park the car at an awkward angle with the coolant tank at the highest point.
I feel the hoses, lower rad, upper rad, heater core, all barely warm, no pressure, I crack the coolant bottle lid open, no pressure at all. At this point the car has been running consistently for close to 40 minutes with a lot of idling. I hold rpm at 2k for a minute, then pulse the throttle, check the level, squeeze the upper rad hose, check the temp. I repeat this process about 6 times over the next 10 minutes and finally something caves. I let off the throttle, and the car went to idle, then shuttered, struggled to stay running for a few seconds and came back to normal. at that point the temp started climbing rapidly. so I repeated my process until it reached 180 degrees, the alleged thermostat temp, no change in coolant level, no dip in temp, and no fans. it climbed to 210 from 124 in about 3 minutes and then the fans kicked on and dropped back down to 190. still no change in coolant level. confused but not wanting the think about it too much considering how much else has been happening to this car lately, I drove home.
5 minutes later im cruising at 70 and the temp gauges plummets like I just drove the car into an ice bath. I dropped it down to 3rd gear and ran the rpms up to 5k for about 30 seconds hoping it was an air pocket or a fluke of some sort, the temp gauge barely bumped up. defeated I drove home at regular speed and 1600 rpm with absolutely no change in temp by the time i pulled in the driveway. even if the thermostat was stuck open somehow with an ambient temp of 50 degrees and a run time of close to an hour, the temp should not be any where close to that low. if it was a sensor the hoses wouldnt be reflecting the same info as the gauge being warm to the touch, and my heater also disappeared when the gauge dropped on the drive home.
I have no visible leaks, no water in the oil, no oil in the water. Im upside down in value to debt ratio and the car is worth half of what I owe without the mechanical demons it currently has. Im at a loss people, I could systematically go through the cooling system trying to figure out what happened but im just tired of dumping time and money into this thing to get a day or two of driving out of it before the next thing happens. the water pump was replaced by ford about 70k miles ago, and unless there is a seriously hard air pocket conveniently around the sensors I dont know what else it could be, but I have no seepage.
I shelved the car since I got emotional and may have chucked a wrench at it allegedly, but Im going with it happened in the parking garage I havent been able to drive the car to in 6 months. but when I inevitably calm down and attempt to reclaim my investment, where do I start? Im at the point of buying a drop out engine, trans, and ptu and just rebuilding everything outside the car from the ground up and turn it into a project. I literally cant afford to depend on this right now, its sucked up too much money already, so unless there is something stupid I'm missing its probably going to go sit on my back line next to my other projects. Advice is always welcomed and appreciated.
I get it back, the noise maker delete plug mysteriously flys off, whats worse is the retaining clip is no where to be found. so I have to make a solution. I made a charge pipe for it, tested it, seemed to be working okay for a prototype and before I could get to making the version I intended to use permanently the oil pressure light comes on. thats okay, I have a gauge now, oil gauge dies the next day. so that prompts a deep dive into oil pressures, oil weights, sensors, sending units, gauges, etc. I install an underhood mechanical shockproof gauge to see real oil pressures and ground the factory oil pressure switch since it was constantly and randomly going off (just replaced the switch 2 years ago with OEM). I did a mechanic in a can job of seafoam in the oil, the fuel tank, and the intake. After a 300 mile interval I drained the oil and scoped the pan to check the pick up and overall condition, a little bronzing in the corners but overall really clean and clear. I followed that up with new plugs, fresh heavier oil, and some light engine bay cleaning and verified all of my intake connections (scoped the intake too, light carbon build up but nothing serious). all done at hot idle I had 15ish psi of oil pressure, good enough for 137k post failed water pump that was probably not caught in a timely manner by the PO.
Take it for a drive to work, charge pipe I made that had survived a lot of abuse over a couple months explodes, no time to make another one I JB weld a noise maker plug to my stock charge pipe.
Take it for a test drive, and the ACM craps out, didnt know it was the ACM so I bought an APIM instead, realized it wasnt the problem, went and bought an ACM, problem mostly fixed, a few bugs but nothing I cant get used to for a cheap quick fix.
Take it out after getting the interior back together and 20 min or so into the drive I am at the drive through and the temp gauge is laying on the bottom of the screen. "well that doesnt seem right" so I hook up the obd adapter and check the ECM and PCM coolant readings, both show the same temp - 124 degrees, check the cylinder head coolant temp, a whopping 1 degree warmer. Assuming these are different sensors providing the same consensus, I drive to the auto parts store, grab some coolant and proceed to my nearest hill and park the car at an awkward angle with the coolant tank at the highest point.
I feel the hoses, lower rad, upper rad, heater core, all barely warm, no pressure, I crack the coolant bottle lid open, no pressure at all. At this point the car has been running consistently for close to 40 minutes with a lot of idling. I hold rpm at 2k for a minute, then pulse the throttle, check the level, squeeze the upper rad hose, check the temp. I repeat this process about 6 times over the next 10 minutes and finally something caves. I let off the throttle, and the car went to idle, then shuttered, struggled to stay running for a few seconds and came back to normal. at that point the temp started climbing rapidly. so I repeated my process until it reached 180 degrees, the alleged thermostat temp, no change in coolant level, no dip in temp, and no fans. it climbed to 210 from 124 in about 3 minutes and then the fans kicked on and dropped back down to 190. still no change in coolant level. confused but not wanting the think about it too much considering how much else has been happening to this car lately, I drove home.
5 minutes later im cruising at 70 and the temp gauges plummets like I just drove the car into an ice bath. I dropped it down to 3rd gear and ran the rpms up to 5k for about 30 seconds hoping it was an air pocket or a fluke of some sort, the temp gauge barely bumped up. defeated I drove home at regular speed and 1600 rpm with absolutely no change in temp by the time i pulled in the driveway. even if the thermostat was stuck open somehow with an ambient temp of 50 degrees and a run time of close to an hour, the temp should not be any where close to that low. if it was a sensor the hoses wouldnt be reflecting the same info as the gauge being warm to the touch, and my heater also disappeared when the gauge dropped on the drive home.
I have no visible leaks, no water in the oil, no oil in the water. Im upside down in value to debt ratio and the car is worth half of what I owe without the mechanical demons it currently has. Im at a loss people, I could systematically go through the cooling system trying to figure out what happened but im just tired of dumping time and money into this thing to get a day or two of driving out of it before the next thing happens. the water pump was replaced by ford about 70k miles ago, and unless there is a seriously hard air pocket conveniently around the sensors I dont know what else it could be, but I have no seepage.
I shelved the car since I got emotional and may have chucked a wrench at it allegedly, but Im going with it happened in the parking garage I havent been able to drive the car to in 6 months. but when I inevitably calm down and attempt to reclaim my investment, where do I start? Im at the point of buying a drop out engine, trans, and ptu and just rebuilding everything outside the car from the ground up and turn it into a project. I literally cant afford to depend on this right now, its sucked up too much money already, so unless there is something stupid I'm missing its probably going to go sit on my back line next to my other projects. Advice is always welcomed and appreciated.
