I know everyone says this, but HELP!

[deadlight]

Alright, I just left a friends house, and something is all of a sudden just horribly wrong with my car, as I was leaving it was like she didn't have power, and then got a quick burst, and then almost died, then started going again. What's strange is the tach was reading about 7k-8k if I was at 2k or so, it was just bouncing around. I have no idea what the **** it is, I just started it up and it doesn't sound right, it has a lower tone to it now, I revved it slowly to maybe 3500-4000 and it just doesn't sound right at all, my car normally sounds alot higher pithed than that, please, somebody say they know what's wrong.

 

[TheKrazyRaven]

deadlight:
Alright, I just left a friends house, and something is all of a sudden just horribly wrong with my car, as I was leaving it was like she didn't have power, and then got a quick burst, and then almost died, then started going again. What's strange is the tach was reading about 7k-8k if I was at 2k or so, it was just bouncing around. I have no idea what the **** it is, I just started it up and it doesn't sound right, it has a lower tone to it now, I revved it slowly to maybe 3500-4000 and it just doesn't sound right at all, my car normally sounds alot higher pithed than that, please, somebody say they know what's wrong.

haveing no engine expertice what so ever, that sounds like what happend to me when my front 3 cylinders were miss firing

 

[deadlight]

It's not like a misfire, it's like a loss of power, it's not rough sounding like when you're misfiring, just lower pitched, and the tach was bouncing up really high, 3-4k it was sweeping past 8. If anyone needs more info to figure this out let me know, I'll admit, my SHO has been abused, the previous owner flogged the bejesus out of it, so I'm stuck with a money pit.

 

[SHO--ripper]

Does it stall out?
First check your DIS on the passenger side of the intake for a good connection. Does your CE(check engine) light come on? Mabye a bad cam position sensor?

 

[deadlight]

check engine light flashed on a couple times, that was it. DIS is fine.

 

[HondaKiller93]

deadlight:
check engine light flashed on a couple times, that was it. DIS is fine.

well what were the codes that it gave you?

 

[projectSHO89]

Check for secure ground for intake crossover (the one the DIS is mounted to). Make sure that BOTH bolts are secure.

Check clearance between the rearmost DIS connector and the dampener strut. If it is too close, the DIS module can make contact with the strut and cause anything from a bad connection to a cracked or broken connector or module.

Since the TACH signal is generated in the DIS module from several other inputs, focus your attention there. The CPS is working, otherwise the engine would not run at all. The CID is also likely working as you did not describe any starting difficulties and CID sensor failure modes do not exhibit your symptoms.

Since that CEL did flash, there should be stored DTCs that the PCM Quick Test will output. Pull the codes to see what is stored.

Steve

 

[deadlight]

Oh my god that was a lot of abbreviations. Alright, I disconnected the battery last night to try and let the computer clear, so I'll try and take it to O'reillys or something and run a diagnostics scan on it.

edit- *update* alright, after letting her sit all night, I fired her up, let her warm up a bit, it's like 20 degrees here, and she ran beautifully. Like usual. Any ideas? I'll still get it checked out, but besides running a diagnostic would that be about it?

<small>[ December 07, 2003, 11:43 AM: Message edited by: deadlight ]</small>

 

[SHOZ123]

If you cleared the codes why take it somewhere to have it read? now you will have to wait until you register some more codes.

 

[deadlight]

SHOZ123:
If you cleared the codes why take it somewhere to have it read? now you will have to wait until you register some more codes.

Did I say I took it in this morning?

 

[DHMag]

projectSHO89:
The CPS is working, otherwise the engine would not run at all. Steve

after i finished rebuilding my heads, i incidently left my CPS(cam position sensor) disconnected and the motor started and ran just fine...just didnt have a tach reading. maybe Steve is referring to the CkPS ?

 

[deadlight]

What's the CkPS?

 

[projectSHO89]

DHMag:

projectSHO89:
The CPS is working, otherwise the engine would not run at all. Steve

after i finished rebuilding my heads, i incidently left my CPS(cam position sensor) disconnected and the motor started and ran just fine...just didnt have a tach reading. maybe Steve is referring to the CkPS ?

No, I meant exactly what I said.

Correct terminology is:

CPS=Crank Position Sensor Pre 93
CKP=Crank Position Sensor 93 and on
CID=Cylinder ID (Cam Position Sensor Pre 93)
CMP=Cylinder ID (Cam Position Sensor 93 and on)

Steve

<small>[ December 07, 2003, 07:40 PM: Message edited by: projectSHO89 ]</small>

 

[keli]

deadlight:
What's the CkPS?

Crankshaft position sensor. It tells your car when the pistons are at TDC/BDC (top dead center/bottom dead center) and thus when to fire the spark plugs for the power stroke. Not to be confused with the CPS (cam position sensor) which tells the fuel injectors when to open and close .

ps while you're checking everything else, it wouldn't hurt to give the TPS (throttle pos sensor) a look too...

<small>[ December 08, 2003, 10:02 AM: Message edited by: keli ]</small>

 

[jelloslug]

CPS (cam position sensor) which tells the fuel injectors when to open and close .

The CPS is the Crank position sensor, not the cam position sensor. The one on the rear most cam is the CID or cylinder identification sensor and is used for starting the car (to tell where the pistons at) and driving the tach. My CID went out before and the only problems it caused were hard starting and a dead tach.

 

[SolidState]

I was at a local muffler shop and it had a list of sensors and their abreviations/uses and what Keli said is correct. I remember this because some of the abreviations were mixed up compared to my notes...

I don't have my Ford CD with me, but I am pretty sure that it confirms this too..

Once again, our SHOs are unorthidox....

Back before I had to replace the waterpump on my 94, I had a bad start condition one time. I was at a junkyard adn went to start the car. It cranked and cranked and cranked. After about the 3rd time trying, it fired, ran extremely rough, and had a significantly lower exhaust note. I also didn't have a tach after goosing the gas and a couple seconds, the tach snapped back on, idle smoothed out and everything was fine. It threw a CEL which pointed at the CID.

I hadn't had it happen since, but the waterpump went AWOL shortly after leading to a replacement of the waterpump and CPS.

I'd say wait to see if it happens again, but start gathering parts for a front end 60k....

<small>[ December 08, 2003, 11:44 AM: Message edited by: SolidState ]</small>

 

[Electricat]

deadlight:

edit- *update* alright, after letting her sit all night, I fired her up, let her warm up a bit, it's like 20 degrees here, and she ran beautifully. Like usual. Any ideas? I'll still get it checked out, but besides running a diagnostic would that be about it?

Glad to hear it's running better, pray it don't come back!

Here is a possible explanation: Is there any possibility that you got some of the electronic sensors/connectors/wiring wet?? (Sprayed water under the hood, big puddle, etc.??) Water and electricity mixing can make some VERY strange things happen, none of them good!!

 

[projectSHO89]

Re: Acronyms for Sensors.

My previous post lists the SAE acronymns for the sensors in question and the effective date of the usage of those acronyms in ALL service documentation for all manufacturers in compliance.

My previous list is correct both in terms of common usage on this forum and in ALL Ford Service documentation.

There is absolutely nothing unorthodox about the EEC-IV control use on the SHO engine. It is all standard off-the-shelf control sensors and actuators that have been integrated into the system we all know and (hate).

Steve

 

[silversho89]

I was always under the impression that the engine can run w/o the cps, it may run like crap but it will run. The computer can still mathematically know when to fire the plugs by the input from the ckps.

 

[silversho89]

Oops. And when I said cps, I meant cam positioning sensor, and ckps- crank positioning sensor.