So a long story short.. I drove my car 400 miles and it basically fell apart. I'm not stradned... ...well for the most part.. I can borrow a car and get home..but then my car is going to be stranded here 400 miles from my house and I won't be able to fix it / figure out what is wrong after today for at least a month.
I have 2 major issues with the car 1 is either fuel or ignition related..

Here are the symptons. Car starts up fine, idles great. When driving and holding a some what consistant rpm the car will start to bog down something awful (your eyes start to burn in the car from all the gas).. It will also sound like it's missing really bad, and rpms will fluctate by about 100. Then either 1 of 4 things will happen.. it will just clear it's self up and run perfectly smooth, if will back fire (if you let off the gas) and then run smooth, or if you goose it (which shoots a black smoke cloud) and will clear out and run smooth, the 4th option (the quickest way) to get it to clear.. Is just to hold it in a higher rpm then I was previously driving for a bit (unfortunetly very impractical as you keep having to raise your MPH)

When I started driving the car down I at first thoguht it was an issue do to fuel pressure, because I was having problems with my fuel pump relay switch but I fixed it.. It seemed fine and I continued on.. Once I go past the 250-300 mile mark.. It started to get really bad say at first it happend 5% of the time while driving.. as of today.. I would say 80% of the time while driving it happens.. So it's something that is getting progressively worse.

As of yesterday we re-wired the 02s, and tried to check the car w/tuner cat.. It had a really strange tune (0 cyl volume and maxed out injector size), we replaced it with anothre tune.. and tried again..for some reason we can't seem to get the car into closed loop on tunercat (while letting it idle), and it doesn't appear to be showing any significant codes We have yet to try while driving it around, one of the issues we fixed after that was the heaters for the 02s weren't turning on.. This has been fixed but that just seemed to make the problem worse (or maybe it got worse on it's own due to unrelated issues.), on the fuel pressure sign we fixed a vacum issue I had and that appears to be working correctly at this point.

I have had issues with my IAC in the past and am at a lose @ this point as to wehter it's 1) not getting enough or the right spark.. or 2) dumping way to much fuel instead..

Thoughts? Suggestions? Where to go from Here?

 

Rewired the O2s? What's that all about? You need to get it on a scanner to see what things look like. You have no "significant" codes? What DO you have? Changing tunes merely add more variables to the mix, making it harder to figure out the issue(s), IMHO.

 

Ok.. Sorry for the delay in response. It's been one heck of a week..

First let me answer your questions, then I'll get into the other stuff.. but to set the premises. I had to abandon my car, and get a ride back so I can make it to work for some meetings that I couldn't miss.. The car is safe, but I need to try to figure out as much as I can now, before I head back down to San Diego in about a month where I'll have to finish fixing it and drive it back 400 miles.

So the 02's... ...when I originally put the 02s on the car they were to short in length, I had to lengthen the wires to fit the bung locations (this is a lt1 in a 69 swap). One of the things we noticed when trying to fix the car on sat was that some of the 02 wires had melted on the headers. So we cut off the melted section, re-spliced and re-ran the wires. I also had to put power to


F Which is actually for the heaters on my 02 sensors.. not the fan on my car for some reason.. (I am 99% sure my car is a 94 pcm, but I think I have a 95 harness.....)

Scanner, so one of the main reasons I brought the car down was to get the data port figured out, because it wasn't working no matter what I tried. We did accomplish this by splicing directly into the back of the pcm, and not into the connectors @

Label F.. Which still isn't working for some reason unknown to me..

So once we got the scanner hooked up with noticed the 02's were running @ default.. 453, and car refused to go into, and/or stay in closed loop which is when we decided to check the 02's, and re-wire them, by the time we got that done ect my buddy w/laptop & tuner cat had to go..

...but before he did we replaced the current PCM program with a stock one from his computer and made a few minor tweaks..due to the fact that when we downloaded my PCM it was reading Cylinder Volume 0 and Injector Rate 793.46 lbs/hr .. We when saw this, we assumed this had to be the issue with my car.. I mean.. car runs like crap. Injectors are set to dump a ton of fuel, and the pcm thinks my motor doesn't exist... Only today (about 15 mins ago) while looking to buy my own version of tuner cat did I come across this in the FAQ..

But back to the story.. we get the new pcm program loaded up, rewire, and fix the 02 sensors heaters, replace the shifter cable, change the trans gasket, and filter and inspect everything, as one of the symptoms was a MEAN shutter at 2400-2700 rpm that went away @ 2900-3000 rpm..in what appeared to be only overdrive.. So I was afraid that I dropped 4th on this new trans I just picked up..

It's about 10pm sat, we decided to call it a nite, and work on it tomorrow..
So I figure ok, I'll drive the car back to where I'm staying test out the changes and report back tomorrow. We get going..and the car is shifter like crap.. it's stuttering WORSE then before, (it was getting progressively worse
threw out the weekend/trip) and I have NO 4th gear.. crap ok.. nothing I can do about it now..but before I limp it back and park it for the nite. I take my buddy for a quick ride and he comes to the conclusion that it's not a trans issue, but a problem w/running to rich/pcm.. Normally he is spot on, but I am still reluctant to agree 100%. I do think it's a two fold problem. (both the pcm & trans)

Next day (the day I need to head back home). I head over to my buddies place the one with tuner cat, that helped me with the pcm. Now we have both 02's re-wired we decide ok first we tackle the pcm then we will look @ the trans..We scan the car..Alright! It goes into closed loop..but... one 02 sensor keeps dropping down to 4mv, and the other is working correctly bouncing between 40-900mv. We are also able to pull codes now, only 2 reds.. Fan not being on (I have it wired around the pcm so that is fine), and it said my trans was hot....not good..backs up that theory that I nuked my trans.. but we mess around more in tuner cat.. and realize for some reason it was set to manual..not automatic.. that goes away.. So only 1 trouble code fan..and we turn that off since it's not hooked up.. In looking at the tables for some reason the car is running Rich on the Left, and Lean on the right... We try to tune that out with some ap, he has.. we also replace the bad 02 sensor with a new one.. now the motor is HUMMING.. before I take it for a test drive.. we check the trans, and crap. the shifter linkage shifted.. fix the linkage.. take it for a drive.. **** no 4th. Time is running out.. we decide to check one more thing.. the trans line pressure settings in the pcm.. We look @ my old program and look @ the new one.. HUGE difference.. line pressure is down by say 40% in the new program.. We didn't have time to replace all the tables (using an old pc) so we said **** it and tossed the old program onto the pcm.. just to see if it would fix the trans and at a later date I would merge the two programs.. I also figured now that the o2s are working and the car goes into closed loop if I put my old program back on, it would start to correct it's self and run better..

So I take off to catch my ride back home (at this point I wasn't ready to drive the car 400 miles) and as soon as I pull out of my buddies drive way.. The car dies, and won't start... there appears to be a short now it's either in the ICM, or the cables running from my ICM to my MSD-D7.. (this is something I thought I had fixed a couple years ago and had not shown it's ugly head in 2 years).. I don't have time to deal with it.. so I wiggle the wires (ha) until it works again.. and I'm off.. the car is running not quite as good as it did with the solid tune..but it's running ****, no stutter, no black smoke..AND all 4 gears work now!! I get to the place I'm meeting my friends, and the car dies again.. due to the ICM issue.

Alright so thats the story version..
Here is the light version & quick question summary for those of you who don't want to read all that..


I need help with the following.

1) Car is running Lean on Left Bank, Rich on Right Bank.. (how to diagnose/ correct?)
2) Car keeps popping fuel pump relays I'm using a Aermotive Blue pump (car is setup for a charger but doesn't have one)
3) Trans seems to be 100% now.. What do I need to check in the pcm to make sure everything is correct? Where can I find optimal pcm settings for a 4l60e.
4) What in the world is REVB, and how do I need to set up Tunercat, and my PCM to deal with it? Is it a good thing? Bad thing? Why would it show 0 Cyl, and 700+ Injectors? Should I revert it to that?
5) ICM ICM ICM.. Since I set this car up.. It has been nothing but trouble. I tried to set it up w/stock coil & ICM.. car wouldn't spark consistently. I've tried to replace the ICM.. car wouldn't spark at all. The only way I was able to get it to work, was to splice my MSD D7 & MSD D7 Coil into my ICM.. Which even then works intermediately. I've tried replacing large portions of wire... I just can't trace the short.. If I wiggle the 2 wires that went from ICM to Coil (now go ICM to MSD to Coil) it will work fine for a very long time, then once it a while it will just crap out on me.. I don't want to run that MSD D7 on the car as it's not meant to be run for hours and I don't want to burn it out.. So I'm thinking of replacing it with a more comparable/streetable LT1 msd/accell whatever.. What do you suggest, and what else should I replace along with it to element this problem once and for all.

Thanks
-Brahm

 

check the female end of the icm plug to make sure any of them aren't spread apart too far barley making connection.my car is the king at bad connectors.

 

I checked, at some point. I've even replaced the entire ICM the car wouldn't fire at all when I did that.