Well engine just shut off at highway speed 75+, started to heat up pretty quick
on the side of the highway. lost allot of antifreeze from the overflow. Never pegged out. After I let her cool down below normal operating temp I tried restarting with no kick over at all. I hit it up with my scanner and there where no stored codes. No CEL. I checked for fuel at the rail and it has fuel. Also when I kick it over it sounds like good compression and doesn't make any knocking or continual noise. At first crank there is almost a pop sound like from the pass side of the engine and then it sounds as if its going to kick without any more out of the ordinary sounds. But when I try to re-crank I get the same initial pop. almost like its from the pass side vlv cover area. I'm stumped this is the second time my car has left me stranded in less then 1k miles. The whole car has only 54k miles on it and there are no mods to the motor. I also noticed no oil press when trying to crank. I should get an initial oil press rise during crank right?

 

This may seem like a stupid question, but head gasket? Although it probably wouldn't make a pop for no reason. Other than that, pull the valve covers and look at the valve train. There might be something going on in there.

 

yeah soon as I get out of the hospital (wife went into labor same night...my luck) That is the plan, check under vlv cover then check spark and compression test the cylinders if everything looks good up there. then maybe leak down test to see if its a vlv or head gasket.

I had checked the oil for water and did not see any... if it had blown the gasket at the rate the water was coming I would see it in there. I also did not see any oil vice versa. Would a blown head gasket make the pedal inop at highway speed? I didnt see any white smoke out the back either when it happened, and I believe if the gasket blew into the intake or exhaust from the water jacket Id most likely get white smoke or at least coolant in my exhaust.

 

Yes, you almost always have white smoke coming out of the exhaust. Here's another idea that's possible:

The water pump failed/gasket failed. The car overheated and water doused your opti, ruining it. Just a possibility, but I'm not sure if this would throw a code. I have heard of it happening though. If it's overheating, my guess if you're not getting water somewhere. That points to the WP, t-stat, etc. Check those as well just in case. Was your opti wet at all? That basically spells R.U.I.N.

Yeah, check your oil pressure with a mechanical gauge to be safe. If you don't get an initial spike, try cranking it for 5-7 seconds, but not really any longer so you don't overheat your starter.

 

Sorry for your problem....

Try to check things out in a linear fashion to get to the answers quicker

1. Do you have compression?
2. Do you have spark?
3. I forget if you can see the coupler or not (I run an electric water pump) but look to see if the coupler to the water pump is turning while the engine is being cranked.

With those three steps we can point you in the right direct for more testing...

Good luck with it.....

 

Ok, so I got to looking at the car this afternoon and I only had to add about half a gallon of coolant. the only place it was leaking was the overflow. I also did not hear the popping sound when I tried to turn it over today. I also found there is no spark coming off the opti, at least there is no signal on one of the wires I tried with my timing gun. I know there is fuel as I could release fuel at the rail.
Could the opti have just given out at redline? This happened between 4th and 5th gear. I was rapping out 4th and when I went to 5th there was no more pedal... like out of gas but no sputter.... then as I was slowing it started heating up and the check gauges light came on but no CEL. How about the oil pump, if that gave out would I lose ignition from zero oil pressure? Going out to check for oil pressure.

-Ok checked for pressure on crank and the needle does not move at all no matter how long it cranks. So I thought maybe the sensor? I luckily had another motor setting in my garage and shotgunned the oil pressure sending unit... no dice. Would this stop initial ignition? how hard is a oil pump change and could it be the oil pump drive? Like could the drive some how gotten loose in the valley and that was the initial pop I heard when I tried to start initially on the side of the road? It was coming from the pass side where the pump would be.

 

no your oil pump is below the crank you have to remove the oil pan to access it. your oil pump drive gear is under the intake manifold. if you have no spark check your fuses or check for voltage at the ignition control module

 

I meant the oil pump drive unit that is mounted in the valley of the block because there is no distributor in the rear that would normally drive it.

I read some times the plastic on the tab that holds it in breaks off. Usually on engines with a cam swap or if it had been removed and not properly torqued as its plastic.

and can I change out the oil pump in the bottom end with the motor inside the car? maybe by raising the engine up a few inches and dropping the k member down? I read you can do it on a A4 car has anyone done this on a M6 car?

 

0 oil pressure will not kill the ignition. The only thing the oil pressure sensor is connected to on an F-Body is the dash gauge. Not like the Corvette LT1, where there is an interlock to the fuel pump.

Do you have spark at the coil? If you have no codes for the optical sensor in the Opti, and you have no codes for the IC Module, there's a chance something happened to the rotor. You could have spark at the coil, but the rotor wouldn't be directing it to the plugs.

 

thank you this helps, should I have oil pressure on crank though?
and i'm going out to check signal from coil

 

I got signal coming from coil to opti and non going to #2 cylinder I did not check the others. I am guessing opti at this point as it appears a normal replacement item. I figure Ill take her apart on my next day off and check the rotor. Is this a normal thing just to die no sputter or anything?

 

Yeah, you should have at least a little oil pressure when turning it over. Since none built up, I am guessing something went haywire there. I am still really puzzled that the temperature shot up with just an opti possibly going out and maybe a bad oil pump, you know what I mean guys? It sounds to me like something got plugged up or is leaking somewhere. Do you drive it hard? Your block is good, right? I'm not trying to be pessimistic, but on the other hand an oil pump/shaft and opti going out at the exact same time seems awful dogone suspicious to me. Is the oil shaft and opti connected mechanically at all? If so, I would definitely suspect block/component damage somewhere in the engine.

 

what would be a minimum for the oil sending unit to read? I don't know this so I will check the oil pressure with a mechanical gauge next time I look at the car. and yeah I was running the car pretty good as it was the 3rd hot lap race when this happened. I was pulling on a 2 srt4s and a z06 on a local highway... anyway I do believe the temp would shoot up the extra 50 or so with heat sink and no more fans running. I watched it and it never pegged out it just spit alot of water out the over flow tube. What I do know now is I dont have a signal coming out of my opti, and it did not spit any codes. The rotor makes sense as there is no high or low def signal being read at that point its simply routing the spark signal to the different plug wires. and well there are no sensors on the plug wires or plugs to tell the pcm causing a fault...

If I do have zero while cranking with a mechanical gauge I will be taking down the oil pan, and at the least checking the mains for wear.

 

yeah they are by the cam. I believe the cam drives them both if I'm not mistaken.

and if the timing chain broke I guess I could get both of these conditions, but if it did would it bend all the valves or is there clearance for them? Its a completely stock setup.

 

First the serious bit..

You'll bend valves if the timing chain breaks...that's why the compression test is importsnt.

Looking at the wiring diagram, it looks like the oil pressure sending unit reads zero when the internals are grounded. pull the wire off the sensor and see what the reading is...key on.

It is possible three things are going on at the same time...broken rotor and bad oil pressure sensor and a water pump issue...but it isn't likely. I suspect something catastrophic has happened. I'd recommend you get a mechanic oil pressure gauge and hook it into the port above the oil filter on the side of the engine and test for oil pressure. No oil pressure there and you're done.

About the only thing that leads to all three is a broken timing chain. The timing gear turns the water pump, the pin in the cam drive the OPTI and the other end of the cam drives the oil pump. However, broken timing chains are very rare. Very, very rare, in fact....


Not for the teasing bit...

If you were pulling on a ZO6 with a stock F-body, the ZO6 didn't know you were racing him....