Wow it's been a while since I posted here. I used to be addicted to this forum haha.

Anyway, I have not driven the t/a in about 4 or 5 months. After it broke on me I just left it in the garage and fixed my other cars and have not touched it since... how I'd like to change that. Here is how it broke:

About 4 or 5 months ago, I was riding with a buddy of mine cruising down the freeway. The car already had some gremlins I could not get rid of and I should not have got on the throttle. My friend never felt what the car could do, so reluctantly I downshifted to 2nd gear and nailed it. To make a long story short, I over revved the car by downshifting to first gear instead of upshifting to third (I really need to get rid of that pro 5.0, don't know why I ditched my ripper). I did not pull the clutch all the way out, once the revs shot up I pushed it back in but I'm sure it went to at least 7k. Oil pressure was fine however I got an SES light for I believe code 41 or 42 EST open/grounded (it has been a while since I scanned it). Also, my coolant temp was rising to above where it normally sits just under the first tick mark on the gauge to right between the first tick mark and 210 (the middle mark) and when I got home the coolant was boiling and making funny noises in the radiator. The car had a deep drowned exhaust note with a fairly bad stutter...

What happened to my car? I know that I have seen that code before when the tach signal wire coming off of my ICM broke but I checked all my ignition wiring (car has Delteq now) and it is all nice, tidy, and continuous. I have this gut feeling that my stupid comp R crap lifters have been giving me trouble, and I think that little stunt probably killed them off. Any way to check the lifters? As far as the coolant boiling in the radiator... did I blow one of the head gaskets? What could cause these symptoms?

I am going to have some free time over thanksgiving and I have been daydreaming about the fun times I had in the T/A. I mean my eclipse is fast and it gets way better gas mileage, but it's no beast...

I always say on the DSM forums that cz28 has always been my favorite board... always get good responses in the shortest amount of time. Thanks in advance guys.

 

Had a similar situation when I let my "friend" drive my car a couple of months ago. He did a hard 3-2 upshift and over-revved the motor pretty bad. End result: blown head gasket between #6 & 8 cylinders, lifter spider retainer failed on the #3 cylinder, the lifters flew up out of position and came down sideways on the cam, destroyed the cam, metal filings and chips throughout the motor, etc .

But there's a bright side, I'll be firing up my new 383 with Lloyds LE1 heads/cam next week .

Chris

 

I learned about letting other people drive my car... only my brother can drive it. Nobody else gets behind the wheel of the T/A unless it's parked and I have the keys.

I will do a compression test this weekend and see what the deal is. Getting the tester in the trans-am plug holes is such a pain in the ***, especially for the last 2 on the passenger side w/ hooker lt's. On the eclipse it's a five minute job from start to finish.

As far as the lifters... I guess I will just pull the intake and valve covers. Is there a test that I can do see if any of the lifters are bad??? I have heard a lot of bad stuff about comp r lifters...

I think that luckily my problems are not as severe as your. The car still drove fine, oil pressure was fine and all that goodness. Just had a stutter from whatever is causing that SES light and the coolant problem... I always suspected that the head gasket was weak and on it's way out. Is it possible to have a weak head gasket that lasts for a while?

 

From what i've read overreving causes you to bend pushrods. Take the valve covers off and remove the rocker arms. After that take the rods out and roll them on a piece of glass or other flat surface. This will tell if one or maybe even more of the rods are bent. This could be a possibility.....hopefully not. Good luck

 

I'm using hardened pushrods... it's either going to be the pushrods or the lifters i think.

 

I need to resurrect this post. I finished my other car, now it's time to fix the T/A especially since winter will be coming to an end soon.

Can anybody tell me what code 41/42 EST grounded means or deals with?

Also, is there any way to check for a blown head gasket with doing a compression test on every cylinder?

Is comp offering replacements for those crappy comp r lifters? By replacements I mean free replacements... If not, where can I get OEM lifters cheap, I want those comp r's out.

 

No way out of the compression or leakdown test.
If the Prods are bent ya got some valves into pistons and no telling if that happened if there is head or block damage.
If the compression test don't tell ya anything,pull the V covers and remove the pushrods- then look at all the springs and see if they are all the same height which may indicate a bent valve.

 

I'll do that. Just before the car broke I installed comp 918 springs with all the goodies. I'll do the compression test and report back.

If anybody has info on code 41/42 please post it. Causes, what it relates to etc.

 

I'm bringing this post back. Anybody have info or specific situations that enabled code 41/42 dealing with the EST circuit please respond.

I have found time last weekend and this coming up weekend to work on the car. I took off the valve covers and checked everything out and it seems to be okay visually. I also removed the plugs and moved stuff out of the way in preparationg for the compression test next weekend (battery was dead so I put it in my eclipse to drive it back to normal, it's an optima yellow top). I will post the results when I have them.

After that, if the compression turns out okay, I am going to disassemble the valvetrain and roll the pushrods and have the lifters checked at a machine shop. They are comp R lifters but I believe they are the old style with the c-clip retainer.

Of more immediate importance, is there anything I should do to prepare the car for the road after sitting for so long??? It seems my coolant is a little low, but the oil was just changed about 100 miles before it broke and it seems full and clean, should I change it? What about the gas? Anything else I should worrry about???

 

The 41 and 42 have to do with the Ignition Control signal on the white wire from the PCM to the ICM. The PCM sends an AC signal between 1 and 4 volts to the ICM on this white wire.

First be sure you clear the codes. Now try starting it as usual and REMOVE all the old fuel first. You can do this at the fuel filter and put 12 volts on the fuel pump prime connector.

If the code(s) return, check the white wire for continuity from the PCM to the ICM with at least one of the connectors off when you do it. While you're there, be sure to measure continuity from the wire to the engine ground. This time be sure both ends are unplugged when checking to ground. As you do your measurements, be sure to move the wire around to change it's position and find any bad spots.

If all that checks out, plug er in and check the presence of 1-4 VAC (notice AC) not DC. This is done while someone cranks it over.

Let us know what else you need.

 

Since you have the intake manifold off anyway, and the car has been sitting without being run for so long, I would pull out the oil pump drive stub shaft and use a priming tool to prime the oil system (after you put the lifters back in). It would be a good idea to turn the engine over by hand while you're doing the priming.

 

He's got a '96. Did you change to OBDI?

 

Speedy - Thanks so much I really appreciate that. That's what I call some good info. I will perform those tests this saturday and report back. Unfortunately I don't have access so a scope, can I use my multimeter to monitor the A/C signal??? Will I notice if the signal is degraded or inconsistent??

This seems very promising... At first I thought that the EST code was a mechanical problem. Is that even possible or does it have to do solely with the ICM signal from the ECU???

As for the old fuel, it seems simple enough. Power the pump and let it pump right into a bucket under the fuel filter.



Cehan - How can I turn the engine over by hand and prime it with a tool at the same time? You mean to first turn it over a few times then prime it??? What do I use? I have heard of people using a drill but what kind of attachment do I need. I'm assuming that it needs to mate somehow with the cam oil pump drive gear right???

moparman - Yes, I changed to OBD I a while back if that helps any.


I am really sorry I don't have time to respond in length but I will get back as soon as I can. My landlord disconnected my internet, mean old lady she is.... says I use too much bandwidth. If I don't get back before Saturday, I will be back with the compression results, ICM signal test results, etc. Please feel free to post more and thanks again for the comments.

 

You don't need a Scope to measure the AC signal from the PCM to the ICM. Simply use a multimeter set to AC. Your result should be in the 1-4 volt range.

There are several reasons there could be a problem with this signal but those tests are a start.

 

Okay I have somewhat of an update althought I didn't really get anywhere...

It turns out that the car has just a hair under 3/4 of a tank (on the gauge) of gas. I can drain it out no problem, but where the hell do I put all that gas??? It's been about 7 months give or take a month, is that gas driveable? What about the water, isn't there stuff that can remove water?

The engine turns easy as it ever did. All I did was spin it a few times by hand, then bumped the starter a couple times. Then I cranked it for a few seconds. Oil pressure went to about 40 psi within a matter of seconds. When I tried to do the compression test however, it seemed like the starter was going really slow... It's a CVR protorque starter, and it usually cranks ultra fast. The battery had no been used for a couple weeks after I charged it in my mitsubishi but it should still have been okay to do a compression test with no spark plugs in the car... Or should it? I can practically spin the crank with my bare hands with no plugs and no belt on the car.

I examined shbox's site about opti/spark testings. Just for anybody else who comes across this problem in the future, here is the link:

http://shbox.com/1/4th_gen_tech2.html

It's about 2/3 of the way down the page. It tells you what PCM pins to look for.

So, now I am at a point where I am convinced I can find the solution to the spark problem using shbox's guide and Speedy's advice (thanks again), but that still leaves the problem of the coolant. When the car broke down that fateful night, I drove it home for about 10 minutes. There was no smoke, the temp went up to between 185 and 210 (way hotter than it usually gets w/160 t-stat but not hot enough to cause panic). When I parked the car in my garage, coolant leaked out of the overflow tank onto the ground. When I checked the level a couple weeks ago, it was very low - low enough to see the low level sensor on the inside of the raditor. What does that sound like to you? Could the SES and the coolant issue be related???

Lastly, I'm starting to discount my hypothesis of the bad head gasket. None of the spark plugs appeared to have any kind of coolant on them. Maybe somehow, after the SES light for the EST came on.