Big problems

[ecotec38]

HI all, i recently converted my vs v6 series 2 to manual using a t5 and i took it out for a test drive, i drove probably 1km when i noticed it started to lose power i got up to an intersection went to take off and it started spluttering and stalled so my mates got out to push the car out of the intersection but with 4 people we couldn't budge the car, the brakes were partially locked on. The car runs a t5 gearbox and still all the auto computer but with the netural safety switch shorted out.
Does anybody know why or what would cause this?

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Also the car has a.b.s

[Morton]

i drove probably 1km when i noticed it started to lose power i got up to an intersection went to take off and it started spluttering and stalled

The fact that it lost power and then spluttered to a stall when you took off, suggests that it was running out of fuel.

1) Check whether the injectors pulse when you crank the motor
2) Remove a fuel line in the engine bay and check for fuel pressure when you crank the motor
3) Check for fuel in the tank

but with 4 people we couldn't budge the car, the brakes were partially locked on.

Do you know which brakes were locked? Jack the car up and spin the wheels... is it one, two, or all four?

[VT-565]

Sounds electrical to me.

Something gone silly causing your ABS to have a coronary. I was once told that an auto computer can't be disabled to run with a manual.

[ecotec38]

The fact that it lost power and then spluttered to a stall when you took off, suggests that it was running out of fuel.

1) Check whether the injectors pulse when you crank the motor
2) Remove a fuel line in the engine bay and check for fuel pressure when you crank the motor
3) Check for fuel in the tank


Do you know which brakes were locked? Jack the car up and spin the wheels... is it one, two, or all four?

1) lol um what am i listening for or looking for when injectors pulse?
2) Soon to come
3) Fuel in tank. Check

Fixed one problem the brakes are now fully functional.

Other information
I can start the car but it runs ****house, its like a misfire but not.. hard to explain, all leads are on, plugs are good all sensors and vacuum hoses are on as far as i can see also when i touch the accelerator pedal it starts to die, it will idle but i cant rev it at all.

This is doing my head in, its wierd because i drove it fine for that little bit with the manual in and engine wise it was all sweet but now its running rough as.

Any more bright ideas as to what it could be?

[Morton]

Wow, that's wierd... I had a few idle issues with my VQ after I dropped a T5 in, but bit of clutch and throttle cable adjustment took care of that.

Still sounds like a fuel delivery problem... that's strange. It's getting only just enough fuel to keep up a weak idle, and once you put the pedal down it leans out and dies. Silly question, but how much fuel is in the tank?

How long will it idle for? If you just leave it?

Could be fuel pump, pressure regulator... or on the other hand I could be barking up the wrong tree. But whenever I hear a car spluttering at idle, and then dieing in the arse when you put the foot down, I suspect low fuel pressure.

[ecotec38]

Wow, that's wierd... I had a few idle issues with my VQ after I dropped a T5 in, but bit of clutch and throttle cable adjustment took care of that.

Still sounds like a fuel delivery problem... that's strange. It's getting only just enough fuel to keep up a weak idle, and once you put the pedal down it leans out and dies. Silly question, but how much fuel is in the tank?

How long will it idle for? If you just leave it?

Could be fuel pump, pressure regulator... or on the other hand I could be barking up the wrong tree. But whenever I hear a car spluttering at idle, and then dieing in the arse when you put the foot down, I suspect low fuel pressure.

Its got about half a tank of petrol in it but its about 3 weeks old now. Im just about to check the error codes so ill get back to you on them also forgot to mention when it spluttered and died it backfired (no its not on gas) so i dont know why but im still thinking vacuum but i checked all the hoses i could find and their all on properly, is there a way to check for a vacuum leak?

Also on another note the starter motor ive got, a delco remy i think, sometimes when i go to start the car it makes a like grinding noise like its not engaging into the flywheel properly, any ideas why?

Cheers

[ecotec38]

Lol forgot i took off the battery, damn no codes.

[VrWagz1]

Could be the high tesion braking down sowhere. Try taking off 1 lead at a time at the coils to see if any of them make no differnce to the running of the engine, that will be the one(lead or the coil) causing the issue. If you take one off and it stalls or runs worse than you can assume it was working fine.

[Tom_1569]

Random shot...
Could it be the auto computer expecting a signal from the auto trans, which its not getting, so its put the engine into limp mode? Explains the running like **** and explains why it happened just after changing to manual.

[VT-565]

Sounds electrical to me.

Something gone silly causing your ABS to have a coronary. I was once told that an auto computer can't be disabled to run with a manual.

As posted earlier.

[ecotec38]

Could be the high tesion braking down sowhere. Try taking off 1 lead at a time at the coils to see if any of them make no differnce to the running of the engine, that will be the one(lead or the coil) causing the issue. If you take one off and it stalls or runs worse than you can assume it was working fine.

Good idea, i will be doing that very shortly as soon as i fix my starter motor problem as well as disconnecting injectors.

Random shot...
Could it be the auto computer expecting a signal from the auto trans, which its not getting, so its put the engine into limp mode? Explains the running like **** and explains why it happened just after changing to manual.

I was thinking it could be something like that also but when i first started it up when manual it ran fine until all of a sudden it **** itself, i reset the computer and started it up just before and it still ran like **** so that would cancell out the computer being the problem i think..

Sounds electrical to me.

Something gone silly causing your ABS to have a coronary. I was once told that an auto computer can't be disabled to run with a manual.

Possibly, im going to get an auto elec to check it out soon, he wants to burn me a auto memcal retuned for memcal or something, if i was to do that wouldn't it just get rid of the engine lights that keep popping up and i'd still have the idle problem and ****ty fuel economy..?

Also im running a vn s2 flywheel with delco remy starter motor, is that the right starter for it or was the auto one out of my vs the correct one, 1 mate says its the delco remy and the other says its the bosch one from my vs?

Cheers

[Cursed CX8]

im pretty sure it will be fuel delivery, if you go to accelerate and you loose power. The Ecotec fuel lines need a tool to be removed from where they come through the engine pay so that will be hard to test. But listen for injector pulse. Do this by getting a large screw driver and sitting the tip on top of the injector then placing the top of the screwdriver against the ear. It works like a stethoscope. There should be a clicking as the fuel is injected.

Also listen to the fuel pump when you click the key to the on position, there should be a whine then it will stop a couple of seconds later. Its possible that the fuel is bad too. Get under the car and replace the fuel filter, while your doing that take a sample of the fuel to make sure its not got water in it.

Now lets say im wrong about the fuel issue and it is spark.
Take out each spark plug, check to see if there is any difference between plugs. eg, is one fouled and not the others? is one cracked or something like that? If they are fine just check the gaps and away you go.
Its possible that the leads have deteriorated, if nothing seems to be working get a new set of leads. $60 or something i think they are.

Might as well do a compression test aswell. Have you got a compression tester?

i can think of more but let me know how you go with that first

[ecotec38]

im pretty sure it will be fuel delivery, if you go to accelerate and you loose power. The Ecotec fuel lines need a tool to be removed from where they come through the engine pay so that will be hard to test. But listen for injector pulse. Do this by getting a large screw driver and sitting the tip on top of the injector then placing the top of the screwdriver against the ear. It works like a stethoscope. There should be a clicking as the fuel is injected.

Also listen to the fuel pump when you click the key to the on position, there should be a whine then it will stop a couple of seconds later. Its possible that the fuel is bad too. Get under the car and replace the fuel filter, while your doing that take a sample of the fuel to make sure its not got water in it.

Now lets say im wrong about the fuel issue and it is spark.
Take out each spark plug, check to see if there is any difference between plugs. eg, is one fouled and not the others? is one cracked or something like that? If they are fine just check the gaps and away you go.
Its possible that the leads have deteriorated, if nothing seems to be working get a new set of leads. $60 or something i think they are.

Might as well do a compression test aswell. Have you got a compression tester?

i can think of more but let me know how you go with that first

The fuel pump primes, the fuel filter is about 3 months olds, the fuel is 1 month old, it has new coils, leads, plugs and as for compression the car was running fine when auto about a month ago and i have driven it since so would this still be an issue?

When i was driving it manual for the 1km or so as i said before the brakes were partially locked on and it must of put so much load on the engine because when i went to take off at the lights when it spluttered and stalled when i popped the bonnet two of the leads had actually partially popped off could this have prematurely worn something out because it was under such extreme load for so long??(for some reason these leads seem to do this when under extreme load, they have only done it once before and that was when doing a standstill/ brakie, whatever u want to call it)

Cheers

[Cursed CX8]

the leads being partially off wont be caused by load on the engine, its because they were not on their properly. Because the spark was needing to jump the gap the resistance would have been different it may have burnt the leads out
Also month old fuel: fuel looses its octane over time, maybe drain the fuel and try some fresh stuff

[stocky]

you need a manual computer

[Cursed CX8]

or that... can you just program a manual memcal and use that?

[VT-565]

Possibly, im going to get an auto elec to check it out soon, he wants to burn me a auto memcal retuned for memcal or something, if i was to do that wouldn't it just get rid of the engine lights that keep popping up and i'd still have the idle problem and ****ty fuel economy..?

I speak from experience when I say the auto PCM can't run a manual, I had a 'supposed' reputable company send me an auto PCM with my blower kit for the VT which would "run fine"....alas, it ran like a busted arse.
As Stocky said, you need a manual PCM.

[stocky]

i think the auto memcal can be reburnt for a manual tune, but im not sure if the ecu is different or not. if the SC forum would fix their ****ing search function that hasnt worked all week, id be able to find out for you

[ecotec38]

I speak from experience when I say the auto PCM can't run a manual, I had a 'supposed' reputable company send me an auto PCM with my blower kit for the VT which would "run fine"....alas, it ran like a busted arse.
As Stocky said, you need a manual PCM.

I have the manual PCM and memcal ready to go but i dont think it will fit the auto wiring loom will it?

I fixed the started motor issues but the engine still is cruddy, i took off the fuel hose going to the fuel rails and primed it to see how much petrol went into a bottle i had there and stuff all came out prob 50ml if that, is that normal? im starting to think i have a fualty fuel guage as i checked the filter and lines and their all fine, im just about to buy some petrol to put in the tank and see how it goes.

[immortality]

i beleive Dr Bob does memcals to suit auto to manual conversions that use the original auto PCM.

the auto and manual wiring looms are different so you would need the manual wiring loom to go with the manual PCM.

the fuel pump only primes for a few seconds so i wouldn't expect a huge volume of fuel. you really want to test fuel flow after the regulator so that you measure the volume when the rail is pressurised. also a fuel pressure gauge before the fuel rail to ensure the correct pressure is important when checking the fuel system.

[ecotec38]

UPDATE..

Thanks to everyone for all their help, my car is now fixed and only little things are left to do and the car will be in perfect running condition.

What happened..

This morning i put $20 of fuel into the tank and it did make a considerable difference to how the engine ran but it still ran like ****, i tested all the cyclinders to make sure they were firing as i could now idle the engine for as long as i like as were before it would idle for about 20 seconds then stall anyway i found out that two cylinders weren;t firing, i tested the leads as i first suspected them and two of them werent working so it wasn't fuel but spark causing the main problem, i then noticed that the two leads that weren't working were coming off the same coil pack so i went out and brought a new coil pack and put it on but still not spark from those two leads, it was then that i noticed that whatever coil pack that was on the left of the dfi module (the thing the coil packs go on, i think its called dfi module) would work so i went to the wreckers and brought a new dfi module and it now purrs like a kitten.

Thanks for everyones help

[VT-565]

Well there you go. Just goes to show how hard it is to diagnose over the internet. Good to hear you got it fixed.

[immortality]

Well there you go. Just goes to show how hard it is to diagnose over the internet. Good to hear you got it fixed.

sure is. funilly enough i shoulda picked the problem as it happened to me. bad coil friedthe output on the DFI so even with a good coil it only ran on 4 cylinders. we all thought it may have been related to the manual conversion.

i think the lesson here is, if 2 cylinders play up and they share a common coil then that is the first port of call