faults and maintenance

[Dunlop]

Lads I am in a big horrible situation right now, just finished doing the valley gaskets, and the car is struggling to run and not firing all cylinders, I put a scope down the intake to have a look around there no rags or bolts in there, no sign of damage, all valves are fine, but the motor is knocking and pinging, bearly idles, need throttle to start. As a note I checked the rockers to see if they are still operating which they are, the coils are sparking, fuel is getting to the rail (have not check injectors yet), but the strangest thing is there are no error codes popping up. Another thing to add when the car is running on the beats it nearly stalls out the interior light will flicker.

Electrical issue? Make sure the negative terminal on the battery is ok etc. Might need to have a mechanic or auto elec (mechanic first) to check it out...

 

[losh1971]

Are all your vac lines connected? This is a common mistake.

 

[Lex]

just finished doing the valley gaskets

Did you put a dollop of rtv in the 4 corners of the manifold?

 

[mirrabucca]

Plus one for the vacuum lines. Especially the one under the throttle body (make sure it's connected both ends) and the little one at the back of the plenum that feeds the heater vacuum operated controls. Although that one doesn't usually cause as bad symptoms as you have.
Failing that, if it was me, I'd be going over what I have done. Step by step. plug leads on the right cylinders? Injector connectors on the right injectors?
Anything you might have leaned on when working on the engine? No chance of a massive vacuum leak from a misplaced LIM gasket?

 

[vc commodore]

The issue I had when I replace the LIM gasket was, the leads failed...Whilst it didn't run as bad as yours, it still ran like a bucket...

When you have it running, spray some WD40, CRC or even flyspray around every hose, bolt to valley cover, valley cover to head point and see if the motor idles up....This might pin point your issue

 

[Lachlan3491]

thanks for all the replies, me being not the brightest somehow left a rag in the intake, wish I could send a vid of my fishing it out of my spark plug hole, but here is the photo of the rag

 

[vc commodore]

At least the insides have been cleaned thoroughly...

 

[Lachlan3491]

Words do not explain how happy I am right now just started her up and she runs just like it came out of the show room

 

[Fachoo]

Hey lads, just wondering if there are any common faults or maintenance requirements with high mileage cars that I should look into, got a 97 VS Ute with the 3.8 ecotec the kms are unknown the odm stoped working on 223,XXX h

compression ring wear from high mileage, do a cheap comp test to be sure to be sure
and lets not mention bearing wear or low oil pressure in case worn out, so we wont mention the important bits.

 

[Lachlan3491]

compression ring wear from high mileage, do a cheap comp test to be sure to be sure
and lets not mention bearing wear or low oil pressure in case worn out, so we wont mention the important bits.

Did a compression test today and all 6 cylinders are around 150