Anyone wanna help me figure out wtf is going on here?o i FINALLY get my car back

[SketchyRollin564]

so i FINALLY get my car back running, after 6 months (f***ing september) of not driving my car and it just sitting in my garage being parked, and im loving it so much even tho i have no AC or radio i could care less right now, im so happy to be driving it

so its like 2 in the morning, i drive north like 45 minutes, and then drive back south home on the road right along the beach, which was a badass joyride

so im coming back home, and then i downshift from 3rd to second at like 30mph to a red light, and yes i know how to rev match, the rpms go to like 4k or 4.5k (could tell by sound), but the needle jumped up way into the redline and went crazy for like a split second. i was like wtf?

so while i was stopped at the red light, i reved it in neutral and right at like 5.5k the needle jumps way into redline and is just like going crazy

after that i noticed a couple times the car would hesitate just like it did when i badly needed new spark plugs, but not that often, only really when i took it above 4k

So anyways, i didnt do anything stupid to mess up the car, and its completley random how it happend, but does anybody know what the problem could be? for now im just gonna 100% drive the car civil, but i wanna know what the hell happend

heres the video!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v..._page
Modified by SketchyRollin564 at 9:07 PM 2/26/2009

[brandonlgilbert]

when I read the first part of your post, my first thought was slipping clutch or one on it's way out. After reading the enitre thing, I was thinking maybe a sticking fuel injector????

[musashin]

Sticking throttle cable maybe?

[AZ89two4Tsx]

So did your car over-rev or not? It sounds like you think you're tach is wrong.

[JRPS13]

maybe you had some mice chew on your speed sensor wire.... it was in your garage... its not unheard of for something like that to happen...

[burntricer]

yeah thats what i am wondering, is it actually overrunning or is it just the tach, cuz my speedo jumps once and a while

[brandonlgilbert]

doh! I meant throttle cable, not injector. I'm an idiot and shouldn't guess at other people's problems

please ignore mt post, I don't know wtf I was thinking. I had a case of the thought diahrrea.

[SketchyRollin564]

the engine itself does not over rev, its just the tach that goes crazy

if im in like 5th gear crusing and i push the clutch in and rev it, once it gets to 5.5k the needle jumps like crazy between 5.5k and 7.5k

also today, i noticed it misfires a lotparticularly whenever i go over 3k, so if i only go half throttle and stay under 3k, for the most part im fine (even though i feel a huge loss of power), but it still misfires occasionally (mostly in first and some second gear coming from a stop) even if i stay light on the throttle and under 3k

so anyways i got the engine in two months ago and i drove it for like a total of 5 days, on like the second or third day, i got new spark plugs and it fixed the misfiring problem i had back then

then i never drove the car again untill three days ago (todays the 8th total day driving the car with the new engine in), and it drove fine, didnt misfire, till last night when i started to feel a slight loss of power, then half an hour later the whole tach issue, and then today i noticed it started to misfire a lot

SO, heres what im thinkingA. I need to use platinum tipped spark plugs cause it says it right in the engine bay (the ones i used were just basic NGKs, not platinum tipped)

or B., theres a problem with my engine causing me to go through a set of spark plugs within a matter of a week

or maybe its nothing related to that at all?

idk, i really need help though, my parents dont have the money to take it to the shop again and im afraid to tell them therse somthing wrong with my car AGAIN

[SketchyRollin564]

the other thing i was thinking when i was driving the car earlyer today was that some kind of sensor is going bad, thing is, i dont know what sensors there are besides the o2 sensor, the MAF, and the sensor that knows what RPMs the engine is spinning

i know a bad o2 sensor will give you bad gas milage, but will it cause any other problems

i was guessing maybe a faulty MAF would be more troublesome, considering without it plugged in the car wont even start?

[derrick113]

if your engine itself isn't actually revving and its just the needle jumping i would start off by checking your grounds. Engine hesitation make sure your plugs are all gapped to spec, incorrect gap can cause hesitation. Goodluck!

[SketchyRollin564]

gapping? im not exactly sure what that is, but i remember it says in the owners manual that the plugs dont need to be gapped

[derrick113]

your plugs may come pre-gapped, but its always wise to check the gap.

gap mm 1.0-1.1 / in. 0.039-0.043



I still say check your grounds, mainly the one going to the TPS (throttle positioning sensor) hope this helps.

[SketchyRollin564]

no idea what any of that is haha, ill start doin some research on it but some more info would be nice

its misfiring a lot now, and also if i floor it in second gear the tach is accurate but oince i get to 5.5k the needle starts jumping like crazy

anybody know what that part is? or is that related to the whole misfiring issue that im now having

[brizanden]

the gap of a spark plug is the distance between the ground electrode thing and the tip where it sparks. Since our cars use platinum tips you need to get a special gapper that wont mess with the tiny platinum on the tip. Just go to advance or wherever and tell em you need a tool to gap platinum tip plugs. The little tool has markings for a certain size of the gap and u but the plug in it too that spot with the size you want. I think for a stock ka it is like .04 or .4.. one of the two someone should know i just forget right now. Hell even advance will tell you stock specs if you ask.

[SketchyRollin564]

i just bought a gapper like the one in that picture, my current plugs are copper tipped so it should be fine

im gonna take my plugs out, gap them, and put them back in, and see if it still misfires

i really hope this fixes it

[SketchyRollin564]

ok so im guessing i overstressed the tip when i was closing the gap because when i put the plug back in, im using the torque wrench set at 18 lbft (it says 14-22 in the manual), and it just spins freely, i take it out and i notice theres no head! the little metal thing that comes over the tip is completley missing

no problem, just need to bu y a new spark plug, BUT, that piece is stuck in the cylinder head and idk how to get it out

i tryed using a long magnet, and either the material of that thing isnt attracted to a magnet, or the magnet im using just isnt strong enough (which i think it is because it was strong enough to pick up the washer that got stuck in there)

anybody got any suggestions for getting this thing out? now i cant even start the car and drive it to a shop if i wanted to, which really pisses me off

[SketchyRollin564]

ok i used easy out and this came right out!I threw in new platinum tipped plugs, and used the spark plug wires from my old engine (never had any problems with that one), and it still misfires, but i had to get on it a little bit to notice

so honestly, i have no idea what this could be.. maybe something with my distributor?

[heartofaskyline]

probably, new cap and rotor and you should be fine.

[freakyjason]

As far as the tack reading crazy goes, I believe the signal comes from pulses off of the coil signal. If the coil was bad (or there was a bad ground/wiring to the coil) I think it could produce both the misfire and RPM phenomenon you are experiencing (someone correct me if i'm wrong).

[SketchyRollin564]

i might just swap the cap and rotor (wtf is a distributor rotor?) from my old KA if thats the case

now mr freakyjason, what coil are you talking about lol, this sounds like it could be my problem

[TJcars2]

Ok, so I know, what motor do you have?? KA or SR?

If you have a KA it could be your distributor, if you have an SR it could be your coil packs.
Modified by TJcars2 at 3:30 AM 2/25/2009

[freakyjason]

You have a Ka, right? I'm referring to the ignition coil. I guess this could be a distributor problem too but i do think the ecu calculates engine speed from some signal coming off the ignition coil. This thread may give you a better idea of what I'm talking about: zerothread?id=276584 Good Luck!

[r34 gtr]

As far as your tach problem goes, sometimes they just suck. I have a DOHC cluster that freaks out on you occasionally, depending on how it feels. Sometimes the tach is all over the place, and other times it just does its job. Occasionally you would hit the limiter at what the tach read as 9k, and other times it was at 6k. Good times. The speedometer on that cluster is also kind of unreliable, being that it was in Kilometers and you had to be ever vigilant to know your speed.

Glad to see you got your spark plug issue fixed. There shouldnt be any problem running copper NGK plus in your car, those plugs are golden. I won't run anything else.

Lots of problems with those Bosch platinum plugs. Ive had them break in half getting them out of the box! I wouldn't put them in my lawnmower.

For your misfire, check the coil and the distributor, and definitely check your timing. If its not either of those, I would check the fuel pressure and finally, if none of those are the culprit, try borrowing (or buying, that ish is cheap) a different ECU.

Other things you might check are the engine temp sensor, o2 sensor, and the MAF voltage.

[SketchyRollin564]

hmm i really dont know what to think of the whole tach issue, but i remember it never gave me s*** at all untill the misifirng thing started to happen with the new engine...

im gonna read up more on how distrubutors work and what coils are and all that s***

[SketchyRollin564]

ok i got a video of the s*** its been doing, give me some time to upload it and s*** and lmk whaty you guys think of it

[brizanden]

just a fyi that is not the kind of gapper you want for platinum or copper tipped as you just found out.

[SketchyRollin564]

yup lol im a professional dumbass

anyways heres a video of the POS in actionhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v..._page

[SketchyRollin564]

bump for video..

[2lua]

You have check engine light on... did you check for code? check for grounded plug wires. (good to check at night so you can see sparks when plug wire touch each other or metal.)ohm your plug wires.check all your grounds. (est. 6-7 upper harnes, 3-4 lower harness)check your coil to see if it in spec.

Modified by 2lua at 1:45 PM 2/28/2009
Modified by 2lua at 1:46 PM 2/28/2009

[niemczykj]

my first instinct is alternator on it's way out... anyone else? mine as well have it tested to be sure and be able to rule that out.