Sticky Valves.....:(.........Questions....

[rsmithdrift]

1. What causes this??

2. How is it even possible??

3. How do I fix it??

My car acts like it's on 3-2 cylinders and usually it's only for a minute or two and then it goes back to normal, but now it's constant. It's been 2 days and it's still missing horribly and stalling and rough as all get out idle and you can hear the miss in the exhaust really loud and feel a gap in air flow out the tail pipe when it misses.......It's REALLY, REALLY bad to the point that I can't go up steep hills at all......no power at all.

But when it runs properly it has a ton of power and feels tight and strong as it should.......WTF??

All I can think is sticking valve somewhere and it doesn't make sense to me how that's even possible, I mean the valve is pushed down by the cam loeb and up by the spring and if it doesn't go up it'll get hit by the piston.....WTF?? Huh??

I hate it and I wan't to fix it....PLEASE HELP! Thanks in advance.

[InsanityInc]

Sounds more like one of your injectors is dead/dying.

[ss82480]

Ive been having a similiar problem as well... i unplugged my plug wires one at a time until the car ran the same as it had been, then i knew which injector it was...

[rsmithdrift]

That bastard, now it's running properly..... odd.

Why would it run with so much power and run so good when it's not doing though if it's an injector, wouldn't that be a consistent thing....like it just wears out to the point of non functionality.......and not like, working one minute and not the next??? Another oddity.

[InsanityInc]

That bastard, now it's running properly..... odd.

Why would it run with so much power and run so good when it's not doing though if it's an injector, wouldn't that be a consistent thing....like it just wears out to the point of non functionality.......and not like, working one minute and not the next??? Another oddity.

It's not that uncommon. As the wiring starts to get old it can form a very small gap and changes in temperature/vibrations of the car can move it the few nanometers out of alignment needed for it to not work and then later move it back.

[ss82480]

Could be just clogged? dunno, how long since you changed your fuel filter?

[rsmithdrift]

Could be just clogged? dunno, how long since you changed your fuel filter?

3 months, 8k miles. Also that's how long since I did cap/rotor/wires/plugs/coil/intake/air filter and aiv removal. I run fuel injector cleaner once a month and 93 octane with booster every other fill up or so.

So it should run great, and it does when it's running right......

[Florida240sx]

booster is waste of your money...... Probably injector...Add seafoam to your fuel system..... it's same as fuel injector cleaner but stronger.....

[rsmithdrift]

booster is waste of your money...... Probably injector...Add seafoam to your fuel system..... it's same as fuel injector cleaner but stronger.....

Not when your ignition timing is advanced to 25* it isn't. I DEFINATELY feel a big improvement (mainly at low end) when I run higher than 93 octane.

But I checked all my connections today and I couldn't find any signs of corrosion anywhere.......still not doing it, but it's just a matter of time.

Anything else it could be?? Like a bad wire or maybe the coil occasionally loosing power or something??

[rsmithdrift]

For **** sake........I finally happened to be just driving home with no reason to get there really when it did it and I checked by pulling spark plugs to see which ones are missing and it's on 2 cylinders right now.

The back 2 cylinders have NO FIRE whatsoever.

And it's the fuel injectors because there was quite visible arcing from the plug wires when I pulled them and the plugs are new. So it has to be the fuel injectors not working.

Now I have a wild goose chase as to where the loose/bad connection actually is.

edit.... I found it to be the connection to injector #'s 3 & 4 that are just not connecting properly.......I do not have a clue how to take the black connector apart at all....

WTF?? How do you take that SOB apart?? You can't squeeze it because your squeezing solid plastic, I see no way of separating it, and you can't just pull it either....WTF??
Modified by rsmithdrift at 1:23 AM 9/9/2006

[DjPantsSpecR]

oh, did you determine that?

did you check the resistance across the injectors to see if they were still alive?

you should see 11 or 12 ohms across each injector. 0 indicates a dead injector.

one of my injectors reads at 30, but when it cools down it reads a little lower. this one makes no sense, and ive talked to many a mechanic who've never heard of such a thing. i think i'll pait a picture of jesus on it with oil and sell it on ebay for 12 grand. its clearly a miracle.

[rsmithdrift]

oh, did you determine that?

did you check the resistance across the injectors to see if they were still alive?

you should see 11 or 12 ohms across each injector. 0 indicates a dead injector.

one of my injectors reads at 30, but when it cools down it reads a little lower. this one makes no sense, and ive talked to many a mechanic who've never heard of such a thing. i think i'll pait a picture of jesus on it with oil and sell it on ebay for 12 grand. its clearly a miracle.

Huh?? Did you read my last post??

I said I found it to be a bad connection on injectors 3 & 4 and I know this because i first pulled all the plugs to check (the miss comes and goes at random so I had to have it do it at the right time for me to diagnos)

Anyways, When I pulled wire 1 & 2 the car nearly stalled, when I pulled 3 & 4 there was no difference and there was noticable arching. So it has to be fuel injectors 3 & 4 cutting on and off.

I then wiggled, pushed, pulled on the wire connectors and when I pushed them they both started working......so that has to be it....common sense.

But I can't figure out how to unplug the fuel injector connectors (black oddly shaped part that plugs into the actual injector) The connector makes no sense to me at all.....it's odd.

So I was asking how do you unplug the damn thing and you posted that informative, yet random ramble about ohms.........

So I'm pretty sure you've done it given what all other projects I've seen you tackle from this forum....so wanna help out??

[N053B133D]

If i'm not mistaken, the plugs for the injectors should have a little metal wire that you can pull out, then the connector just slides right off. The wire is like a box with 1 edge missing. you can just get a knife or something up under it to pull it out. i'm having trouble describing it because it's like 3 in the morning, but hopefully once you look at it you'll see what i'm talking about.

[DjPantsSpecR]

OH... yeah im very sorry guy. i did read what you wrote, but its such a common problem it was worth double checking.

but when i read your new post, i can clearly see that you've found it, sorry i missed it previously.

you probably have them unplugged already, but i can answer.

now, what i thought you were asking before is how you remove the wires from the black connector. But what i gather you are asking, and correct me if im wrong, but you cant get them unplugged at all, as in you can't pull the black connector off of the red injector plug.

the poster before me is mistaken i believe. i have a 92, 93, 95, and a 96 KA and they dont have this mentioned connector. i've seen these on domestics all the time, but what this person is refering to is the connection that is on the coolant temp sensor. you wont be finding any metal wires here.

so, at the risk of sounding stupid, im gonna answer the question i think you are trying to ask, about unplugging injectors.

its gonna see so stupid its trivial, so i honestly assume that you already know what im telling you, but you just want someone to back you up before you break something.

on the back side of the injector connections, the black piece youre talking about, there is a button. you can feel it because there are grooves cut in it for your finger to be able to grab on to, like the edges of a quarter. you need to push this, i guess as hard as you can. it will make a clicking noise once it is disengaged. thats not guarenteed thoguh, because i have one that doesnt, but the other 11 do.

i can say that some are a *****. i used a large pair of needle nose pliers once to disengage it. you squeeze on the front and the back of it, but obviously you dont wanna break it.

so try some pliers on it. can you remove any of them? i squeezed pretty damn hard and they didnt break, but beware. i feel bad about being less than helpful before, and now i know what you are asking. you cant test the injectors without having the connectors pulled.... my bad.

lemme know how it goes, because there is a button on the back that will click when its disengaged. you'll feel it. plus they are always hard to pull the first time, it will be easy everytime here on.

[neverlift]

my connector break before I can get the pliers on. They see them coming and fall off. Just be very careful when using pliers man.

[InsanityInc]

Sounds like your injectors have jesus clips.

Everyone I know calls them that because when you try to take them off they fly somewhere in the engine bay and you always end up saying "Jesus christ, where the **** did that thing go..?"

[N053B133D]

the poster before me is mistaken i believe. i have a 92, 93, 95, and a 96 KA and they dont have this mentioned connector. i've seen these on domestics all the time, but what this person is refering to is the connection that is on the coolant temp sensor. you wont be finding any metal wires here.

i've got the SOHC KA, so mine's prolly different...either that or i'm still mistaken and the injectors don't have those clips on my car either. (my car isn't here right now so i can't check)

[rsmithdrift]

Thank you, that's what I was looking for.

I checked them, all the injectors are good, it's just a bad/loose connection and I can't for the life of me figure out how to make them tight/good.

I can literally push down on the # 3 & 4 injectors and the miss goes away.

I'll be driving around and it just comes and goes randomly now like crazy.

Any ideas??

I don't want to put corrosive gel ....sorry, I mean dielectric gel on them because though I know that'll work for a week or two, it'll just turn green and never work again after that. That's how I tried fixing my old z's MAF sensor connection but it got so corroded from the gel that I had to cut off the connector and wire in a new one.........Don't want that problem again. And the connector is clean, it's just not working 100% of the time for some reason.

And to everyone else, wrong kind of clip, I know all about jesus clips and why they're called that, I had to replace that one on my Z's MAF and lost the one for my 240's coolant temp sensor a couple times, this is not one of those...

[neverlift]

this will sound hoodx rich but how about getting some of the small audio female connectors and try to tape around the female part so you dont get arc. Or get new clips.