gogmorgo

Dizzy = distributor. You did put a gasket in there, right? Any vacuum leak at all can increase idle speed. The vacuum is created by air sucked out of the intake manifold by the engine. Vacuum leaks will then suck air into the engine, which has a similar effect to dilling a hole through the throttle plate. The higher the idle, the bigger the leak. Like I said, plug off any missing hoses. If the idle goes down, that's your problem. That Chevy van I mentioned didn't have a tach, but my ear told me it was likely idling at around 2000rpm. And that was just one hose missing. Another point, you made sure the throttle plate was closing properly, right? Vacuum leaks aren't the only thing that could cause high idle. While I have limited experience with vacuum-riddled GM engines, I've got no experience whatsoever with the 2.8, though, so I can't really help you much beyond that.

Dizzy's can leak pretty good, especially if the gasket was degraded and/or stuck to either the distributor or block, and then timing was adjusted, it can just chew it apart. Or it isn't clamped down tightly. High idle speeds usually are triggered by a vacuum leak. Really high idle speeds can be caused by a missing hose. Make sure every port on the carb that you're not still using is plugged. And there are vacuum ports everywhere. I once sealed off the intake of a Chevy 305 and just one hose missing from the carb was enough air getting in to keep it running. The previous owner had removed the emissions stuff and most of the vacuum stuff simply by going "snip snip snip" in the name of making more power. Can't say it did anything for power, but the van the 305 was in got 9mpg on a good day of highway cruising...

You may find you want to look at that sooner than later. Alternating hazard lights are no longer hazard lights, they're now emergency vehicle lights, depending on jurisdiction. You could end up with a fine. Also, if it's a short you could fry other components without having the 4-ways on, or even set your truck on fire. Check the wiring. If you connected a couple wires together you shouldn't have, or didn't connect a couple you should have, it could do this. Also check the grounds. Had the alternating hazards thing happen to me a few years ago when putting together a trailer plug adapter, going from 7-pin to 4-pin. It was a few years ago, and there was enough going on that night (as is the case when a tow vehicle craps out in the middle of nowhere at 1 am) that my memory as to what was wrong is too foggy. Could also be a bad flasher, but probably not, given you said you swapped them (assuming for new ones, although new parts have been known to be bad) and it happened when you redid the wiring. If you did replace both flashers, swap them around and see what happens. If no change it's wiring issues.

A song I've listened to far too often in the last few weeks:

Yeah, I'm also on board with the Perkins, out of a Mazda B2200. If that's not it, I'd bet a handful of air that it's Japanese. All the Jap trucks had diesel options. I suppose it could also be a BMW or something French, to cover the whole spectrum. All I know is it's not a VW since to my knowledge they never had a rear-drive, front-engined diesel.

I figured that would be the same as jusmping the relay, since no engine=no vacuum. It was at 39psi, so I'm going to call that good. Looks like everything else checks out. Didn't have a partner and the gauge didn't reach far enough for it to be visible when I bumped the key on, which is why I jumped the relay. I've got a final exam in 10 minutes, though, so it'll be a while before I can do anything.

So you think my fuel pressure's fine, then?

So, a bit of an update. Haven't moved the dizzy shaft in either direction after putting the cap on properly. Code 54 hasn't come back, but 12 is still there, and it hasn't been 50 miles yet. Maybe 20 at the most. The idle seems to be improving, although I'm concerned about it being a little too advanced. It's not pinging, but it seems like it's just on the edge. Sounds like it's getting better though, as the computer "relearns the inputs" or whatever it's doing. But it's still stalling out, just not as often or as bad. I checked the fuel pressure. 39psi at key-on or if I jumped the relay, and it was just over 29 at idle. It dropped to around 26 for a fraction of a second if I revved it quickly, then hopped up to 32, but it didn't stumble at all (while it was in park). Gradual revving gave a downward twitch of the needle, then it climbed to 32. At idle it always returned to 29. Pressure 15 mins after I shut it off was down to zero. I'm thinking those numbers are a bit low, though, so I swapped out the fuel filter, and dumped about eight ounces of mud out of it. Well, dirty gas, it wasn't thick, but it had the colour of chocolate syrup, and even drained the old filter weighed three times what the new one did. That can't have helped anything... Post filter, I get almost 30psi at idle, key-on is still around 39, still drops to 27ish before going to 33ish if I rev it hard. Didn't bother to do a leak-down test. It still tried to die on me once after that. It didn't die when I tried climbing a curb in low-range, like it would before, though. So now what? I'm thinking of running a bottle of injector cleaner through it with the next tank of gas, as I don't imagine that filter was doing much filtering any more, but should I be looking at my fuel pump? I've read that a leaky tank can cause low fuel pressure, and I know fuel seeps out of my tank, as there's always a wet spot on the side of it. It'll form a puddle on a cool sealed surface if I let it sit with a full tank. Should I even bother doing anything before I get a new tank? And should I leave the distributor alone?

Can't say for certain since it was removed before I got my MJ, but it looks like it was sitting on the transmission hump between my buckets. There's still a clip for the mic on the back of the shifter console, and an antenna cable with very limited reach that comes up through a hole under the driver's seat, as well as an antenna mount on the back of the cab, at the other end of the cable.

Even in GM circles, no one really cares much for them. For pretty much the above reasons. Usually you hear about poor oil circulation due to tiny and/or plugged pickups, and gasket (all of them) failures. They also don't respond very well to neglect. Mostly, though, it made all the power of a 4cyl with the fuel economy of a V8. :doh: That said, the 2.8 went into just about everything GM built in some configuration or other, and sold it to a couple other manufactures, so there's a colossal number of them out there. Even if a relatively small percentage of them had issues, that number got blown out of proportion. There's a bunch of them that had issues, but there's still a pile of them out there doing pretty darn good with high mileage. As with all things, people make the most noise when they're complaining, and no one complains when things work. There's no reason to be scared of them because they're unreliable. By no means are they ticking time bombs. They'll do pretty well if you keep up with regular maintenance. Just be something less than surprised if something does go wrong My Dad's Impala with the 3.4 (based on the 2.8, and you hear lots of complaints identical to 2.8 complaints) was an ex-rental. He had no engine problems whatsoever, ran the cheapest oil and gas, didn't always keep up with oil change or other maintenance intervals, and it was still running like the day he bought it when my sister wrote it off early this year with 240,000 miles on the clock.

My experience with it on a '91 is that I don't think it does much more than remap shift points to keep you in lower gears for longer. Might also do something with the torque converter lockup point too, but the shift points are most noticeable. It also seems to contribute to smoky tire launches, although I'm not really sure how, as the launch shouldn't really be affected by shift points. There is a definite difference between power and comfort though. Don't ever go from comfort to power while accelerating hard around a corner, especially when you're going up a hill. The PO did that to me when I was test driving it. Broke traction on a damp on-ramp at around 45mph. I threw out the seat covers after I got it home. His was a little wet. I really don't think he enjoyed the sideways ride. :brows: Mostly I drive with it in "comfort" because the owner's manual claims that it's better for fuel economy. I used the power switch when cruising through deeper snow in 4x4 and when I want to accelerate really hard. TBH though, I haven't hit it for a few months.

Pretty expensive, yeah. I'm curious as to how well it holds up to wear, though. My guess is it wouldn't take too much grit from the road or sand or whatever to scratch it off, and it wouldn't hold up too well as an undercoating. But you never know. Cool stuff, though.

Yeah, maybe... could be a while, though. I just did pads and rotors a month ago.

Better than pics, recovery vids!

All I'm saying is don't blame the engineer. What you're failing to see is that the engineers have other priorities than making sure things are easy to work on, most of which are thrust upon them by people who aren't engineers, and typically have never turned a wrench in their lives. That rant that made you cringe? Maybe it should have. It was mostly provoked by the statement that an engineering education is inadequate. Which it most definitely is not. That statement made me angry. And it was late at night, So you got a rant. Are there engineers out there with no common sense? I don't doubt it. There is a not insignificant number of people out there pretty much forcing their children to become engineers because they want them to have a high-paying, secure job. My experience with students from that sort of background either do really well academically and don't ever get much hands-on experience, since their parents wouldn't let them do that sort of thing since they should be studying, or else they don't really give a crap about anything because daddy's paying for it and will get you a decent job anyway. The former isn't so bad, provided the person actually wants to become an engineer, but the latter is. It's part of the reason I switched universities. I was just sick of dealing with people like that. There's really no way to filter these people out of the loop if they can still pull average marks. All I can say about that is that the manufacturers should be more careful as to who they hire. But you can't exactly call out an entire profession base on a few lousy practitioners. They make up a very slim minority of the population. Most of the engineering students here come from agricultural or other blue-collar families, and are people who've grown up maintaining equipment or building stuff. Those who make it all the way to convocation will be good engineers. Those who come from white-collar families will typically end up in management. You guys complain about engineers, engineers complain about management. So again, what I'm saying is that the engineers aren't the problem. I'm not denying that there is a problem, by any means, but complaining about engineers is not going to solve it, even if they are part of the problem. If it's that big a deal for you, maybe you should organize some like-minded people and go to the manufacturer(s) to complain instead of just sitting behind your computer and abasing my chosen profession. Unless something obscene gets said, I promise you this will be my last post on the subject. Exam stress seems to be getting to me, but it's no excuse. I'll also apologize to Jim for what I realize pretty well ruined his thread. I'll also leave with this thought: It used to be that when your TV broke, you took it down to the repairman. Now you just throw it away and get a new one. That's the society we're living in.

Won't bother. Looked them up, and the one about the rotors is due to composite rotors that can rust and then have the rotor come off the hub, "reducing the braking effectiveness of the vehicle" and the other is a blocker plate because I might break the fuel rail if I run into something and shove the upper rad support into it. Not really worth my time right now. Really don't need a dealer seeing my engine bay...

Cool, thanks! Doesn't look like it's made it too far... maybe 150 miles from where it was sold. Until now. Although with 300k miles, you really don't know. Except that it's got new brake rotors put on by me, I wonder what would happen if I showed up at a dealer asking for them recalls? haha.

Depends on what you mean by balance. The longer crankshafts of inline sixes and up flex with each combustion stroke, enough to throw off the balance of the engine setup (i.e. pistons moving in pairs). At the right (er, wrong) rpm, the torsional vibration can resonate and stress the crankshaft enough that it fails. But your engine is not likely to stay at that precise rpm long enough for anything to happen to it, and I shouldn't be arguing after midnight...

My Canadian MJ has no record in their national database. I'm thinking that's a good thing.

Oh, yeah, that's mine. I just pulled that off a sticky note I've had on my desk for quite some time. Looks like I copied it down wrong from my registry entry where it's all in lower case. It's an L everywhere else. Sorry bout that. Corrected the sticky note, too!

The power numbers of the best of the 4.3's are similar to a 4.0 HO, and are likely just as reliable. Go to any utility company still running Astro vans (out of production for and they'll tell you what's up. As has been mentioned, it's pretty well just a 350 without two of the cylinders. It'll have no issues going into the engine bay so long as you've got bolting it up covered, which shouldn't be much of an issue due to sbc swaps being as common as dirt. If you can get one out of a half-ton or full-size van, it'll be a tad stronger. For some reason the '02-03 full-size engines had higher output, but after '03 the numbers go back down again. Might want to find out why. In terms of cool factor, sbc swaps may have been cool 20 years ago, but now they're overplayed. No matter what mass-produced vehicle you're looking at I'm sure someone's swapped a 350 into one of them. Personally, I think the 4.3 would be much more cool. Also, inline engines don't naturally balance. 90° V8's barely do. I6's can be made to balance by mirroring the cylinders, which puts a lot of stress on the crank. I4's don't even come close to balancing, so they need to use a balancing shaft, as do V6's. It might sap a little power, but it's more reliable.

Care to enlighten us?

Since this is what's going on and Chrysler only sent me a build sheet when I contacted them, would it be too much work to run my vin as well? 1J7FJ36S3M1570755. Fair warning, it's a Canadian truck, don't know if that makes a difference. It is a '91. I don't need the build sheet, if that makes your job any easier. I'd just like a little more history than Chrysler gave me. I don't even know the build date, since it's worn off the door sticker.

Edit:: Add's down. My Dad asked me to sweet talk my Mom into letting him get it, but I don't know what's happening there. Haven't spoken to either of them for a few days. Original post: http://saskatoon.kijiji.ca/c-ViewAd?AdId=475296492 Regina's about 100 miles north of where the ND and MT state line meets the US-Can border. Looks to be pretty optioned up and in decent shape for the $1500 he's asking. 169,000 km ≈ 105,000 miles.

The worn out ripped bucket in my MJ is the most comfortable vehicle seat I've ever sat in, period. If only it wasn't vinyl. I need to find a seat cover before symmer or I'll start sticking to it. That's incidentally why I don't like leather seats, ether. You stick to them in the heat, and they're ridiculously cold in the winter.