Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications 3.0L Duratec 3L troubles

I'm thinking maybe it's an injector problem. Check the 3 plugs on the pass side that are notorious for not being clipped all the way. Could have vibrated loose at 6900 rpms. Then check the spark plugs to see if any are soaked in gas. Could also be the injector harness that has plauged a couple of other members. I guess we will have to assume it's mechanical because you don't have the file. Do you have a different program you can load for an experiment?

I changed all six plugs and definately made sure the wires were clipped. No change. None of the plugs look out of the ordinary. Not excessive rich or lean. He said when it happened, the AFR was 12.6:1.

I've given them a call to try and lay my hands on the file (they don't normally give them out but because of who my g/f is they would "see what we can do") but he said to call back on Monday.

oh man, when i read it was brad, the first thing to pop into my head was Dyno Daves. Dave and Brad are both shady guys. Because I have the svt white face dummy gauges, my CEL location on the dash is now the "overdrive off" light. Well, when I went to pick up my car after being tuned, I noticed I had a cel and i asked Brad while he was sitting in the car, what my check engine light was. He said there wasnt one. I explained that my OD light situation and he still proceeded to tell me I didnt have a cel. Of course, that same night, Dave and Brad packed up their shop and left, only for me to find out the car ran like absolute crap. And when we called Dave after the test drive, he cussed out my brother telling us it was our fault and that were f'in pee brains that dont know how a car works. Oh well, Dave didnt have a mechanics license so the state came down on him and I heard they were closing down his shop. Serves him right.

Bottom line...call Jerry.

Call SCT....4077742447.

Do you have the pro-racer package or are you flashing an xcal or what?

Take a flashlight and take a good look at the harmonic balancer while it is idling. make sure it hasn't spun out. If it has spun out it will be wobbly looking and will result in a lot of the symptoms you describe though it won't really hurt power too much.
If you aren't getting any ticking noise then I doubt your valves and pistons hit.

The reason I tell you this is because I once spun out my balancer shifting from 4th to 5th. Problem was I shifted from 4th to 3rd by accident and when I let out the clutch the engine overrevved. When I came back to idle it had a bad lope like a misfire. I played with it for like two days, just idling it, checked the plugs and wires, all those things. THe car was really new, only about 18K miles on it. I really thought I bent a valve from the overspeed and figured I'd had valve float and that one or more valves kissed a piston.
Well, I was standing over it at the end of day two and happened to be looking down and saw the crank pulley wobbling pretty good. I got a flashlight and saw that the outer ring had some significant runout. So I took it to the dealer and told them what I observed and how the car was running.
They changed out the damper and the car was fine.

So your theory that he hit the fuel limiter is a good one, especially at 6950 as it is hard to get all the limiters removed on some of the codes. Anyway, if he hit the limiter hard then the engine would have slowed down rapidly, especially if he didn't push in on the clutch when it happened. All that mass on the belt system from the peripheral components could have just kept on going and spun the balancer.

WOW, I didn't think there was THAT much inertia there with the alt, ps and ac comp to cause the pulley to spin out even if the crank was rapidly retarded. Learn something every day I guess.

I hope I don't have to spring for another DMD as I don't want to go back to stock pulley. Filled front and rear roll restricters from Pole introduced about all the NVH I want I think. If I have to I will I guess tho.

DMD vs. Stock, Why not? I've tried both and I honestly don't feel much of a difference with the stock pulley so I went with it. Less mass on that outer ring too. If everything else strikes out, change out your damper to stock to test it. A higher inertia damping ring is more likely to cause an issue than the normal one.

Well check it out so you can eliminate it from your list of possibilities. It is just a shot and you can hope it is the damper before you go hoping it is something else because anything else is likely to be more serious outside of the ignition system.
After the ignition system I'd check with things that are supposed to be balanced, like the clutch and pressure plate assembly too. The clutch can throw a spring and cause a balance issue.
The rpm limit on our cars isn't there for the engines's sake. We already know that this engine car purr along at 7200-7400 without any issues with the stock parts. The clutch assembly and transmission input shaft.....now that's the stuff we don't know. Many times engines are electronically limited to protect the transmission from damage. A recent example is the Mazda RX8 automatic. THey cut off a thousand rpm from the MTX rpm range when using the auto. THat thing redlines at like 9K rpm and the atx is like 7K or 8K rpm. Looses like 30 hp because of it too.
Most people knocking out higher rpms are not running stock hardware but you should ask around.

Ok. I just had two of probably the best mechanics I know looking at it.

Through the process of progressed elimination, we've now got it diagnosed down to the primary intake valve on #3 cylinder. Not sure if it's bent, or maybe a broken valve spring but that's def the problem. So it's nothing Livernois Motorsports did.

Looks like the motor comes back out tomorrow and start ordering a full gasket set. Wee ha! Not bad though, at least I got about an hour on the motor.

When I get it out, one of the guys offered to do a bit more P&P on the heads and relieve the pistons a bit more JIK.