I feel like an ass!!!

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Joined
Oct 29, 2004
Threads
24
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Location
Salt Lake City, UT
:confused: A couple of hour ago I went to the self service car wash to clean the 80 off. I got a little carried away with cleaning the engine compartment with the sprayer (I know I'm a D.A.:doh: ) After the wash I started the motor and sure enough the idle was crappy. I let it run for 10 minutes and the idle got better. I drove for about a half hour and the idle got better but not back to normal. The problem is that no matter what speed I am at throttle cuts out at 2200rpms. I checked the air cleaner and it is completely dry. I just got home and I am going to check for moisture around the plugs wires and dist. I know the problem is related to the copious amount of water that I sprayed under the hood but I just don't know what I need to dry out so I can get every thing back to normal. Just before I got home the o/d off light started blinking but I am pretty sure that was caused by the motor cutting in and out. I have search the 80 section and I can't find enough usefull info to help get this fixed. I am going to pull try to pull some codes to see what the problem is. Hopefully I can get some quick feedback so that I can be driving again in the morning. Thanks in advance! Here's to drying out my motor!!!
 
I'll check it right now!
 
Jimbo,


Let it dry. Salt Lake is dry enough that tomorrow it should be OK. Probably your Check Engine light will come on. Reset it by pulling the EFI fuse and wait a few minutes to put it back in.
You can also reset it by disconnecting the one of the battery terminal for a few minutes. If it comes back on, then start looking for codes.

Regards

Alvaro
 
Try this:

I think I may know what the problem is! This exact thing happened to my brother's '94 LC after he washed the engine. First, of course, check to make sure there is no water around the spark plugs. (that wasn't it for me though) It's been awhile since I looked at his engine, but I found water inside one of the electrical plugs that is attached to the intake. once this was blown out, all was good. If you are standing in front of the car, the plug is facing left (meaning if you pull on it to disconnect it, it would pull apart towards the passenger side), attached to the throttle body, and it is not straight up-and-down, but turned at an angle. I believe it was gray in color, but I can't be sure. There was just a little bit of water in there, and my guess is that it was creating a connection between two or three of the prongs in there.....good luck, I hope this helps! If you need a better description, let me know......

Chris

Thi was my reply to a different post.........I'm not sure how to link it, but the title was: Engine cutting out and was posted by Newps. This post had a bunch of suggestions that you may want to review...........
 
I just want to say that you guys rock. Not only do you rock but you ROCK HARD! I want to give serious thanks to CJF. Problem solved!!! Mui bueno! Thanks to Alvaro for the speedy feed back. And thanks to my compressor for supplying to air to dry out the TPS connection. Thanks for not flaming me but some one can if it makes them feel better. I am sure that there have been plenty of 80 owners have done water crossings snorkels blah blah blah. But what can you do for your connections in wet conditions to keep this type of thing from happening. ( Other than not spay your connections with alot of water at the car wash ) The only thing that I can think of is a little dielectric grease but would that screw things up too? I have siliconed my dist. cap on my 40 but what have people done for 80's?
 
CS888 said:
If you are standing in front of the car, the plug is facing left (meaning if you pull on it to disconnect it, it would pull apart towards the passenger side), attached to the throttle body, and it is not straight up-and-down, but turned at an angle.

You're describing (rather well, actually) the TPS connector. ;)

Cheers all,

Curtis

Edit: Credit where it's due. Chris, this is the thread you were referring to, and it's exactly the one I had in mind when I posted up:

https://forum.ih8mud.com/showthread.php?t=46955

Once again, nice catch.
 
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That and anything else that vulnerable to moisture!
 
I know this particular tip is for points distributors but I'll post it in this thread as it is sort of related.

After dewatering hundreds of motors that have been drowned I've found that WD spray causes more harm than good. If sprayed around the points under the cap it will cause the points to burn out in a very sort space of time causing more dramas. If you use compressed air or a dry rag to dry out the dizzy you won't cause any damage and in most cases it will work better than a quick WD spray. If you need to get out of a boghole or similar quickly WD can help but just be prepared to replace the points straight away. The same warning applies to those people who regularly spray WD spray under their caps as a precautionary measure.

I know 80s don't have points but it might be handy if you're like me, everybody expects you to fix there cars too when they don't know how.

:cheers:Mick
 
I'm guessing plug wires at the distributor. Had the same thing happen to me.

Same idling issue and the like. I removed the plug wires from the dizzy used pressurized air and let them dry. Ran fine after that.

I also pulled the code, if I remember it said misfire with one of my plugs or something like that.

It'll be fine in no time.
 
It's fixxed
 
How bout the water crosing question?
 
Rusty,

For water crossings in Venezuela with the 1FZE engine, I've seen people run a 1/8" air line from the cab to the distributor. Then another line from the distributor to the air cleaner hose. The air cleaner hose goes from the air filter to the intake manifold. They also seal up the distributor cap really well with silicone. There are some holes below it that need to be plugged. As well.

When the engine is running it creates a vacum that pulls air from the cabin, through the distributor. As long as the cabin is dry, the distributor will be dry too.

The more serious crowd will put a small compressor that can deliver about 20 psi inside the cabin. They will turn it on when they are going to go through deep water. This way the distributor will always have positive pressure.

Regards

Alvaro
 
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Alvaro,
That is some serious water crossing prep.
Thanks for posting it.
 
i had a very similar problem happen after i got carried away with the hose. Turned out that a little water got down around the plug wire causing a misfire, or nofire in one of the plugs. Pulled all the wires and shot some air down to dry it out, pulled battery cable to reset CEL and all was good.
 
Rusty79,
Sorry to hijack.
I have the creepy feeling I should give my electrical connectors some attention.
Dialectic grease day coming soon.

Alvaro,
that video is good stuff. LMAO
 
concretejungle said:
i had a very similar problem happen after i got carried away with the hose. Turned out that a little water got down around the plug wire causing a misfire, or nofire in one of the plugs. Pulled all the wires and shot some air down to dry it out, pulled battery cable to reset CEL and all was good.
Exact same thing happened to me.
 
1FZ distributors get wet fairly easily as well. Pop the cap and dry it out inside.
 

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