4.3 Vortec Problems

[ollie]

Update on this project. Got all the parts needed for this finally on Thursday afternoon and took the truck over the next day for him to work on. Right off the bat I was pissed off when I opened the box of injectors and I found 5 good ones and a core from someone else engine in the box. Now I have to use one of my older ones since we have the intake off and the fuel meter body. 🤬 After it was put back together we bumped the key and gas shot out of there like a fountain! One of the injectors didn't get seated well enough so back to taking it apart again. After that issue was taken care of I took it for a spin. Ran great until I found a hill to climb. Started up the hill fine, but when I got it up over 55 it started to misfire again.  Turned around and drove back to the mechanics house. When he plugged in the code reader it came back as a misfire on cylinder 3 again. So here I went and spent a bunch of money on something that didn't need done. The problem is deeper into the block. Either a problem with the cylinder itself of the lower gasket could have a leak next to it that is taking in air. I'm done. Selling it whenever I get the chance. It's not worth sinking more money into it at this point. If it weren't my daily driver I might keep it and work on it when I had the chance, but I can't keep driving it this way. Then yesterday on the way home I heard a noise under the body like when you drive over a branch and it gets stuck. I pulled over and looked underneath and found the problem right away. A metal strap used on the gas tank for support rusted through and half of the strap was just hanging down dangling and hitting the tank. Enough of this pos 

[snagged in outlet 3]

Good try though.  I wish you could have worked it out.  

[aarchdale@coresleep.com]

I put injectors in mine yesterday and my starting issue is fixed. Thanks Mr. Giggles for the online diagnosis 

[Terrierman]

Ollie is a lot more patient than I am.  That thing would have been traded/sold a long time ago had it been mine.  Sorry it didn't have a happy ending, been an interesting saga to follow.

[fishinwrench]

2 hours ago, Terrierman said:

Ollie is a lot more patient than I am.  That thing would have been traded/sold a long time ago had it been mine.  Sorry it didn't have a happy ending, been an interesting saga to follow.

Yep, me too.   People often assume that I am just automatically a decent auto mechanic....but they are mistaken.   I absolutely hate working on cars/trucks, therefore I suck at it.

[MrGiggles]

On 5/3/2021 at 6:46 AM, ollie said:

Update on this project. Got all the parts needed for this finally on Thursday afternoon and took the truck over the next day for him to work on. Right off the bat I was pissed off when I opened the box of injectors and I found 5 good ones and a core from someone else engine in the box. Now I have to use one of my older ones since we have the intake off and the fuel meter body. 🤬 After it was put back together we bumped the key and gas shot out of there like a fountain! One of the injectors didn't get seated well enough so back to taking it apart again. After that issue was taken care of I took it for a spin. Ran great until I found a hill to climb. Started up the hill fine, but when I got it up over 55 it started to misfire again.  Turned around and drove back to the mechanics house. When he plugged in the code reader it came back as a misfire on cylinder 3 again. So here I went and spent a bunch of money on something that didn't need done. The problem is deeper into the block. Either a problem with the cylinder itself of the lower gasket could have a leak next to it that is taking in air. I'm done. Selling it whenever I get the chance. It's not worth sinking more money into it at this point. If it weren't my daily driver I might keep it and work on it when I had the chance, but I can't keep driving it this way. Then yesterday on the way home I heard a noise under the body like when you drive over a branch and it gets stuck. I pulled over and looked underneath and found the problem right away. A metal strap used on the gas tank for support rusted through and half of the strap was just hanging down dangling and hitting the tank. Enough of this pos 

Have you priced trucks lately? That tank strap is a $100 fix.

Running and cranking compression tests would tell you if the issue is mechanical. Mechanical failures also rarely come and go, although if a cylinder is marginally weak sometimes they will come to life with some RPM, but have a dead miss at idle and low speed.

A high speed, high load single cylinder miss pretty well fits the definition of an ignition failure. 

Even if you do plan to sell it, I would get it fixed, chances are pretty good that the repair bill will be less than what you will lose selling it broken.