Won't idle
08-25-2014, 09:20 AM
#1
Won't idle Brand spanking new LQ9 that's been sitting for 5-6 years. Not a rebuild, talking GM crate brand new motor.
Filled it with oil during my build. Then a few weeks later I primed it. Stupidly... I didn't think about the fact that while priming it, I was also overfilling it.
I fired it up for the first time ever on Sat. Takes about 5 seconds for oil pressure to build on the gauge and seems to be running great. All good. I let it run for about a minute and kill it to check for leaks or anything odd going on.
All looks good with exception of one minor oil cooler leak. I have a little mental celebration and get back to working on things. I wire up the fan and a couple other items and a few hours later decide I'm going to fire her up and let it come up to temp. I'm not sure what temp my fan is set to come on in the PCM so I'm firing it to see if it'll come on. Temps start going on... Eventually I start getting oil burning off the manifold and other spots on the engine. Temps still climbing, I've got fans in the garage clearing the air. After a bit my engine oil temp starts climbing. I start noticing a bit of smoke from the rear, figure no biggie, just oil residue probably burning off my engine cooler. I set fans appropriately. Still watching things that smoke is getting more and more... I don't have exhaust yet on it so I'm running stock manifolds to about 10" of tail pipe, 02 sensors, then another couple inches of pipe. I climb underneath and realize crap, all this smoke is coming out my exhaust, not from the cooler burning residue! At this point it's around 220 degrees water temp with sensor at the heads I shut her down as the fan never turned on. I'm pretty sure I've got it hooked up right per the wiring diagram for the harness I'm using so not sure what's up with the fan.
As I shut her off, it dawns on me, crap!!! I bet I've got WAY too much oil in it!!! So I check the stick and sure enough... CRAP!!! So I drain out a few quarts. I have a cooler at the back of the truck so to prime it took quite a bit. I refire, smoke is drastically subsided but now it won't idle. On the floor behind where the exhaust currently ends is a nice slick of oil from being sprayed out the exhaust. Still seems to run fine but won't idle. Before the idle actually seemed a bit low to me at like 650rpm, now nothing at all.
I'm curious if I wasted the O2 sensors with the amount of oil that's probably coated on them.
Thoughts on why it won't idle now?
I'm taking it in after work today to drop it off for the full exhaust system to be built which will be nice so I can actually hear the motor!
Filled it with oil during my build. Then a few weeks later I primed it. Stupidly... I didn't think about the fact that while priming it, I was also overfilling it.
I fired it up for the first time ever on Sat. Takes about 5 seconds for oil pressure to build on the gauge and seems to be running great. All good. I let it run for about a minute and kill it to check for leaks or anything odd going on.
All looks good with exception of one minor oil cooler leak. I have a little mental celebration and get back to working on things. I wire up the fan and a couple other items and a few hours later decide I'm going to fire her up and let it come up to temp. I'm not sure what temp my fan is set to come on in the PCM so I'm firing it to see if it'll come on. Temps start going on... Eventually I start getting oil burning off the manifold and other spots on the engine. Temps still climbing, I've got fans in the garage clearing the air. After a bit my engine oil temp starts climbing. I start noticing a bit of smoke from the rear, figure no biggie, just oil residue probably burning off my engine cooler. I set fans appropriately. Still watching things that smoke is getting more and more... I don't have exhaust yet on it so I'm running stock manifolds to about 10" of tail pipe, 02 sensors, then another couple inches of pipe. I climb underneath and realize crap, all this smoke is coming out my exhaust, not from the cooler burning residue! At this point it's around 220 degrees water temp with sensor at the heads I shut her down as the fan never turned on. I'm pretty sure I've got it hooked up right per the wiring diagram for the harness I'm using so not sure what's up with the fan.
As I shut her off, it dawns on me, crap!!! I bet I've got WAY too much oil in it!!! So I check the stick and sure enough... CRAP!!! So I drain out a few quarts. I have a cooler at the back of the truck so to prime it took quite a bit. I refire, smoke is drastically subsided but now it won't idle. On the floor behind where the exhaust currently ends is a nice slick of oil from being sprayed out the exhaust. Still seems to run fine but won't idle. Before the idle actually seemed a bit low to me at like 650rpm, now nothing at all.
I'm curious if I wasted the O2 sensors with the amount of oil that's probably coated on them.
Thoughts on why it won't idle now?
I'm taking it in after work today to drop it off for the full exhaust system to be built which will be nice so I can actually hear the motor!
08-25-2014, 10:21 PM
#3
You might have a coating on the valves, too. But def plugs. O2 sensors shouldnt cause such a severe idle issue by themselves. Did you have PCV hooked up and how? Might have just sucked all that into the intake. Stock LS with normal amount of oil still gunks up the intake quite a bit. Messy cleanup but no real damage per se. Hopefully.
08-26-2014, 12:55 AM
#4
Pretty sure whatever happened got a heck of a lot worse. Yesterday afternoon even without it idling I was able to pull it out, it drove fine. Pulled it on to my trailer and strapped it down. Hauled it to the exhaust shop. Unstrapped it. Fired it up and well, made one hell of a racket that I could hear over the straight pipe exhaust and then died. Hit the starter one more time and just clunked. Pulled the plugs and well... I can't turn the crank. I can rock it back and forth about one clicks worth of a ratchet if that makes sense and that's it. Solid other then that.
100% brand new motor that I'm pretty sure just got wasted. I'm 8 months into this build and pretty disgusted at this point. I'm not giving up but I think I'm going to change directions and give this a break a bit. I've gotta '67 mustang that needs a day or twos worth of interior love and it needs an afternoon of wrenching to be up and running. Lost the water pump on it this past sat... LOL rains it pours right? I also have an offroad race truck with an axle swap that I need to knock out and that's not going to cost me a dime. I'm just disgusted right now cause it was in motion to hit the first test session next weekend, now... I'm looking at possibly a new motor... Joy joy... Just take a month or two off from it as it's been 8 months straight. Refresh my system and come back to it. Ugh...
Yes it's a ford... But this is what I think I just toasted the BRAND NEW LQ9 in today... Has a very substantially build 4L80E behind it. Fully hydro converted, billet tail cone, billet torque conv, etc... currie rear, blah blah blah... It's literally been every spare moment since Dec and well, now it's on my trailer in my sideyard covered up mocking me when I was supposed to hit dirt next weekend for it's maiden run!
100% brand new motor that I'm pretty sure just got wasted. I'm 8 months into this build and pretty disgusted at this point. I'm not giving up but I think I'm going to change directions and give this a break a bit. I've gotta '67 mustang that needs a day or twos worth of interior love and it needs an afternoon of wrenching to be up and running. Lost the water pump on it this past sat... LOL rains it pours right? I also have an offroad race truck with an axle swap that I need to knock out and that's not going to cost me a dime. I'm just disgusted right now cause it was in motion to hit the first test session next weekend, now... I'm looking at possibly a new motor... Joy joy... Just take a month or two off from it as it's been 8 months straight. Refresh my system and come back to it. Ugh...
Yes it's a ford... But this is what I think I just toasted the BRAND NEW LQ9 in today... Has a very substantially build 4L80E behind it. Fully hydro converted, billet tail cone, billet torque conv, etc... currie rear, blah blah blah... It's literally been every spare moment since Dec and well, now it's on my trailer in my sideyard covered up mocking me when I was supposed to hit dirt next weekend for it's maiden run!
08-26-2014, 08:27 AM
#6
Wonder if maybe it hydro-locked with oil in the cyl? I've run too much oil before and never had physical damage.
Sounds like a break is in order. I'd be rolling mine off a cliff after all that so props on the restraint. Post back here when you get back to it and figure out what happened. I am certainly curious. I only seem to break things the tried and true way..the gas pedal.
Good luck to you.
Sounds like a break is in order. I'd be rolling mine off a cliff after all that so props on the restraint. Post back here when you get back to it and figure out what happened. I am certainly curious. I only seem to break things the tried and true way..the gas pedal.
Good luck to you.
08-26-2014, 10:06 AM
#7
Yeah, obviously been thinking about it pretty much non stop since yesterday afternoon. Gonna talk around a bit. Right now, the truck is going to sit for a few weeks/month or so probably. Going to take a break from it as the wind literally just got ripped out of my sails yesterday on it. The money aspect of it hurts/sucks but honestly that's not the big killer. It's the fact that literally this has been my dream truck since H/S for me and my to do list yesterday afternoon involved picking it up form the exhaust shop and then about 3 evenings worth of buttoning up last minute minor details and then one night of quadrouple checking suspension bolts and everything and then go hit some bumps with it. Now, ugh... Parked...
At this point, completely unknown as to wtf happened... I'm gonna talk around a bit. Do some reading, etc... I know too much oil can damage an engine and that's the pisser!!! I knew better then this but it just flat slipped my mind and that's eating at me even more! For all I know maybe the over filled oil situation wasn't behind this and it's just coincidence but it sure sucks knowing.
When I get torn back into it. Right now game plan is... Pull starter, turn by hand, assuming locked, drop oil pan to inspect bottom of pan and bottom of engine. Assuming nothing obvious there, pull valve covers, assuming nothing obvious pull heads. After that... Engine comes out and probably goes to local builder to determine what happened.
Really hoping that considering it was brand new. Low RPM failure, engine never went over about 2000-2200 rpm in the 10'ish minutes it ran. Hoping it's nothing insanely catastrophic. Hoping something that can be salvaged at least...
Just more disgusted... The money hurts and will be a bit of a set back but it's more just the let down of being so damn close to payoff finally on this thing. The end of the tunnel was insanely close and the light was almost blinding but now it's like the exit of the tunnel just caved in.
I'll definitely get some pictures and show my findings as I dive into this. Probably gonna be late Sept'ish at this point just out of frustration and spite! LOL But I will bump this thread down the road to show what happened.
At this point, completely unknown as to wtf happened... I'm gonna talk around a bit. Do some reading, etc... I know too much oil can damage an engine and that's the pisser!!! I knew better then this but it just flat slipped my mind and that's eating at me even more! For all I know maybe the over filled oil situation wasn't behind this and it's just coincidence but it sure sucks knowing.
When I get torn back into it. Right now game plan is... Pull starter, turn by hand, assuming locked, drop oil pan to inspect bottom of pan and bottom of engine. Assuming nothing obvious there, pull valve covers, assuming nothing obvious pull heads. After that... Engine comes out and probably goes to local builder to determine what happened.
Really hoping that considering it was brand new. Low RPM failure, engine never went over about 2000-2200 rpm in the 10'ish minutes it ran. Hoping it's nothing insanely catastrophic. Hoping something that can be salvaged at least...
Just more disgusted... The money hurts and will be a bit of a set back but it's more just the let down of being so damn close to payoff finally on this thing. The end of the tunnel was insanely close and the light was almost blinding but now it's like the exit of the tunnel just caved in.
I'll definitely get some pictures and show my findings as I dive into this. Probably gonna be late Sept'ish at this point just out of frustration and spite! LOL But I will bump this thread down the road to show what happened.