The situation:
I've installed a set of stainless E-bay LT headers onto my 2000 Trans Am WS6 M6. I may have cracked some of the spark plugs installing the headers or they may have already been cracked. So after installing the headers I swaped out ALL the plugs (NGK TR6 for nitrous) and installed another set (NGK TR55 for n/a) seeing as I didn't have enough spare TR6 plugs to replace the ones I damaged. The car started fine with no o2 sensors and no EGR or AIR hooked up to the exhaust. The EGR was still connected to the intake manifold to plug the hole. It ran rough and smelled of fuel but it eventually found its idle.

I don't believe this is a cause of the problem but I switched the pins in the PCM for the front o2 sensors and the rear o2 sensors so as to make the conections for the rear o2 sensors send to the input for the front o2 sensors on the PCM. Thereby eliminating the need for o2 extentions.

The Problem:
Today I connected the o2 sensors and tried to started the car after having it on the battery charger for a fiew hours this morning (the car had been sitting a while). It started up as per usual but couldn't find the idle. It would choke right down to 200rpm and nearly stall creep up to 1000rpm and stay there for a bit then shoot to 3000rpm before dropping down to 200rpm and repeating the cycle. It was running rough and coughing and choking the whole time. So I open the hood thinking that my EGR wasn't plugging the hole in the intake manifold properly and notice one of the spark plug wires is disconected. So I reconect it and try to start the car, it cranks a bunch but dosn't start.

I tried disconecting the o2 sensors, car still wont start, just cranks.

I'm definitely getting fuel, I can hear the pump prime when I turn on the ignition and I can smell the fuel after trying to start it a fiew times.

I removed a plug from either side of the engine and they look quite dark and smell of fuel. I plug one of the plugs I removed into a sparkplug wire connected to one of the coil packs and ground the plug (once on the chasis, headers and block each) and have my sister try to start the car. No spark. I tried the same thing on another coil with a new plug, no spark.

I have no check engine light or SES light on the dash. The red security light on the dash goes out with the key in the ignition. I have used search, found some topics on the issue but none of them solved my problem. Can anyone help???

Thanks

 

Would you mind elaborating a little more on this part?

 

First is you car turning over or not? Second off are all you wires hooked up properly? Third make sure you battery is connected.

 

I am with this guy???????????????? You may have shorted out your whole ignition system or popped a fuse somewhere.

 

yes it's turning over, everything is hooked up.

I'll explain the pin swap in more detail later today, however it isn't likely to be the cause of the problem.

 

You swapped pins in the PCM connector(s) to achieve this:
- harness rear O2 wires connected to PCM front O2 pins.
- plug the front O2's into the harness rear O2 connectors.
- eliminate the PCM rear O2 pins all together.

Did you double check that you got the correct pins and correct polarity...?

 

Swapping pins was a mistake and waste of time. The car should have still cranked up just fine after the work you did.

 

reverse what you did and the car should be ok

 

Check and see if the crank sensor wiring got brunt by the headers. If you don't get a crank postion reading to PCM the car will not fire. The sensor is on the pass side above the starter

 

This is correct. I did indeed double check, I only swapped one pair at a time.

I will undo the pin swap (only 5 min work) and try again.

I will also check the crank position sensor and its wires. I did not remove/move the starter when I installed the headers so I doubt I physically damaged the sensor, however I did not think to check the wires for heat damage so I will do that also.

 

I checked the pins I had swapped before I put them back to factory. They where in the correct spots. Now they are in the factory spots again. No start, just cranks over same as before.

I checked the crankshaft position sensor and it's wires. I did not remove the starter for my header install and there is NO WAY I could have possibly hit it installing or removing the headers. I also checked the coolant sensor on the drivers side cylinder head, it and it's wiring appear fine.

I went through all of the wiring near the headers and anything else visible, nothing broken or damaged.

pin 4 on C2 (red) seems damaged, however it is the AIR solenoid relay control. The AIR system is tuned out and disabled on my car seeing as it never worked when I bought the car. A mechanic I took it to after it had failed to pass emissions (just a plug in test here in BC) told me I had a bad ground in the PCM for the AIR system. I assume this damaged pin on the harnes is what he was talking about.

I should also mention that I went through all the fuses in both fuse boxes and the one in the car and found nothing was blown.

Geez this sucks... any more ideas?

 

Just swapped my ignition relay with my #2 fan relay (same relay) out of desperation and maybe a bit of hope (thanks Obama lol). It fired right up. YEAAAAH!!!

Time to swap the pins back and make sure the o2s are all good!

 

Put the PCM pins back to my reversed (swapped) setup, fired the car up again the car found an idle, didn't smell of fuel but the idle was quite high (near 2000rpm) then I found the air leak by the EGR.

Time for !EGR and some block off plates. Atleast it runs and all is well in the world.

 

Wow, ignition relay was jealous of your header install... glad you found it...