Tomorrow the truck goes back to the mechanics. Keep in mind, this is a different mechanic that the one who put the headers in. They will reassess the truck. They also will be fixing the problem on their tab since they charged me for an illadvised quote. Also, if anybody wants to answer me question and not ridicule my termanology, can anybody please explain where air in the coolant system or low coolant may have come from during a header job? Also, what kind of damage can be done with air in the coolant etc. etc. etc.Thank You.

 

Uhh, so whats wrong with your truck again

 

Ok, I'll bring it up to full update mode. 2 weeks ago, got the truck back with the headers. Everything seemed to be fine. The next day I started it up and took it out on the rode. Then suddenly it shut off in the middle of the road and the wheel locked. So I started it back up and revved it up high, and then it pulled itself out of it. So I just kind of ignored it. Then 2 days later, the truck started ideling rough in the morning. It would drop down to like 200 rpms, and then shoot back up to 700 rpms. So that was a little sketchy. Then it would continue to shut off on me everytime I'df first get on the road, but it would always pull itself out of it after it would warm up more. Then I brought the truck back to the mechanic a full week later after the header job. I had him reposition the cat after the y-pipe. When I picked the truck up, the truck seemed to be running fine again. Then about 2 days after I picked it up, the truck started ideling rough again, really *******, but then it'd pull itself out of it like usual. Then about 3 days ago, I started it up and took it out onto the street. It started to die on me again, so I pulled off the side of the road. This time though, it wouldn't snap out of it. I'd try to get it on the road but it was just popping everywhere, and the truck would jump from 1500 rpms down to 500 rpms etc. etc. Today I tried to take it back out onto the street and it was just barely moving, so I pulled off the side of the road and had it towed to my nearest mechanic. I told him it had been running rough since the headers. They called me back and said it needed a complete tune-up. I questioned that. I told him that seemed a little odd because the truck never ran like this before, I'm pretty sure a truck wouldnt just start running like **** because it needed a tuneup that bad. But they were confident, and so I said OK. Well, I left the mechanics and within 5 minutes it started ideling really low, the lights on the gauge cluster began dimming badly, and the truck would just really start stuttering and I barely made it home. I know it has to be a senser, as we discussed before. I did disconnect the IAT( Forgive me if I misspelled it)...and I manually adjusted the ideler with the torx, and it still dogged on me. Any ideas guys?

 

Too much air out not enough in, try driving without the air cleaner for a few miles and see what that does

Thats all i can think of.............

But then again im considered a dumb*ss sometimes

 

Low coolant from a header job...if the heads are similar to the old 360s, your end studs (and I believe they are studs) go into the water jacket in the head. So if the studs needed to be removed to install your headers...you'll lose coolant. Some installers put a touch of silicone on the replacement bolts to make sure theyseal.
Air in the coolant creates hot spots...however it should all bleed out over time. Some folks suggest parking on a hill nose up with the cap off and letting the motor run for a bit. This supposedly runs all the air into the radiator where it will bleed off through the filler. Sounds a bit far fetched to me, but folks swear by it. It really should bleed off naturally from driving it.

 

Start with the simple stuff ... batt terminal clean ? , the battery mite be going bad , alt , there a ground wire missing or not grounded.. sounds more like something is getting shorted out and throws the truck into fits....

 

That is good news in that case though. I'm just confused what would case this truck to run like this after the header job? I'm also confused why the truck ran great at first, and slowly over time just got worse and worse. What could have possibly happened during that job that would do this. If it's a sensor, why would it suddenly go after the headers were put in? It seems all odd. And it's not because the truck is loosing too much air, I mean the truck responded overall well to the headers, I even did those 0-60 videos the first couple nights I had the truck, and it seemed fine. Could it be the 02 sensor? The cat is gutted and the cat has been moved a couple of times now. It has to be some kind of sensor messing with the engine. The truck idels OK, but once you start hitting the gas, thats when it starts freaking out and just like pumping sporadically.

 

Hmm...that sounds good too. Because the truck will all really dim when it starts to shut off. If the alternator was bad though, would it affect start-ups? The truck always starts right up like it did before. But once it starts ideling 5 minutes or so, then it starts to stumble a little bit. Then once you apply gas to the truck when its in drive, it just keeps hopping and hesitating. It will start to move, and then the power is suddenly sucked away, causing the truck to just pulsate. If you were driving behind me it would look like I was hitting the brakes and hitting the gas over and over again, it will move then stop, move a little bit, and then cut out power.

 

burnt spark plug wire , timing chain jump a gear , while welding on the exhaust didnt ground it and sent a charge to the PCM .. with the antifreeze: crack head ,blown head gasket (leak down test) broke a spring , broke an rocker arm ... hope your oil does not look like coco....

 

Diagnosing over the internet is dicey at best...and I read your last post several times before posting this. I'm abit confused as to why you disconnected the IAT. You should have gotten a CEL if you removed the harness, and you robbed the computer of a vital sensor.

I hope I'm not being redundant here, since I didn't read the original posting that was locked. Since you suspect it's a sensor, and before you throw anymore money into the truck, I would have your mechanic carefully run voltage tests and current testson your O2 sensors and IAT. Since you stated that the truck runs better when warmed up, that tells me that the PCM is in open loop. I'm hesitant to say it's a sensor, because the PCM doesn't "use" them in open loop. I intentionally oversimplified this, because the O2 sensors preheat themselves.

I would also check for any melted wires or vacumn tube from the engine area that might have contacted a hot exhaust or may have been crimped or cracked during installation. Or they were replaced in the wong ports.This could cause an issue when the engine is cold.There's an amazing amount of that stuff back there, especially on a 4x4, because of the CAD unit on your front axle.
I would check the battery too, but you say the engine restarts...well it might but Battery performance is crucial in a PCM equipped motor, and it must be fully charged. Ditto on the ground wires!


EDIT: I just read where you gutted your cat. Should only be one on a 2000 and up? That really messes with the O2 readings. But again shouldn't matter when the engine is cold, unless the sensors were miswired. When the PCM transitions fromopen to closed loop everything should be heated to the proper temp and and ready to go.