Hello to all the dodge fans out there, I have a question and hope one of you can shed a little light on the subject. Back in jan 07 I purchased a used 04 srt 10 with 28k miles, the vehicle looked awesome and ran great. It's funny how the warranty expires problems begin to happen, it started with the pcm wire harness came into contact with the exhaust mannifold heat shield which melted through the insulation and into some wires shorting out and frying the pcm and one of the coil packs. Since I was deployed a relative who was driving the vehicle did the diagnosis and after exposing the melted wires from the harness took it to the nearest dodge dealer, who in turn saw the wire harness and said that it was no factory defect that caused it but instead the customer tampering with the harness, thus they would not warranty it.
After that my relative ended up repairing the 3 wires that had shorted out on the exhaust, replaced the coil pack and I got back from deployment just in time to buy a new pcm, and after replacing the module and having it reprogrammed I found out it is running rough and has no power whatsoever. After driving the vehicle I discovered the rough idle, lack of power, strong smell of fuel and a hissing sound coming from the right side of the engine, which to me would indicate maybe a plugged catalytic converter which would account for the loss of power and the hissing sound coming from the engine after shutdown indicating a pressure buildup in the exhaust. I cant think of much else this could be, I hope someone can give me a little insight on this problem.

thanx

 

Plugged CAT would toss a code. Not saying that is not it, but lets concentrate on what was broke and possibly still broke.

Pull the plugs and check them to see if any on that side are wet. Possibly the new coil is not firing to all cylinders.

The other issue could be the wires that were repaired on the PCM. Many of those wires run to the injectors and control when to fire the fuel. If crossed during repair or not working that would really mess up the engine.

I would recommend getting an entire new harness. It is hard to say what the previous owner did to get the wires that close to the manifold, they are not that close to begin with. My gut guess, it had a VEC II or III hooked to it and pulled it out.

 

Thanx 94rt10ohio,
I checked the pugs and they did look fouled, and the gap was off by .015. In the case that the coil not firing to all cylinders, wouldnt that also throw a code? I dont believe the wires in the harness would have been crossed, they where repaired by a reliable shop. Can you explain the hissing sound coming from the right side of the engine after shutoff?

 

I originally had replaced the plugs and after driving it I found that the plugs for cylinders 2,3,5,7 and 10 where gummed up and had a strong smell of gasoline while the others where a normal black/ ash color. Which coil controls those plugs. I appreciate your help 94rt10ohio.

 

This pic should help you determine which coil is controlling which plugs.

 

Thanks 94rt10ohio,
Since I have multiple cylinders misfiring and contolled from 2 different coils would that indicate that I have problems with both ignition coils?

 

I'm starting to look at that wire harness to be the problem like you noted before, do you recommend any way to check those coils without an oscilloscope?

 

Some part stores will test them for free, bad part is you have to take them out, which means intake comes off.

 

Looks like im gonna have to remove the plenum either way, to get to the wireharness or coils.

 

I removed the plenum tis weekend which was fairly simple as long as you have the right tools,(by the way thanks for the firing order schematic) and I completely removed the toruble harness and opened it up, trace the coil wires from the point where they connect to the coils and where they plug into the ecm, checked for resistance and found no open or shorted wires. Though I did notice the coil pack that controls 6 cylinders had a crack over the # 2-3 coil, I checked for resistance at the coil and found there was an open there and at the 5-10 which where two of my other misfiring cylinders, the other coils showed resistance. It might be safe to say that i need to replace both coils but after cutting open the harness I found the wires that where repaired but there seemed to be no other problems with it, do you still recommend replacing it?