Error 7 Flash - 1 Pause

Replace the head gaskets on my 89 4.3L. Took me a little while to do, but I got the whole thing working great. Had to replace somethings here and there including a melted vacuum hose, and other minor stuff, but over all it worked out great. Growled back to life 4 days ago and shot our some nasty blackness which I guess is to be suspected, now it runs great though there is a loose rod I can hear clicking that is yet to be fixed, and idle seems to be rough, which it was before the gasket replacement. Getting a flashing light (P)! giving me 7 flashes and 1 pause. Anythoughts on what this is?

I suspect a vacuum problem as my fuel consumption seems to be high and idles rough. Related?

Thanks.

J

I've got an '89 too.
Are you sure about the 7 flashes?
It should give you 1 flash, pause, two flashes (three times), which indicates the PCM is working correctly.
Then the fault code should flash. I don't see a fault code lower than 13 in my haynes manual.
To answer your question, a vacuum problem could be related. Check the hose to the MAP sensor.

And just for good measure, inspect all the vaccum hoses.
Also, could be the EGR valve, or the vaccum hose connected to it. Since it belched out a bunch of black smoke, you may have a carbon build up problem.

It's not the SES light that flashing, it's the parking light and the other light, look slike (!)(P), flashing seven then pasuing once. Took it on the highway to see how it would run for about 4 hours without any problems, although the SES Light came on a couple times over 120KM, then dissappeared after I let off a bit.

Any thoughts would be appreciated? Perhaps I should check the ODB?

Ah, ok.
Then I'm thinking this is related to the rear wheel ABS.
Try this link, you'll find the ABS error codes there.
http://www.autozone.com/servlet/UiBroker?ForwardPage=/az/cds/en_us/0900823d/80/11/ae/65/0900823d8011ae65.jsp