loud clicking noise while engine idling

[Tonglebeak]

Well...that was a TOTAL PAIN IN THE ASS WITH RUSTED ON FITTINGS.

Now that I got that out of the way

The directions on AZ were nowhere near what I had to do. Anyways, after 4 hours, I finally got the new one on. As soon as I turned to the accessory switch, I noticed a huge difference. Instead of hearing a low hum, I hear a quiet hiss from the fuel pump. I started the car, and could not reproduce the stall out problem.

That hiss does kinda worry me, but I could not find any leaks. Guess I'll know if there's a leak if my car runs out of gas within the next 10 miles @_@

[xeroinfinity]

sorry for the poor directions.

Plus I should have said you would need two line wrenches to loosen/tighten them.

Cool you got it fixed tho!!

the hiss you hear may be your O2 sensor inthe exhaust warming up .

[Tonglebeak]

Bad news...

The problem still persists. It seems to occur only after the car has warmed up though.

What could be next? I have a clean line up to the injectors now, but I used that gumout fuel injection cleaner several months ago.

My wireset is a little over 1000 miles old, and the spark plugs are about 3000 miles old. Wires appear to be fine, haven't inspected spark plugs yet (don't want to if I don't have to :P)

I'm not sure if the O2 sensor is gone yet or not...as I said this didn't happen until I did a nasty burnout and smoke and rubber had gone all over the place, including in the engine compartment.

But the ecm is NOT giving any codes to work with. All it flashes is code 12

[Tonglebeak]

Oh my god HELP, how do I repair this one?

I found a HUGE problem, and this one is scaring the s*** out of me. Image follows, I think this HAS to be the problem. Oh god I hope there was no serious damage done to the engine throughout this time ;_;

Please help me here, where do I go from here?

[xeroinfinity]

I have no clue on what you are talking about in that pic

I wouldnt be surprised if the motor is ready to crap out since you run the piss out of it.
Being an 88' 2.8 thiers many things that could be wrong/damaged internally, like I said before, that could cause problems.

[Tonglebeak]

Look at the center, where the intake manifold? meets the engine.

Notice the fact that they are now separated, and part of the engine's intake is exposed.

In other words, some of the air is not going through the filter and the MAF, some is going directly into the engine. How do I fix this?

[xeroinfinity]

the gap from that torx screw to the right, that gap?

Its always been their.

[Tonglebeak]

This should help:

[xeroinfinity]

Oh that just looks like its clean and shiny.
Maybe like something has rubbed it,
or possibley an air leak.

I dont see any cracks.

But thats your throtle body anyways, not the intake.
The black tube is the air intake tube....

Remove the hose clamp on the air tube,
and see if the TB is cracked behind the hose.
If so it'll need replaced.

here is a blow up of that area .

[daddy0_4]

If I could put worth It seems to me that the rubber boot with the clamp on it should fit over the throat(the round part that is shiney) all the way up to where the mating surfaces join-where the torx bolts are.

[Tonglebeak]

So it should just be a simple loosen the clamp, slide it over and then tighten the clamp? *can't try it right now as it's dark outside* The clamp we're referring to metal clip-like thing that is within the red circle in my pic correct?

xeroinfinity, my intake is NOT attached to the TB, that's why there's a huge separation there, and unfortunately I just noticed earlier today, so who knows how much unfiltered air got into the engine. That might explain why I didn't have problems until the burnout, if that was separated before all of that burnt rubber would've gotten in, and if that's the case I'm probably ****ed...

I'll see how this goes...

[Tonglebeak]

I put the hose back on the TB, and clamped it tightly.

I don't really notice the jerking anymore while driving, but my car continues to stall out while idling after giving it a small push.

I don't know what else to do, the ecm is still not giving me anything but code 12s.

Note, this only seems to happen when the car is warm. I'm thinking there's a faulty sensor _somewhere_ that isn't exposed until the ecm goes into open loop after it is warm. I realize the lockup doesn't engage until open loop occurs, but that really shouldn't have anything to do with this.

Any other ideas?

[xeroinfinity]

What Lock up are you talking about?

Its hard to say where to go from here.

You have thrown around about 50 differnt syptoms
and issues that may or may not even be a contributing factor in the idle or the loud ticking you here.

Need to be more specific ....

[Tonglebeak]

Lockup...the lockup solenoid, the thing that locks up the torque converter to provide the engine direct access to the transmission...

I'll restate this since everything has gone all over the place

I did not have problems until I did a 15-second e-brake burnout that sent smoke flying everywhere, including into the engine compartment.

Along the ways of troubleshooting, I have already replaced the fuel filter. I also have changed the oil, oil filter and the air filter. I also put the intake hose back onto the throttle body: it was not attached! I only get Code 12 now.

Now, here are the symptoms:

While engine is still cold, the car will not stall out or make any loud ticking noise at speeds above 30mph. The car is most likely still in open loop at this point.

When the car goes into closed loop, that's easy to tell of course, because that is when the lockup is allowed to engage, so I know when the car is in closed loop and when it is in open loop.

When the ecm is in closed loop is when I notice the problems. After a partial throttle and letting up quickly, the engine nearly stalls out most of the time: sometimes it will stall out, period. This occurs when the throttle is released quickly.

Also, while in closed loop, I can notice a loud ticking noise that occurs after hard acceleration, and then letting the engine coast along at idle. The ticking noise seems to be coming from the engine compartment, and immediately ceases once the speed drops below exactly 30. As soon as it hits exactly 30 again, that noise comes back, and increases and decreases in frequency with speed. This may or may not be related to the stall out.

Now, I went to my trusty service manual earlier tonight to read how the ECM handles fuel delivery while in open loop (engine cold). The manual states that while in open loop, the ecm does NOT use the O2 sensor to calculate the air/fuel mixture. However, once in closed loop, the ecm PRIMARILY uses the O2 sensor to calculate the air/fuel mixture.

After reading that part...I want to replace the O2 sensor, but I am not getting anything but Code 12. The ECM is telling me nothing to indicate any faulty sensors, but I really want to take care of this problem. But then there's that ticking noise that may or may not be related.

Let's just tackle this one at a time, first priority should be getting the car to stop stalling out, then we'll focus on that ticking sound.

[xeroinfinity]

Ok lets see if we cant tackle this....

On the stalling ,
Your Tcc is most likly the culprit causing the stall when the engine is warmed up.
Their is a large wire harness plug for the trany on top of it,
if you unplug that harness and your stall goes away(when warmed up)then the TCC needs replaced.

the TCC at speeds greater then 30mph, locks the torqu converter for economy. So when you come to a stop, if the Tcc is bad, it wont unlock the converter so its like stoping in a manual trany and not pushing in on the clutch.
So it then stalls, bucks, and kicks till you take it out of gear or you speed up.


Now for the ticking,
This one will be tricky to isolate, simply because thiers more then one thing that can cause the noise(s).

You could have a broken/sticking lifter, or bent a push rod from burning out.

So what grade of oil did you just use?
A lighter weight oil, say 5w-30 could help quiet the lifters if they are just dirty or sticking.

But if that doesnt fix the ticking,
then you might consider taking it apart or taking somewhere to have it properly checked over.
If I remember right the 2.8 is a noisy motor anyway.

Hope that helps clearify things !