Silver is sick...

[Erics SVO]

Friday night I was on a tight long exit ramp off I 95.. Enjoying the Svo as we all do , when I hit the end , she flamed out... No warning, nothing, I noticed when I continued to turn and it was stiff, and the AMP light came on when the engine died... I drifted to the side and pop started, and went about my drive, noticed I had ~ 1/4 tank, so I got gas for Saturday. Have a sneaky suspicion there's no sock on the fuel pump like my OG 92 LX did when I was parked at an angle in front of a place I lived several years ago with no start when it was at a certain point of 1/4 tank.

Sat I went on a cruise with the local club. Almost to the end she started misfiring, I had to pull over after one of the final turns, when I saw the hill, she wasn't gonna make it.... Sitting idling while I poke around under the hood. Could not find a damn thing. After about 10 minutes of idling it smoothed back out and ran fine....
I continued on and almost to the park for the picnic, it started again, same ****, poked around, nothing, smoothed out and fine. Both of these were about 20 minutes apart...

Finally on the way home it started again on I 70, And this was a good 40 minutes after the last startup time... got off at a park n ride. Poked around again. This time I noticed it went waaaay lean and the vacuum was irratic.. OK, I'll try the FP test jumper and see if something is wonky electrically on the fuel volume side. again after ~10 minutes of idling, it got straight... Made it from there to a junction off I 95, near me, started again... Limped to home from there. AS always, I couldn't push more than 1/2 throttle, rev over 3k... Limped her in the driveway and got GT to grab dinner and hang out for the evening with my friend.

Baffled, I checked cap, wires, intake boots, assorted sensor wires, plugs, oil, water...... It has the taste of TFI taking a dump, but I've never had one misfire, get better while sitting running... Strangest part of it, she straightened out while idling... Had one person suggest checking the timing when she goes wonky... Too random the predict the time when that happens. 'll check fuel pressure again. I'm guessing Silver wasn't used to the spirited driving on all the country back roads... The most spirited I've drove her yet. Was wicked fun, until it wasn't. My friend keep grabbing the OH SH!t" handle and trying to brake. I told her the brakes don't work over there and no handle either, LOL.

[gbeaird]

Heh, that's the way mine was on my last drive.... until the IC hose popped off. Oh Sh!t, then nothing.

My TFI just quit. Drove it to lunch to actually meet up with a fellow SVO owner (only time I've ever done that), and the car had to be flat-bedded home. New TFI and boom, running like new again.

Yours does sound like some electronic component is heating up and quitting, but still, hand-chase all the primary wires from the distributor and from the solenoid to verify you're not enjoying wire insulation fatigue.

[Erics SVO]

Yeah, I'm still scratching my head. Poked around under the hood a little after work yesterday. Tried to email a trusted source yesterday for input but it got bounced.... So Dunno...

[GAboySVO]

Sounds like an intermittent wiring issue. You might want to try the wiggle test on engine wiring harness at idle to see if you get any changes.

Also double check that your VAM flap door is operating freely. I had mine stick open due to an obstruction once.

[gbeaird]

^^That reminds me.

Verify the IC hoses haven't come loose/popped off/cracked. We had an '88 RX7 TII that had ripped the elbow that ran between the turbo and IC. It usually ran fine, although didn't seem to have the power expected, but would occasionally start running badly, like it was running out of fuel, but if I gave it some more throttle would run fine. Sometimes a restart would completely fix the issue for a while. I never found the issue, but the guy I sold the car to found it when he was doing maintenance.

That, and the fact that it was red, were reasons for selling it. :-/

Then I got a red SVO! :-)

[svono50]

Sounds like something is taking time to come back within expected parameters, since it the car idles for some length of time it clears up. If it was a PIP sensor, as the dizzy heat soaks it would simply shut off the ignition...been there, done that. A TFI wouldn't really 'cool off' while idling, so I wouldn't expect that either. Have to say it...did you check your ignition switch in the column??

[Erics SVO]

The first thing I checked was the IC boots/intake, as I had that happen on the other SVO once. I'm gonna do some more wiring checks. Weather is getting too crappy to play outside anymore. I have a garage i have access to now, and was gonna leave her there last weekend, to do the heater core at some point, and eventually trailer the 92 there. Ted, it is a new Ford switch, but I'm not discounting it, I will check again. I have another new one sitting for the 92. As I had to do a lock cylinder that was wonky all the sudden a month or so ago. Yeah I agree its probably not TFI/PIP, since it was still running. I am also considering the MAF too, which it would lock the timing if any of the signals were wonky.


OOH! I just remembered it had some slightly wonky readings on the temp sensor but was still "ok" when I put in on a friends old skool breakout box last month. Last weekend it was cooler, probably the coldest temps (low 40's when we left at 6am) I've driven her in yet. I remember the other 85 didn't like temps below 50, because of its wonky sensor.

[svono50]

Are you talking about the VAF temp sensor or the EEC's sensor on the top/middle of the lower intake? Check your connectors behind the intercooler, where the upper engine harness leads back to the EEC. Mine were cooked at some point and I was getting intermittent signals from those. Hopefully you can find something with a wiggle test.