I've had my van to two shops and no one can figure it out. It has a strait 6 in it (love those motors!!) and idling, it misses now and then, you hit the gas any more than 1/4 and it about sputters and dies if you don't let off the gas. It's fouled out the plugs, exhaust smells like gas. The only thing that no one has put on is a new computer. Would the computer cause this issue, or maybe the O2 sensor? I'm disabled and bought a truck but it offers no protection for my electric wheelchair, I NEED my van!!

 

What year?

Is it a Electronic controlled carburetor or full on EFI with the big intake manifold?

a Fouled O2 Sensor would cause this kinda symptoms if it's the EFI, not sure what happens to the electronic controlled carburator. The EFI computer goes into a get home mode, and just dumps fuel in like crazy. I had this happen on my 4 banger mustang when I splashed through a puddle. Ran like crap and wasted fuel like I had two 460's in it.

AFAIK, your supposed to replace the O2 Sensor every second Spark Plug Swap at around 100K Km's

 

The van is a 95 but the motor wasn't original with the van so I have no clue on what year it is. The first shop told me they tried a new O2 sensor and that he disconnected the battery to clear the fault codes from the computer. From what I've been reading that won't clear the codes. Might be worth another try. I'm ordering a computer reader for it today, only $25 on amazon. A new O2 sensor would be a lot cheaper than a new computer.

I have a gap in the exhaust that can mess with the O2 sensor. The person who put in the new motor didn't drill out a broken bolt in the manifold and the exhost pipe isn't bolted to the manafold so there is a gap. The local shop wouldn't fix it, can't really blame them, I hate working on vans too.

 

Me thinks if you want it to run right, you probably should at least fix the obvious things that are broken. O2 sensor cant read an incomplete exhaust flow. What other obvious problems does it have? Good luck.,...jack

 

*nods*

What Jack_Orchard said. O2 Sensor won't give a correct reading with that gap there.

After that, check electrical connections to various sensors. Even going so far as shaking the harness looking for breaks in the wiring. Clean the Throttle body (check youtube videos for more info), and it's connections too.

Hope the Code Reader shows something useful, so until then Good Luck!

 

Thanks for the help guys. I ordered the new O2 sensor from Amazon today, half the price advance wanted. I cant fix the exhaust manifold, the local shops wont touch it and I'm not spending 20hrs ripping the thing apart to hopefully not break a bolt off in the process to replace the manifold. I love the room inside a van but I sure hate to work on them. Everything takes twice as long to get too and then being partly paralyzed it takes me 5 times longer. Took me 5 hrs to give it a tune up a few months back. One of the few easy things to get to is the O2 sensor. Open the dog house and boom, there it is, don't even need to remove the drivers seat again. I'll take a look when the stuff arrives about drilling out the broken stud. If I can get to it, I'll drill it out. If anything, by clearing the code and hooking up the new sensor, it will let me know for sure if this is in fact the trouble. It's ran for over 6 years before it went bad and I know how to fix it now. Worst comes to worst, maybe some manifold wrap around the leak might help.

 

How hard would it be to use a new Walker 45166 Y-Pipe? And Catalytic Convertor (unsure of number)

Found this: http://www.summitracing.com/parts/wlk-15739/ but not sure if it fits a van...

 

It's got a good exhaust, it's just because the manifold has a broken bolt in it that it wont bolt to the pipe leaving a gap.

 

Oh yeah, that's a sucky job...

I would go junkyard shopping for some exhaust manifolds and get a new intake gasket and dig in!

Or pull the existing manifold and bring it to someone to fix. Either way, new gasket and digging into it... don't know if you can get the exhaust out without pulling the intake to.

Not easy, but if you DIY, could save big bucks.

 

Ok, the new O2 sensor came in the mail as well as a code reader for the computer. The shop never plugged my old O2 sensor back in! They just left the open socket swing around to catch road debris (jerks) Anyway... I tested the computer just for the key off tests with the motor warm. I got a ton of error's on it, a lot of this I know is good and the computers giving me low voltage readings on a bunch of stuff. Error codes 117-126-122-112-327-513-553-552-565-556-558 It didn't mention the O2 sensor at all. Could it be the computers bad? Would it have these symptoms, or just not run at all?

 

Replaced the computer, purrs like a kitten. Ok it sputters but I'm sure after what it's been threw, it needs a good cleaning inside. No more check engine light on ether.

 

Awesome!

EFI computer, huh?

 

Yup, I knew all the sensors couldn't be bad. I took my circuit tester to the throttle position sensor and the mass airflow sensor and they where good. Had to be a faulty reading. Only thing that gives the faulty reading from a good sensor is a bad computer.