Drove her around for a while the other day, drives good....good power but noticed the check engine light back on and when giving it wide open throttle its not getting the power to the ground. It acts just like my 07 vic did when it had catalytic converters clogged.
I found this image of a stock cat system for my van. It has 2 small cats on each side of the y pipe. Mine only has one on the pass side and PO cut a hole in it and I only see a tube in it, no honeycomb. I wonder if theres honeycomb inside of the tube?
But then at the end of the y pipe where it flanges to a single outlet ...I have a huge cat someone put on there.

Im tempeted to cut out the front small one that someone cut a hole in and replace with pipe but am not going to drop the exhaust manifold and dont know if theres room to weld the top.

 

Got my innova 3040c scan tool in today, the quick start manual doesnt cover much.
The status indicator light was red and still throwing the p0340 code (cam sensor)
Even after new cam sensor and soldering on new cam sensor connector.

The PO just had the cam sensor wires twisted together and duct taped, im wondering if the polarity is reversed and he put the wires on backwords? Would that be a possibility.

Anyway.... I erase the code and the status indicator changes from red to yellow. Not sure why it didnt change to green since no other fault codes.
Theres a couple red icons at the top of the scanners screen. One says 02S. Is this showing i have a problem with oxygen sensors? I just put new ones on.

Sorry for the scanner questions...im still figuring it out and the quick start guide isnt much help.

Not sure what to do next, find pinout of ecm and run new cam sensor wires ?

 

Download the online manual for that scanner, it will tell you a lot more than the paper copy that came with it.

 

Ok. The manual shows that those red blinking icons are for the 02 and 02 heater tests that havent met the driving conditions needed to trigger the pcm to test them.

So.... The vans still missing , bucking, lack of power with p0340 code but nowhere near as bad as when I first got the van.

Im going to pull the pcm harness connector to look for signs of water or corrosion, besides that...only thing else I can think of is get another pcm.
If the pcm was bad would the vehicle just not start or could it just manifest random intermitent issues?
Just wondering if ordering a new pcm would be a blind shot in the dark and waste of money?

 

Pcm pins and harness connector looked alright. I did see one wire where the insulation was open right at the connector. The wire inside was intact with a little oxidation. I did notice thise harness wire bunch was getting wet a couple weeks ago durring a heavy rain.
Ive since resealed windshield,rain gutters, and cowl on the vehicle but it hasnt rained yet to check.

I cleaned the connections with electric contact cleaner for the heck of it.
Cleared codes with scanner.
Seemed to idle great untill it warmed up then it hiccups and misses here and there.
Unplugged cam sensor to see if it made any change. CEL came on imediately but seemed to run about the same after an initial sense of wanting to stall. I guess safe mode just kicked in but not sure if it tells me anything.

Im about to give up on this project. I could take it to ford but im sure it would cost me twice as much as what I paid and hard telling if they would even fix it.

 

Find the cam sensor pins on that connector and make sure they have (almost) no resistance to the cam sensor wiring in the engine bay.

You know what's really weird? In that pic, is a label saying "4x4 LOW" - it's a van, why would Ford bother having that wire at all? Does that PCM harness look original?

 

Ya, those wires are heat shrunk and hanging out up there near the cowl area where the harness runs, I assumed all the vans had those and they just were not used.


Had time today to check the fuel pressure.
42psi key on.......35psi several minutes later

32psi running........ 42psi running w/ fuel reg vacuum unplugged.


I think the pump is good.
Still stumbling and idling rough, still lack of power WOT. Still CEL for cam sensor


Just to recap.....
new plugs and coils
new fuel filter
cat checked...good
new o2 sensors
new pcv
new IAC
new borg warner cam sensor
soldered new cam sensor connector
new alternator
cleaned MAF
seafoamed
cleaned pcm harness pin connector

Ontop of the engine parts I also, stripped interior, por-15 treated whole floor.
Ran new exhaust from cat to a new thrush welded 3" muff dumping by back pass wheel.
resealed entire rain gutter seals, windshield seals, and cowl area seals.


I only paid $1100 for it and took a gamble hoping it was an easy fix but have some extra money for parts and time wrapped up into it. Starting to feel like im stupid to invest more time or money into it.

Only other thing I can try is to run new cam sensor wires from pcm plug.


With such a ghost of a problem Im wondering if a dealer could even figure out what the problem is? Never took a vehicle to a dealer, what do you think the damage would be for a diagnosis of the problem and would you trust them at this point knowing its an older van with 170k miles....would it be even worth it?


thanks

 

fuel pressure is perfect.

if you disconnect the cam sensor, how does it run? And when it's disconnected, connect a digital volt meter set to AC volts and report back what it reads.

I have a low opinion of anyone else even trying to do any electrical diagnosis except myself Is it possible it jumped a tooth? What is the PCM code again for the cam sensor? Circuit? or something else?

 

If I disconnect cam sensor it makes no difference in how it runs but does instantly pop the CEL on after its been erased. I cant actually unplug it while running though because its an inch from the fan. Am curious if it makes a noticeable difference if unplugged while running, maybe Ill reroute it to test.

Ill have to get a meter on it while running to check. So set it for AC? what voltage am I looking to get?

Heres pic of code im getting on scanner

 

Sensors like these are like ABS sensors. I would expect something around .2-.3 volts AC. But I'm not sure you'll actually see that, because the interval is so long. ABS and crank sensors have a lot of pips on the tone ring. The cam sensor has only one magnet on the entire sprocket, and that only comes around every two crank revolutions.

 

"Starting to feel like im stupid to invest more time or money into it."

At this point you've invested so much time and money it would be stupid to give up.

 

Yes....ive thought this too.


Havnt checked the voltage at the cam sensor yet...its been raining.
Have had a few people suspect jumped timing. Is there anyway to confirm this without digging into It?

Would my innova scanner be able to tell me anything?