2001 L missing?
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Joined: Sep 2006
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2001 L missing?
OK guys, bought an 01 Lightning and all I can say is WOW!! All these years I was driving,restoring and hotrodding the "other" trucks, I really missed out. These trucks are Great! Here's my issue....
Truck has 60k miles, 4# pulley, JLP air intake, magnaflow exhaust, and tuned by Johnny Lightning. Drove the truck 550 miles home and another 500-700miles since with zero issues. Now, I have started to notice a change in the exhaust note. It was smooth and low pitched at low RPM's and smooth and higher pitched as the RPM's came up. Now, it sounds almost like a Harley motorcycle at low RPM's, and has a noticable chattering(like when you made car noise with your lips as a kid) tone in the upper RPM range. Exhaust smells a little gassy sometimes. I haven't really driven it enough to have more pre-trouble history. Can't "feel" it missing, just sounds like it is. Still has plenty of power, though it may have fallen off some. I think I may have a fouled plug, or other "fire" problems. Do the coil packs ever get weak or do they go completely bad when they go? Can I check each cylinder somehow? Can I take it to a shop and get it checked(by their computer) without damaging my chip? The plugs are 10k old according to the previous owner(by the way truck has been babied its entire life)
Any ideas are welcomed.
Truck has 60k miles, 4# pulley, JLP air intake, magnaflow exhaust, and tuned by Johnny Lightning. Drove the truck 550 miles home and another 500-700miles since with zero issues. Now, I have started to notice a change in the exhaust note. It was smooth and low pitched at low RPM's and smooth and higher pitched as the RPM's came up. Now, it sounds almost like a Harley motorcycle at low RPM's, and has a noticable chattering(like when you made car noise with your lips as a kid) tone in the upper RPM range. Exhaust smells a little gassy sometimes. I haven't really driven it enough to have more pre-trouble history. Can't "feel" it missing, just sounds like it is. Still has plenty of power, though it may have fallen off some. I think I may have a fouled plug, or other "fire" problems. Do the coil packs ever get weak or do they go completely bad when they go? Can I check each cylinder somehow? Can I take it to a shop and get it checked(by their computer) without damaging my chip? The plugs are 10k old according to the previous owner(by the way truck has been babied its entire life)
Any ideas are welcomed.
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Joined: May 2004
Posts: 29,380
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From: Central Coast of CA
Systematically unplug one COP at time, with the engine running. When you get to the bad COP, the engine will continue to miss as if it were never removed. If you remove a good COP, it should drastically change the miss/stumble.
If the problem is intermittent, then all I can think of is get a COP you know is good, and systematically replace one at a time and check for the miss while driving.
As an aside, even if you throw a DTC showing a bad coil over plug, unless you have one of those tools that shows you which one isn't firing, you'll have to do the one-at-time thing anyway.
Here's the tool I'm talking about: http://www.sjdiscounttools.com/wae76560.html
If you do have a bad COP, and it only misses intermittently, that tool may seem useless in trying to evaluate which COP is good and which COP is bad. (Bad COP, no donut!)
As for your plugs, with my modified Lightning, I change my plugs at least once a year, sometimes sooner depending on how often I get to the track.
Also, check for an exhaust leak.
What plugs are in it right now?
Have you washed the engine recently?
Check all your vacuum lines.
Those are the things that pop into my head right off the bat.
Just trying to throw spaghetti against the wall, so to speak.
Stewart
If the problem is intermittent, then all I can think of is get a COP you know is good, and systematically replace one at a time and check for the miss while driving.
As an aside, even if you throw a DTC showing a bad coil over plug, unless you have one of those tools that shows you which one isn't firing, you'll have to do the one-at-time thing anyway.
Here's the tool I'm talking about: http://www.sjdiscounttools.com/wae76560.html
If you do have a bad COP, and it only misses intermittently, that tool may seem useless in trying to evaluate which COP is good and which COP is bad. (Bad COP, no donut!)
As for your plugs, with my modified Lightning, I change my plugs at least once a year, sometimes sooner depending on how often I get to the track.
Also, check for an exhaust leak.
What plugs are in it right now?
Have you washed the engine recently?
Check all your vacuum lines.
Those are the things that pop into my head right off the bat.
Just trying to throw spaghetti against the wall, so to speak.
Stewart
Last edited by S_Harvey; Feb 23, 2007 at 01:45 AM.
Senior User
Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 144
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From: georgia
check your tune. if it is a store bought one it might be to lean and that will burn a plug or more off. any time you have mods on your lighting you will need to get tuned on a dyno by a compentent shop. if not you could burn a hole in a piston=new block and big $.
