I finally finished up this head gasket job it took a long time. Got busy and haven't really needed the car.

So I finally got it going today. Right off the bat I have a pretty noticible tick on the drivers side of the engine. I numbers all the pusher rods, cleaned them and put them right back but that is what it sounds like to me.

It ran ok for about 10 miles and then started throwing a bunch of codes and running really rough. Here is what I have.

P0130 - 02 Sensor Circuit Malgunction (bank 1, sensor 1)
P0327 - Knock Sensor 1 Circuit low input
P0305 - Cylinder 5 Misfire
P1319 - Misfire detected at low fuel level
P0172 - System too rich (bank 1)

So now I need to get busy figuring out what this is searching these forums.

Anyone have any ideas?

 

You disconnected/pinched the wire harness for the left front 02 sensor (behind the driver's side head) and did the same with the knock sensor wire on that side (in front of the driver's side head).

 

Thanks I will check both of those items out. Do you think having the issue with the 02 sensor would cause such a rough idle and poor performance?

 

Upstream O2 sensors are used to figure out how much fuel the truck needs. If they don't work, you stay in "open loop" mode, meaning it runs on default (very rich) fuel maps, same as before things are warmed up enough for the O2s to be functional. If you run around for a while without them working, you will likely foul plugs and get poor performance, mileage, and rough running. Same for the knock sensor. It's going to run rich without it.

If you've only done 10 miles or so, I doubt that's the entire problem. It's probably more having to do with the cyl 5 misfire. You already know this: the connections to the coil are a real pain. But I'd bet it's not quite on there. Been there, done that, have the skinned up knuckles to show for it. Try re-seating the wire. Pull the plug and see how it looks - if it's misfiring a lot you may need to clean it up a bit to notice an instant result from getting the wire re-attached properly.

That being said, you have a combination of problems. It's difficult to diagnose them as a whole. Pick one that seems likely and is easy to verify and resolve, fix it, reassess and move on to the next. You'll eventually get them all sorted out, and some of the things that look like problems now may very well just be symptoms of other problems.

None of what you have described seems like a big deal. You should be fine. Patching a cut knock sensor wire is microsurgery (its a coaxial cable), but it can be done successfully. Hopefully it just worked its way loose from the sensor (its the black thing with the 10 or 13MM nut in the center of the block just above the oil pan on either side).

 

I really appreciate the help. I am planning to tackle a couple of these issues this weekend.

 

Daryl I checked out the connection for the front injector and with very little pressure the wiring from the vehicle going into the connection completely fell out. So now I have 4 wires there. There isn't a lot of room to work and I have no idea how I am going to get those wires back in or in what order....

 

Wait....fill me in. How'd we get in injectors? You mean fuel injectors? Can't be. Those are only 2 wire.

Do you mean your upstream O2 sensor?

If so, what side did the pins fall out of? The side towards the motor or the side towards the sensor? (up or down, basically)

If we're talking O2 sensor, this is a good thing.....that was your problem.....you weren't actually attached there and now you can fix it.

 

opps sorry yes I was talking about 02 sensor. The wires fell out on the side towards the motor.

 

Lucky you, I'm sitting in my garage next to the project motor (which I obviously have not cleaned yet).



If you can't tell what goes where from that, let me know. But I think that pic is clear enough to tell. The colors look obvious, and you can figure out the orientation of the plug from the release tab.

 

And in case you need to make more room to get the connector up, it is attached to a bracket bolted to the bell housing that you can slide it off of.

The bracket is bolted to about where the orange arrow is.

The green arrow is the O2 connector in question.

The blue arrow is what is connected to the driver's side coil pack.

The red arrows are a ring attached to the wiring harness and the hole that a 13mm bolt goes into on the back of the head that you can remove if you really need to be able to move the harness some more.

Obviously this is all from BEHIND a motor, so we're looking at the driver's side as if you were sitting in the driver's seat.