alphons bwart

bought this from an old boy, but have run into problems getting it to run right.. has the 350 v8 with a throttle body, but the "pigtail", as the mechanic calls it, is gone so he has no place to plug his code scanner into. the van will not idle and seems to be getting too much gas. once underway, the van goes like a striped ape..! we are in the process of replacing all the sensors, but am fearful that this could run into some dough. any ideas out there?? the motor has been replaced and some of the vacumn lines are hanging free (but plugged up..) another old boy told me to start with the coolant temp sensor right behind the thermostat housing.. good thing is, all the sensors are easy to get too from INSIDE the van. just take that doghouse off (motor cover) and everything is right there...
i'll throw in a couple pics, but if anyone has some ideas of how to read the codes...please let a brother know.. THANKS in advance.

tsbrewers

IIRC, back then you didn't even need a reader, you just jumped two pins in the obd connector. Which of course doesn't help if you don't have a connector.

To be honest, I can't help any more than that. I am a product of the newer vehicles which tell you what is wrong. I am lost on the old simple ones.

alphons bwart

thanks, tsbrewers, for your two cents... i should take a pic of the female port that IS there. it only has a couple of wires going into the back of it and no real obvious ports on the front. yeah, i've heard about the paper clip "read" method via the check engine light, but again, it doesn't look like there is enough there to even get started with.
i do think a picture (or a couple of them) are worth a thousand words...gimme a day or day and i'll see what i can come up with. thanks again..

tech2

you could find an obd I connector from another obdI gm vehicle and splice it in. my 1993 obd I vehicle did have datastream which is helpful for diagnosis. You could at least see what the sensor data values are before shot gunning approaching it.

alphons bwart

ok, coolant temp sensor replaced, fuel regulator replaced, then one other sensor checked, but it tested ok... NOW what ?? the guy working on it said "come get this SOB... i'm done with it!".. i'd like to take it to another mechanic (i'm gonna make the rounds, i'm afraid) but am concerned about driving the van too far with the fuel mix being so rich... is this "richness" going to dilute the oil to dangerous levels, or will it burn off ok ?? (besides drain my wallet ...!!) i need to drive the van about 90 miles to this second mechanic who says he can consult databases to find out the original engine the van had, and the the engine it has now, then do a compare and contrast... again, i beg anyone out there.... any other ideas...?? THANKS MUCH !!

alphons bwart

ok, the latest is i've spent about a grand on the 350 TBI for this thing and the "CHECK ENGINE" light is now on... sheesh ! and now i'm told it may be my ECM that is bad... it's had a tune-up, new plug wires, rotor, cap, new throttle body injectors (2 of em) and it still idles rough and dies most of the time... i'm practically at wits end with this thing. i know the worst thing for a vehicle is to let it sit for a long time.. but DAMN.. oh, they did disconnect the MAP sensor because of the ECM being bad.
ok, here's the question. would a new or rebuilt ECM be the magic bullet ? i've seen ads for "tweaked" ECM's .. is that worth the dough ?
thanks, again, in advance.