I'll have to look, but I ordered everything from Rockauto. It wasnt ACDelco if thats whats your getting at.

 

The wires need to be a good name brand, Belden, Autolite, AC Delco, etc. NGK or AC Delco for the plugs, preferably Delco 41-993. Cap & rotor really need to be AC Delco. There are several brands of aftermarket caps & rotors that don't do well in these engines.

 

Ok, I found the boxes that everything came in.

Plugs - NGK G-power

Cap and Rotor - Airtex

Wires - Prestolite

yea probably not the best stuff, except maybe the plugs. I havent sprayed the MAF yet, should I still??

Hope you are having a good holiday.

 

Plugs should be OK. Be aware that they are only single platinum and will only last about half as long, (~50K miles) as AC Delco 41-993 double platinum plugs, (100K miles).

Cap & rotor really need to be AC Delco D328A & D465. Aftermarket caps & rotors don't do well at all in these things. Apply a dab of silicone dielectric grease to each terminal, inside and out, on the cap.

Prestolite wires should be fine.

Cleaning the MAF is a good idea, just make sure you use a product specifically designed for MAF sensors, and follow the directions on the can. Be very careful of the tiny wires in the sensor, don't touch them.

 

alright, I'll grab a can of MAF cleaner tomorrow. I sprayed the throttle body and ran it. Still a bunch of black gunk particles spraying out of the exhuast. Can I run a can of Seafoam thru the Manifold and fog out my neighborhood??

I'll order the cap and rotor from Rockauto or Advanceauto when I get the can of MAF cleaner.

 

You can try the Seafoam, but don't get your hopes up

 

So I should stick with the cap & rotor first or MAF cleaner?

 

After checking the basics, there are a couple of things going on that contradict each other. The P0171 indicates that the fuel mixture is lean, but the symptoms indicate the engine is running rich, (the expected result of a failed oxygen sensor). Fuel delivery problems can cause either a rich or lean condition depending on the problem. Faulty secondary ignition problems, (distributor cap, rotor, plugs etc) will only cause rich symptoms.

We can chase symptoms all day long and never find the problem. Now that we know that the fuel delivery system is not the cause, and faulty secondary igniton will cause a rich, not lean, condition, the next step is to find out why the P0171, (upstream sensor on left side) is being set. We need to make sure that it is reporting correctly to the PCM. The second paragraph of post #3 has a link for diagnosing the P0171.

 

So I drove it to work today. Still had a little shake at idle but none of the surging or sputtering at acceleration. It didnt seem to go thru gas as bad as before either.

I had cleared the SES light over the weekend. It didnt return on the trip to work(25 miles), but on my way home it came on. I stopped at Autozone and they gave me the P0131 code, bank 1 sensor 1, the upstream O2 sensor is bad.

So does that solve our problems??

 

DTC's NEVER tell you that a part is bad or needs replacement. It tells you what circuit had a malfunction, and you need to check it out.

The PCM relies on the oxygen sensors for controlling fuel mixture. Their output range is .1 volts, (lean) to .9 volts (rich). Ideal fuel mixture is .45 volts, and is the PCM's "target". Oxygen sensors "switch" from lean to rich, and rich to lean, as fuel mixture changes. The faster they respond to the changes in the mixture, the faster the PCM can correct it and bring it back to the target, (fast is good). During the life of the sensor, response time slows down and voltage output drops. When a sensor reports a lower voltage, the PCM attempts to get a higher voltage reading from the sensor by richening the mixture. If the sensor voltage is continuously low, the PCM interprets it as a lean condition and sets the P0171. If the response time is slow, P0131 sets. Usually at around 100K miles, the sensor output voltage drops and the response time has slowed enough to make a noticeable difference in performance. This is why the manufacturers recommend replacing them.

P0171 and P0131 are both problems with the left upstream O2 sensor, or the circuits for it. In the early stages of failure, output voltage drops and P0171 is set. As the sensor gets worse, the P0131 sets. Your P0171 told us it's running lean, the symptoms tell us it's running rich. The P0131 is the "smoking gun" here. More than likely the sensor is bad and needs replacement. Best to go through the flow chart to make sure though

If that's the problem, Denso and AC Delco are the two fastest sensors. Denso sensors are slightly faster and cheaper than AC Delco sensors, but they also have a shorter life span by ~20K miles.