I attempted that however the fan blew it all away before it had a chance to be sucked in. I am going to try and take the fan off and see if that helps.

When I bought it, there was definitely a headgasket blown. I pulled a **** ton of coolant out of the oil pan when I changed the oil. Also verified the gasket when I took it apart. Needed a valve job so I got that done but it ran better than this before the whole rebuild.

I found an O-ring that was too big (stretched out) on the tube that goes from the plenum to the brake booster, however Im not sure this could have been a very big vacuum leak and Im not sure if that could even be causing my troubles. Going to try and find a ring to fit it and see where I can go from there.

 

you've got yourself a head scratcher there, do you think when the gasket went it might have blown oil and coolant through the exhaust blocking the cat,
might be worth running the engine with the cat disconected.

 

This caught my eye...

Just this past summer I dealt with a bad fuel pump. The behavior was different - no misfires, mine would just stall - but the diagnosis was a huge pain in the butt. My truck would stall completely (any speed) but start up pretty quickly afterward (turn off ignition, wait 5 seconds, re-start). Of course, this was a hair-raising experience when it would happen going down the highway at 65mph but it took a while to narrow it down to fuel pump.

If I were you, I would throw a fuel pressure gauge on the diagnostic port (middle of the engine bay, just under the lip of the cowl) and thread the gauge up onto the windshield where you can monitor it while you run the engine/drive around. If your misfires coincide with fuel pressure drops, you may be in for a fuel pump (but at $250 it's a pricey part to just swap out, not to mention the hassle of pulling it). As I recall from lurking this board, anything less than 40 psi is a guaranteed stall and anything less than 45 psi will affect performance. 60 psi should be the max pressure, under load/heavy throttle.

I ended up sending the truck to a family friend who works at a dealership for a closer look at the fuel pump. He couldn't get it to stall while driving, but he was able to monitor the pump's voltage and amperage draw. It did odd things that he had "never seen a fuel pump do before." On his recommendation I changed the fuel pump out and haven't had a stalling problem since.

Until the diagnosis I was all freaked out because I had JUST put a new cat on it from Summit and was afraid the O2 sensors were causing an issue. It turns out they were fine. Your mileage may vary, and my recollection is at least 5 months old (especially regarding fuel pressures) but for ME, I had a bad fuel pump.

 

Ironic you mention the cat, I just got that suggestion from someone else lol. I do still get smoke out the pipe, not sure how much, but if any is getting through could this be my problem? Or can there be a partial blockage getting to me?

And ao, thank you I may have to try that. I will try and get a couple readings off that but it will be later this week when I am off work again before I can vet it dug out of the garage.

 

Glad to help. When I was running the gauge I was able to close the hood enough to get the safety latch to engage, then I tied the hood down with some rope. LUCKY for me, the truck did NOT stall when I had the gauge on (this whole episode was such a pain in the butt) which is why I ended up taking it in.

For what it's worth, my cat problem was entirely unrelated to the fuel pump - it was replaced due to a hole at the junction of the the pipes right in front of the cat. It was impossible to patch and too thin to weld (tried both).

If you're still getting smoke out the pipe, I wonder how long since the leak it has been, and if any of the leftovers have had a proper chance to burn off/out of the rest of the system. I have nothing else to add regarding smoke :-/

 

Well if it was leaking regularly then it certainly did not have time. It was started only to move in and out of the garage during the winter months and to check compression, verify which cylinder was missing, etc.

Since then I have only had it out driving for a total of maybe 15 miles each time so there is a strong possibility of build up being in there. I just didnt know if the cat could be considerd plugged to a point where it can cause problems if I am still getting exhaust out the muffler.

 

i guess the truck was an every day user before you bought it, so i'm guessing it was running ok up until the headgasket went,which kinda makes me think the fuel pump might be ok.
just a thought.

it might be worth taking it to a shop and having the emmisions tested, it only takes a couple of minutes.

 

Yeah, the guy who owned it before had it for his son to use to and from school. When the head gasket blew and it overheated the kid had his G-ma buy him a brand new vehicle. Must be nice, eh.

What exactly in the emissions should I have tested? I am just trying to keep from spending too much money. I had it in a well known, well respected shop, and nothing they did could come up with an answer.

I think I will pull the plenum today after I get the new fuel logs on my car and see how that looks.

If it looks ok I will unbolt the y-pipe and see if it runs better that way to rule out the cat conv.

 

over here (uk) the emmisions test is part of our m.o.t, a yearly test to see if the vehicle is road worthy,
they put a probe up the exhaust to check the c.o which is the air/fuel mixture,
hydro carbons, which is unburnt fuel and lambda/o2 sensor to check for air leaks in the system.
i'm told if the readings are very low, it could be down to a faulty cat.

 

Update for today. Spent a few hours messing with the old girl last night.

Replaced the O-ring that I had needed to locate and installed that.
No change with that.

Unbolted the manifolds from the Y-pipe to check the Cat conv.
Didnt get them to completely seperate but got them apart so air could flow freely from there.
Definitely louder, but no change in running condition

Pulled the plenum off to see what the manifold looked like. As I said it hold pressure as it should so I didnt suspect a leaking FPR. What I found was an area that did look clean around the FPR but no leakage at all when pressurized. A lot of gunk was on the manifold though, especially around cyl 4. cyls 5 and 6 seemed to look prett good as well as cyl 3,2, and 1. I will post pictures of what it looked like. I was unable to test the injectors because I wasnt sure of how to go about that with the plenum off.

So on to the pictures. (sorry for quality, taken with my phone)