Today was one of those days and this post is long. I started out by attempting to drive to the county courthouse to get a photo red light ticket dismissed. Just about a mile from home the 'Coolant Low" message appeared in the DIC. I thought somehow I'd lost some when I R&R'd the blower but then the temp shot up and the "Check Engine Temp" came on and there was steam everywhere. I pulled over and popped the hood and saw one of the heater hoses broke where it goes through the firewall. I let it cool down, then got it home without it getting too hot, at least I thought. Temp gauge never pegged, never went into limp mode, never knocked. I rode my Harley to the courthouse and took care of that business, then stopped and got the "T" connector with the quick connects. But when I started the repair, I saw the problem was a separate quick connect that attaches to the "T". I tried the hose on the new "T" fitting I had which was just like the one on the truck, and it fit tight. WTF? What's the point of the other quick connect when the hose with the existing hose clamp fits and works great? So I eliminated the useless fitting. Problem fixed, right? I filled it with coolant and started it up. Everything seemed fine. If you look at the pic, there's one with the quick connect behind the one I repaired. Anyway, I hadn't done a real drive test yet or a data log so off I went. I was checking the time on the data log and at about 10 minutes into the drive I came to a stop and the engine almost died. It was running like shit, then the "Service Engine Soon" message came up. I was already headed home so I just kept driving and then the SES started flashing just as I got home. That's never good when it flashes. I checked codes and it had P0300, misfires. Plus another that stated it had detected a hot engine earlier. It was still idling like crap. I was checking the plug wires and saw two that might not have pushed all the way onto the coils. So I reseated them and started it up. It was running good so I went for a drive and barely made it a block and it did the same thing with the same code P0300. I started thinking that the overheating had messed up the intake gaskets somehow. I decided to pull the plug wires and measure resistances as well as clean the MAF sensor in case coolant messed it up. The MSD Superconductor wires measured as follows: 5 @33 ohms, 1 @ 200, 1 @ 300, and 1 @ 950. I bought some AC Delco wires and they all measured right at 400 ohms. BTW, the AC Delco wires fit sweet. The MSD were always hard to push on and the OE heat shields were floppy on them. I never could tell for sure if the hard-to-reach ones were all the way on. The AC Delco's snap onto the plugs and coils with a positive click, and the heat shields fit perfect. They're not red like the MSD's but I'm not buying wires based on their color. Unless they're AC Delco's. Anyway, I just got back from a 1/2 hour drive and the truck is running perfect so far. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I really need this to work.
