86 ALCL help

yea, i miss that long hood and ease of working on the engine. you could drop a volleyball in there and it would fall to the ground; now, try to drop a marble in there on new cars. often thought of an elongated '32 Ford with a straight 8 or 12.

i live in Seattle and i force myself to use the Air Cond 3 times per summer just to exercise it. however, for the next 3 days they expect it to be in the 90's here, but i'll just stay home. there would be a lot of benefits to taking it out.

So, with 2 plugs fouled, there has to be an oil leak or no spark to those two cyldrs. the coil has to be working right as the other plugs are right. so, either the wires to them or the dist cap, right? i pray that this is all that could be wrong.

thanks again for your (continued) help

ssome

Hey guys, all kidding aside. Code 42 is a spark timing problem and deals with what goes on between the ignition module, the ECM and the harness between them. This code has nothing to do with plugs, plug wires, HEI coil, etc. -- NADA!

To save about $ 300 in diagnostic time at the dealer or scan time at an independent:

First step, check to make sure the PROM (memcal) is properly seated in the ECM. Reset the code.

Second step, (if it throws code 42 again). Get out a test lamp and a good volt-ohmeter and follow the troubleshooting chart for Code 42. This will pinpoint it, saving a bunch of time and dollars.

If you absolutely must throw parts at the problem, replace the ignition module. IIRC its about $ 45.

OK, but I can't find the ignition module for my Packard.

Thanks, PJ

i can see from the chart that 42 is concerned with those 3 items and am tempted to just buy the IM, but if that were faulty wouldn't that affect all plugs? clearly something allowed a lot of oil to get to the back left and absolute sludge to get to the back right plug.

yesterday, when i fired it up it still ran a little rough, but nothing like before and i shut it down. today, i took it out and wound it up a bit and burned off the extra oil in the back two cyls and it does run smoother. when i first started it up, it did bring up the code again, but after running it, shutting down and starting it again the code went away, for now.

$300!

the car has been babied, garaged, and 31K miles. looks new and gets comments all the time.

ssome

another clue might be the dash gas mileage indicator giving screwy but constant results a few years ago

removing the air cond would seem to remove the heater as well, ...so much for that.

i'll run it for a week and take a look at the back plugs again

also, i'll read the instructions again for the meter chks per the manual. not sure if my 42 err is chart intermittent or not now.

ssome

Oil often leaks past the valve seals and if you don't drive often it can and will accumulate....seals can drip and leak regardless of mileage......that is one of the major problems with little used cars.

When I owned my own shops ( Mustang Motors of NY ) the worst cars we had were the ones that were women owned and/or babied to dead .( driven only a few miles each week ).Some really hi mileage vehicles that were run into the ground ( at that time 100k miles) ran great, burned no oil and required only minor maintenance...

Also has anyone even considered a compression test...remember those..????

Yes, i agree. little use opens up things. and oil into a cyl would most likely come from along the valve seals, but why just to the back ones; same diagnostic problem as with spark module. running it for a while, gas prices, and chkg the back plugs will tell more. and i have been looking for my compression gauge.

notice that it took a little burn-out to clear the cyls of oil and run smoother, but this fluttering of timing happened over night (one plug really bad) and it does run smoother now at idle. i'ma blama my selfa. but, i will reset the ALCL, and watch the plugs, look at the dist cap (no more points and stuff), and when i finish fixing the computer, house, tree, yard, ego. i will fix the car, again

i did have a datsun pickup 3 yrs ago that had good, equal, req'd compression and still burned a little oil.

thanks, ssome

Just when one thinks that things can't get worse (termite mess, big tree blows down, water damage, HA sues, computer fails, new computer fails, etc) i checked the codes again as they were intermittent and i now have 42 and

1. Got the meter and manual out in this 100 deg F wx. beer time. sports on tv.

ssome

The checklist/flowchart almost always lists vacuum leak is one of the first things to check before you go through the chart. The chart also branches on whether or not the code is intermittent.