Replacing the interior harness is not an easy task. The engine harness is not a big deal, if you need a known good engine harness let me know. What drivetrain is in your car?
I just talked to Lou here locally, I am gonna stop by his house tomorrow, as he thinks I may have one shorted injector, drawing the power down from all three on bank 2. He knows a way of testing without having to pull the plenum (hopefully). I do not mind pulling the plenum to fix something, but kinda a last resort when just trying to diagnose a problem if ya know what I mean. Not pulling it would save $80 by not having to purchase the complete gasket kit.
First off, many, MANY thanks to everyone who has helped to diagnose this gremlin infested and posessed car.
I just hit my last straw today. The problem with it not starting in Daytona, and now and then has still eluded myself and everyone else. Today I took the car over to Lou's and we did some testing. I barely got there as it felt as if I was running on 3 cylinders. We pulled the injector plugs, and all injectors are receiving the pulses.
We loosened the distributor, and attempted to time it a bit, and rotating a full quarter turn and hardley any change in the sound of it running. Lou explained that is probably a loos timing chain, or worn gears.
Third, pulling the plugs out of cylinders 1,3 & 5 (Rear facing). Cylinder One appeared normal. Plugs 3 & 5 appeared to have water on them. 90% chance of a blown head gasket.
At this point, I do not have the time nor the resources to do a complete upper engine & timning chain cover / gear stuff. I can work my way around the small stuff, but this is just over the top for my abilities.
I will be putting the car under a cover indefinitely until I decide to sell it, part it out, or the rare chance of putting another engine in it.
If you suspect a blown head gasket, I would confirm it with a compression check of the cylinders on that bank. If you don't have the needed tool for this, clean the plugs, put them back in, pull the thermostat, start it back up, and grab the hose. It should be limp and not under pressure until the engine puts heat into the coolant and it starts to expand. If it feels like it is already pressurized upon initial start-up, then cylinder pressure is doing it, which only happens with a blown head gasket.
If it has a blown head gasket and you don't get the water out of the cylinders before it sits, you will likely come back to a locked up engine.
I'm sorry about your car problem. I was hoping to find, at the end, you finally found the problem. I had the same problem on a Ford and never did find an answer, so I didn't attempt any repairs. I collected opinions on what it could be, but, no real answers.
I forgot to come back and updated this thread.......
A week after my last post, Lou and I had a look at my car. There is evidence of water in cylinder one. It appears to have a blown head gasket. As this is a crate engine, that has never been overheated, and new oil, always kept full..... It is likely that the heads were not torqued down properly to specs when the crate engine was assembled by the previous owner. That was THE LAST STRAW. I covered the car, where it has remained under cover for almost a year now.
I recently purchased, and went and retrieved a 3800SC Series III engine from Montgomery Alabama. All the info is on page 13 (go figure! LOL!) of my build thread. There are TONS of pics, and I will do my best to document everything as I go along.
I will get the engine cleaned up, new hardware on it (alternator, A/C compressor, gaskets, SC bearing ect ect,) and then pay to have it installed properly at a shop in Boca Raton where we get all out work and other personal vehicles worked on.
Many, MANY thanks to everyone that offered advice, suggestions and trouble shooting techniques, it is very much appreciated!
