mechanics are *ucked up

[marquisman]

so a local shop has had my 88 wagon(302 HO) for about 2 months now and its pissing me off. the guy who is to be working on the car is on holodays and i need the damn car for winter so i can put the lincoln away. so yesterday for shits and giggles i drop by the shop and there is another guy working on it and the bullshit begins. first thing he mentions or asks if its a ho 302 and I say of course, he goes on to say that i got the wrong intake on the engine cuz its pointing the wrong way, WTF? and he reasured me that i have the wrong one. the car runs better since i had them put the custom exhaust on and new O2 sensors in a month ago so they do little things here and there and run it on the test machine. the biggest problem i have is, why havent they looked at the code 41(O2 sensor switching not detected, always running lean") that is triggering the check engine light? can some one list the possibilities to what may be triggering this? i have never taken a car to a mechanic and the only reason i did is cuz i need this car to pass the sniffer upon my ownership transfer.

[gadget73]

Sure you don't have a bad injector?

Which engine light, the yellow or red? The 88's usually didn't have the yellow one. Red is the oil pressure or temperature one. If you have the wrong sensor, it will set the light on. Yellow comes on with some codes, but I dont think the O2 codes will do that. Is that the only code?

[marquisman]

i only have a red check engine light on the instument cluster and yes it is the only code showwing up. im just looking for a second opinion. i was a auto mech before a marine mech and spent my whole life with thease damn things and i never seen a red CEL get brighter as the engine warms up lol

[85crownHPP]

The red is the "replace engine" light - its gets brighter because you are loosing oil pressure as the car warms up, giving the light a better ground through the switch. Go unplug the oil sender and i bet it will go out.

[marquisman]

no shit eh, ill have to look into that.

[86VickyLX]

If that motor came from a mustang with a oil pressure gauge, It's more than likely you have the wrong sending unit. Had the same thing happen to me when I put the T-Bird engine in Vicky. I replaced it with the proper sending unit, and the light went out. Local parts store had it, it was like 6 USD.

[marquisman]

ya, i used the one from the old engine and put it on the mustang engine

[86VickyLX]

Does that engine knock?, check the wires for the oil pressure sender and the temperature sender, make sure they aren't grounded anywhere.

[gadget73]

What he said. Unplug the one-wire sensor on the intake and see if the light goes out. If you do, its the wrong one. Mustangs have a guage, Vics have a switch. The way the guage works, it has less resistance to ground as the temperature increases, so it makes sense that it would get brighter. The Vic/GM one is normally off, and on over like 250F or something.

[marquisman]

ha, that makes total sense, hmmmm i wonder if i could make a temp/oil gauge using illumination, anyway...ya ill mention that to the guy working on my car or jus tell him to ignore it...keep you guys posted on the ongoing progress via the start of it in febuary.

[Lincolnmania]

it's the temp gauge sender if its from the ho motor mang......unplug it, i bet the replace engine light will go out.....i've done it already lol

[marquisman]

thanks for the responses mangs

[88grandmarq]

still need to find out whats causing the code 41, regardless what warning lights are coming on. Car won't pass emissions if its not running properly.

first thing to do is clear all the codes from the ECM. pull the negative battery cable and step on the brake pedal, then re-attach the cable. drive the car around and see if the code comes back. If it does, you need to find out why. check the spark plugs, see if one is more fouled than the rest, that will isolate which cylinder you need to look at.
also check your fuel pressure. and if you have access to a hand held diagnostic machine, do a cylinder balance test.

[marquisman]

well this is why i have it at a shop in a mustang"guru's" hands lol but, im really second guessing my self taking my car to him, if i had a shop and the time, id do it my self...it seems like these guys are just beating around the bush. im gonna try to get him to give me a "pass" so i can get my license plates and do this my self. i know this guy im dealing with does the the whole illigal stuff lol.

[91waggin]

If garbage got in the connectors for the O2 sensors, it might trigger a code 41. But it won't turn a red engine light on.
So, to summarize what has been said above me:
The red engine light is supposed to come on if:
1. Engine oil pressure is under 6psi
2. Engine coolant temperature is over 250 F.
However, having the wrong sensor for either of these can trigger the light. Make sure you have the sensor that runs the light and not the gauge that might have been put in another car.


The oil pressure sensor, when it's activated, grounds the light to the engine block and turns the light on. So, if the oil pressure is right around 6psi and drops as the oil heats up, the engine light will get brighter as the oil pressure drops and the light gets a better ground.

Make sense?