Here's a pic of me pulling the engine out of my 612 yesterday!

Yes. I will sort a few things out. Not sure about misfiring or not. It idled perfectly. There was one question when putting on the top plenum as the two #3 cylinder fuel injector connectors ended up on one side and I had to route one back over to the other. I checked as well as I could as to whether I got the right one back but perhaps I screwed it up. I will pin it out to the ECU to be sure and will remedy if needed.

Also, the O2 sensor got red hot. The engine temp was fine and the coolant system fully bled so it didn't overheat. The only questions I left with were is the tappet noise typical (and does it just need more time to prime). The tappet noise seems only to start once it starts getting warmed up. Is this typical of the V12 engines?

Also, the middle resonator pipe on the right side was too close to the heat shield (as I don't have the rear boxes on to keep it all aligned. As such, not sure if the O2 sensor caused the heat shield burn or the box. Either way, it will be solved. New O2 sensor on the way. Will pin out heater circuit to ECU to ensure no shorts in wiring as well.

I am stuck now with only the weekends to screw around with her as I just started a new job in Chicago and am traveling as I write. Plan it to have this car 100% sorted and road ready for March! So, frequency of new picture posts will go down to weekly...

The white smoke is 100% gone. It was just all the assembly lube.

Any other thoughts or tips?

Thanks!

 

Hi Chris, I look forward to meeting you and bringing the car to a KC event when it is completed! I just met the owners over at KC trends and they were encouraging me to get involved in the club. See you soon I hope!

- Jason

 

Thanks all for your support! As for the comments above, I will look rigorously at these items. I expect to pin out the potential switched #3 injector leads back to the ECU. If they were swapped, I will remedy.

I was pretty sure I got the coil packs right but who knows. I can pin these out too while I have the Right Hand Side ECU wiring exposed.

I will say that the cat never got red, it was just the bib of the O2 sensor and the O2 sensor itself. And it also threw a P2234 code and another P code (more generic) specific to the heater element on Bank 1 Sensor 2. As such, the heater appeared to be in a complete short to ground and thus heats up continuously until it gets red hot.

I am not sure the the ignition of the heat shield came from this O2 sensor or from the mid-pipe box which my assistance failed to align properly and was positioned very close to the heat shield (which seems quite frankly quite wimpy and shouldn't burn due to exhaust system contact I would think.

The pin-outs on the coils and the injectors should go pretty quickly I suspect. When I get back to KC this weekend, I will get in and do the checks and install the new O2 sensor. I hope to report back before disappearing for a week for a family get away.

Cheers all! Can't way to drive this machine. The winter will allow me to perfect it and progressing get it deployed for Spring driving!

 

Thank you and thanks to everyone for their interests!

 

A few updates...

First answering one question, yes there is a rattle can of the black stuff that can be used to fix sticky parts once the stickiness is cleaned off. I will have to look at what it is called and report back.

Next, the bigger updates. YES, there is definitely something wrong with the way the engine is running. A misfire or multiple. It may actually be responsible for the hot cats/oxygen sensor... read on...

I pulled the exhaust pipes this weekend, leaving only the headers. Then started up the car on the lift. I got under the car and felt the exhaust from both the driver's bank headers and the passenger bank headers. MAJOR difference between the two. The driver's bank felt like it had 2X the flow and the exhaust was very warm (as expected). The passenger bank had much less flow and you could actually feel cold pulses. So, some cylinders not firing.

I checked all 12 injectors for pulse and flow. All good. Then I verified ignition coils in right spots. All good. Then checked two of the six cylinders (so far) for compression and spark. All good. I will check the other four.

BUT, please remember. My floor areas, under the driver's and passenger's feet did see some water entry during the "event" which disabled this car in the first place. I replaced two modules that showed issues already. The roof control module and the wiper module.

The ECUs on the car are very well sealed units. A couple months ago I opened up the driver's one to see if any water got in and it looked great. I did not check the passenger bank ECU.

So, I think I may have an ECU issue. I plan to swap ECUs (after verifying that they are identical which I think they are) and see if the issue follows the ECU. If so, well I will buy a new ECU or have mine repaired.

Any other thoughts or ideas guys? Only other thought is bad cats on the passenger side but this seems unlikely. I'd prefer not to pull those if I don't have to. The exhaust from that side did have some water in it when I first disassembled the car but I doubt that it ruined that cats. Thoughts?

In the meantime, I will also be massively reinforcing my heat shields so as not to ever have to be concerned about anything getting to hot from the exhaust!

 

Well, really bad news to report. Swapped the ECU's and no change.

Started compression and spark checks on the suspect bank and...

I have a bad cylinder. Zero compression on cylinder number 6. I have to do the leakdown but it smells like my machinist that did the head screwed it up. I will confirm in a couple of weeks with a leakdown as I leave for the Dominican Republic tomorrow for vacation with the family for what is now going to be a major drinking event for me!

The million dollar question now is can I swap the head off and on (if the lower end of the motor is confirmed good) with the engine in the car? I go the heads off that way but can I get it back on? I think I will try.

I plan to leakdown that cylinder to confirm source of air loss. If head, I will then compression check the good bank (just to be sure) and then pull the suspect head with the engine in the car and find a good machinist to get the work done this time.

Ugh. Looks like a winter project now!

 

64921 is the build number. Either the machinist screwed up or I kissed a valve against the piston when tightening the cam sprockets. Will be a few weeks before I know. Either way it will get sorted and isn't the end of the world.