I finally got my car down off of jackstands and ready to drive. I started it and it idled fine. I warmed it up a bit before I decided to take it out for a spin. Got out the driveway, it bucked and died. Would not start back up.

A couple neighbors helped my get it back inside where I discovered that I had not connected the F.I. harness ground (PO had tied all grounds into one lead). I feel like a total moron.

Did I blow up the ecu by not grounding the harness or could this just be a bad CHT sensor issue?

When I try to start it up it will sputter a bit, kind of fire but will not run. As I put the pedal to floor it tried to rev, but acted like only 2 cylinders were firing and there was no throttle response AT ALL.

Any suggestions?

CHT ...

make sure it hasn't popped out. and check the wire too ...
Andy

I tested and swapped the CHT and MPS. No change. Car wants to do NOTHING. When I tried to start it it coughed and nothing else. I have a sinking feeling I fried the ecu.

dump...

I would doubt it.. but what do I know.
any chance its something more simple, like crossed feed/return on the fuel lines?

do you have fuel pressure
do you have spark

Kevin has a bunch of ECU's and he loaned me one once for testing purposes...

I think the 1.7 and 2.0 units are relatively similar
(I know brad's site will clarify that)

brant

The thing is that the car ran just fine before it went up on jackstands for the oil cooler. It even idled nicely after the install as I checked for leaks. Came off the stands, started it up with no problem. Only inconsistency is that it wanted to die as it warmed up. I screwed the idle up a bit and it was fine.

Rolled out of the driveway and gave it some gas and it bucked real hard a couple of times and died. Hasn't run since.

My fear is that because the ground was not connected it may have been touching the ground point long enough to start and run, but as it went over the curb, the ground came off, then on and shorted the brain.

Fuel lines are just fine. At this point #3 sparkplug is crossthreaded and until that is remedied it sits and I am unable to test anything.

I have decided to take a break from this car. Getting too frustrated and wrapped up in it lately and it is stressing me out.

If you doubt the ECU, see if you can borrow one from someone. Either that, or see if anyone has a tester they'll lend you. If all else fails, Pelican has a couple of the D-jet testers they can rent out...

--DD