Bad Luck

Black Sun 5.0

Founding Member
Mar 23, 2002
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L.I., N.Y.
Soooo......after waiting forever for my car to come back from the mechanic, and prior to that get painted and rebuilt, my fan controller craps out while the car is at the car wash idling. After a wonderful boil-over, the engine makes noise now. Should I rebuild or buy another engine? I Where would it be recommended I look for one? Thanks, but I'm starting to hate my car (money pit).
 
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DCC took a dump on me, and at the worst possible time (when it was in the hands of the car wash guys). I saw it boil over when they parked it. Now, as an fyi, I just went out to the garage, added coolant (it took about 2/3 bottle of 50/50), and started the car up. It started up with no problem and no special noise from the engine. What kind of damage should I expect from yesterday's boil-over? What should I be looking/listening for? Thanks. By the way, I have a SPAL controller ordered.
 
if its running alright after adding coolant it should be fine, I would be expecting no less than a popped head gasket if you really did anything by boiling over. if there's no coolant/oil milkshake in the oil pan and it's not missing at idle I'd say you're good
 
I have boiled over a few times on different vehicles including my 88gt. So far never hurt a thing. I would be a little worried if you have aluminum heads. But if it is running good now I would say it's fine.
 
No smoke from the tails, so that's a good sign. The guys who put my motor together did a good job. Cast iron heads. So I'm going to have a SPAL unit control my 94/95 fan. It has a 55 amp relay. Will this be enough or can I swap out the relay and put a 75 amp in?
 
Fact of life: If you own a high performance old car, you better have some good mechanic skills.
If you don't, someone else will own your wallet.

The DCC controllers are pretty solid devices, and most of the problems are from wiring & installation.
Has the warranty run out on yours? If not contact Brian about repairs or exchange on your controller.

Here's some simple diagnostic tests that only require a paper clip to do.

Cylinder balance test:
Warm the car's engine up to normal operating temperature. Use a
jumper wire or paper clip to put the computer into test mode. Start
the engine and let it go through the normal diagnostic tests, then
quickly press the throttle to the floor. The engine RPM should exceed
2500 RPM's for a brief second. The engine RPM's will increase to about
1450-1600 RPM and hold steady. The engine will shut off power to each
injector, one at a time. When it has sequenced through all 8 injectors,
it will flash 9 for everything OK, or the number of the failing cylinder
such as 2 for cylinder #2. Quickly pressing the throttle again up to
2500 RPM’s will cause the test to re-run with smaller qualifying figures.
Do it a third time, and if the same cylinder shows up, the cylinder is
weak and isn’t putting out power like it should. See the Chilton’s Shop
manual for the complete test procedure

Here's the link to dump the computer codes with only a jumper wire
or paper clip and the check engine light, or test light or voltmeter.
I’ve used it for years, and it works great.

See http://www.troublecodes.net/Ford/

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If your car is an 86-88 stang, you'll have to use the test lamp or voltmeter method. There is no functional check engine light on the 86-88's except possibly the Cali Mass Air cars.

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89 through 95 cars have a working Check Engine light. Watch it instead of using a test lamp.

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Do a compression test on all the cylinders.
Take special note of any cylinder that shows up as weak in the cylinder
balance test. Low compression on one of these cylinders rules out the
injectors as being the most likely cause of the problem. Look at cylinders
that fail the cylinder balance test but have good compression. These
cylinders either have a bad injector, bad spark plug or spark plug wire.
Move the wire and then the spark plug to another cylinder and run the
cylinder balance test again. If it follows the moved wire or spark plug,
you have found the problem. If the same cylinder fails the test again,
the injector is bad. If different cylinders fail the cylinder balance test,
you have ignition problems or wiring problems in the 10 pin black &
white electrical connectors located by the EGR.

How to do a compression test:
Only use a compression tester with a screw in adapter for the spark
plug hole. The other type leaks too much to get an accurate reading.
Your local auto parts store may have a compression tester to rent.
If you do mechanic work on your own car on a regular basis, it would
be a good tool to add to your collection.

With the engine warmed up, remove all spark plugs and prop the
throttle wide open, crank the engine until it the gage reading stops
increasing. On a cold engine, it will be hard to tell what's good &
what's not. Some of the recent posts have numbers ranging from
140-170 psi. If the compression is low, squirt some oil in the cylinder
and do it again – if it comes up, the rings are worn. There should be
no more than 10% difference between cylinders. Use a blow down
leak test (puts compressed air inside cylinders) on cylinders that
have more than 10% difference.

See the link to my site for details on how to build your own blow
down type compression tester.
 
FYI: I've had problems with DCC's on 2 different cars. They all appear to corrode around the terminals. I have a virtual shrine to all of my dead DCC's. I'd probably oprder another, but I get the vibe that Baskin isn't exactly rushing these things out the door and I don't really want to wait a month or longer to get my car running again. I can't see how my wiring job could have screwed things up, the directions are pretty straightforward and the units (usually) do last quite a while. I've been using DCC'sfor years, but I think it's time to move on. Back to an earlier question: Can I remove the 55 amp relay from the SPAL unit and put something bigger in or is the relay size necessary for proper use of the SPAL?
 
The relay size limit is pretty much a function of the socket size and connector layout. The wiring inside the unit may not carry 75 amps. The running current is 30 amps or less for most electric fans.
 
I'm running a 94/95 fan. Do you have the specs on these? I just don't want to start a fire under my hood. By the way, don't take my comments as bashing Baskin, I've been a longtime proponent of DCC's. I just can't wait so long for shipment and spare the expense of another one of his controllers. I'm not sure what's doing them in inside my cars, but they're just not standing the test of time for me. Thanks again.
 
The Delta units are designed to be submersible - they're big with the offroad 4X4 crowd.

I'd contact Brian just to get his input and for my own peace of mind (even if you don't reuse the controller again).

The 94-95 fans had issues with the fan motor seizing and catching the wiring on fire. The stock fuse on one is a 60 amp but it almost never blows (even when the wiring harness catches on fire). I hypothesize that this size was chosen to accomodate the start-up draw. A circuit breaker was retrofitted to some of the fan connectors.

The 55 amp relay should be adequate, as I'd guess that the CCRM has 40 amp relays at best. If you want experienced input, talk to Urban96, as he runs a Spal controller on his 94-95 Mustang IIRC. He can tell you about any issues he might have encountered.

Good luck.
 
OK, I emailed Baskin with the intent of trying to get these units repaired. I figure it would be cheaper than buying new again, and I have three of them laying around my garage. I'm generally comfortable with the use of the DCC, and if I can get these fixed I'll continue using them. Also, I figure if Baskin can see whatever is damaged inside, maybe we can figure out the source of the problem. In the meantime, I'll install the SPAL unit so I can hit the road.
 
First thing i would do is change the oil before you drive it at all. $25 insurance that there is no water in the oil.
This is also part of the reason i like mechanical fans.
 
Did you order the Spal PWM controller? I've heard that you have to recalibrate that Spal controller (which takes a long time, because you have to bring your engine up to the temps at which you calibrate), every time you disconnect the battery, because it's all electronic (no dial).

Someone please correct me, if I'm wrong.

That's why I got the Flex-A-Lite controller (33054) instead.
 
I was under the impression it was a fixed on at 195* and off I think at 185*. This is mostly a holdover solution. If Baskin gets back to me, I may be back on the DCC. If not, my mechanic is going to wire up a relay setup for me that he says works really well down at the track.
 
I just got the controllers and tested them. All three of them, including the one with the 16 pin connector blown off of it :) fired right up. I ran them all from -40F to 250F, all good.
 
AAAAAHHHHH!!!!! LOL! Not sure if I should start bashing my head off the desk right now. How do you like the one without the pins? What could have been done to result in such a meltdown? Hmmm. Anyway, I don't know what to say. I guess send them back? Can the one with the nuked pins be fixed? Any other suggestions for me? Kill all the local mechanics in a 5-mile radius? No? That would be wrong? I'm joking of course. Listen, Baskin, thanks for getting on top of those things. Let me know how you want to proceed and any expenses associated. I can't wipe the smirk off my face right now.
 
No idea how they blew the pins off, I think you’d have to go nation wide though to resolve the problem. I’m pretty sure I told you about the one mechanic that used the bench grinder in order to get a better ground.

Actually, other than the pins, this wasn’t really their fault. The instruction sheet that you got with the first controller implied that you could just leave the ignition input disconnected, and that works fine until the 16 pin connector gets enough contamination in it. Then, particularly when it gets wet, the controller will shut off. The connectors are pretty dirty, so you’ll have to connect the ignition input on these. In fact, all three of these shut off at one point when I was testing them, and connecting the ignition input let them run throughout the test, I ran all of them for at least a couple of hours after that.

Out of the three, the second one is the best, it’s in about perfect condition, the one without the pins is also in good shape with the exception of the pins. The oldest one could use new hardware, since it’s got a fair amount of corrosion, but it tested fine also. I’d install the other two and keep that one for a spare. I just need a label or 10.00 if you want me to send them priority mail.