Kamui

Hello everyone, I hope I can get some good pointers on this topic. I have a number of issues which happened just over the weekend. I got the CEL, and I pulled the codes, and they were; 0303, 0306, 0301, 0203, 0503, 00DD, and 0120.
First three codes are cylinder misfiring, while the fourth injector Circuit Malfunction, the fith (0503) High Speed Sensor Intermitten/ Erratic/High.

How this took place is: I was on the freeway, I speed on the gas pedal hard (not floored it) and suddenly I got some shakiness coming from the engine then CEL. I was not able to pull over right away, probably I drove about three miles until it was safe for me to pull-over. In the meanwhile before I actually pulled over, the CEL was blinking, I never seen this before, I always had the CEL on steady on.
Among other things, my Gas Pedal has been replaced recently along with the throttle body. I thought this issue was behind me but I came back.
So I am scratching my head because I have had a ton of mods done to my C Class. Among those mods is the fact that my Engine is a Renntech 3.8 Litre. This project ran for almost five years or maybe even longer. But in a nutshell, my car has the supercharger, and it was tuned by Eurocharged. I have had the misfiring issues right when I got the vehicle, and I basically replaced a to of parts to weed-out the problem(s). Now that I got the car to be more stable, I had to get the Valve Seals/Stems done because they were leaking oil (the Exhaust Valves). After getting the vehicle back from my trusted mechanic, I could not step on it too hard until I put at least 500 miles to 1000 miles. My setup is a bit complex, if I disclosed everything, I would be writing for hours.
If anyone has any inputs, I welcome them, I know I have not participated to much in this forum in the past. I experimented on my own for many years, and a lot of the mods here I have done them, some you guys have not done them based what I have research.


regards,

insame1

Call eurocharged and have them look at it and the tune.

Lenin

Are you logging any data? With these kind of major engine changes (and who knows what else) I would not be so quick pointing in the direction of the tune.

insame1

Just to be clear I am not blaming the tuner but the tune could be need some updating depending if there were mods completed after the tune.

Kamui

To be honest, my vehicle has not been running that great from the get-go. But after I got my vehicle back from the tune, I tried to do my best in replacing and narrowing down the performance issues. The biggest issue before was, still is now, the cylinder misfiring. I attacked that problem by re-sealing the plenums with Needswings seals. The original plenum seals cannot handle 20 PSI. I also got the cold NKG Iridium Sparkplugs from Rob at Needswing. After these things done, I got the crank position sensor replaced, Manifold Sensor (MAP), replaced all vacuum lines, replaced the entire cooling system hoses, separated the inter-cooler system to stand alone, and re-did the oil aerator (oil separator). I went back to the Renntech TCU (shifts really nicely with the aggressive exhaust sound), and I ran the vehicle with out any issues. Though, I must admit that I never stepped on the car to the point to where I would go above 150MPH (I have taken this baby to up to 189MPH) and experience misfiring.
Shortly after all the work above, I notice that I had a lot of oil residue with carbon build-up on the pipes, I had my mechanic look into it (he happened be taking the exhaust manifolds out to re-place them with Eurocharged Exhaust Manifold). What my mechanic found is that the exhaust valves were leaking oil which explains all the oil consumption and the license plate getting nasty.
As I mentioned on my original post, its been over a month since I got my baby back from getting the valve stems/seals done. I did not stepped on it hard, per my mechanic's recommendation.
But what I do realized is this: Four month ago or so, my transmission went out. The TCU tunes was done by Eurocharged when I originally got my vehicle back after tuning and mods from Houston TX, I have 5 TCUS in total, one from Rennetch from my original Renntech build engine. When I have my transmission re-built four months ago, I had the Renntech TCU in it. The problem I was having is,from first to second gear, my transmission shift was hard, and it became annoying even after the transmission adaptation was done to keep driving on S mode (My transmission still shifted pretty hard).

Back to present, after getting my vehicle back from my mechanic, I drove it for a couple of weeks, and then I ended up swapping the TCU with the Eurocharged (trying to narrow why the shifting issue still there). The results were formidable; My transmission shifted really smooth, this was more like what I expected.
So what I am suspecting now is that the TCU might have something to do with what's going on, and the fact that my mechanic just informed me that he went ahead and replaced my iridium sparkplugs to OEM.
This may be the issue, but I have to start somewhere.
You can see the codes from the picture I took, and I also took a shot of a datalog over the weekend after I experienced the cylinder misfiring (after I cleared the codes).
Hopefully I am not boring anyone here, and I do understand how complex this can be, I did some of the work myself, but ultimately the engine is a whole different animal with how the set is.


Regards,

Kamui

Quick update.
Over the weekend, after re-gaping sparkplugs, changing ignition wires, and then making two runs, cylinder #1 piston rod shot-through the engine block.
Project is not to a halt. And Renntech is looking into the matter. I will post images once I have a little more time.
Thanks all for the support, I hope I can bring her back to live stronger, meaner...

Morphh

Wow that suks, I have seen this happen with motor a lot lately, it's keeping me on edge.
i know a misfire can be caused from vaccum leak, my crank case hose had a hole it disintegrated from inside out, and would cause misfire and the shacking of the car.
fixed hose and everything fine now.

Lenin

This is very unfortunate, especially after what you put into this project. Who originally assembled the engine with the Renntech parts for you? I obviously have no concrete proof but I suspect that this is where you problem started.

Kamui

OK.
I did a lot of typing but the forum crashed on me. I am just going to post the pictures I selected to post.
And to answer your question Lenin, the engine I have is a Renntech engine. This setup was a packaged way back when I started this project which came with an upgraded transmission plus the tuning.

I will keep you all posted of what the fait of this vehicle would be. What I can tell is this, the engine still running despite the fact that is missing a cylinder, plus the oil pump since it got taken out by the connecting rod. Its simply amazing to see it run, but sad at the same time.


Regards,

Kamui

Hi everyone:
Like all things, everything that has a beginning has an end...
I said farewell to my Mercedes Benz C38 today. It was a hard to see the vehicle go. But I must say that the vehicle is now going to RENNtech Mercedes in Florida.
Yes, RENNtech has taken up the project, and they will deliver.
Now I can only wait, its going to feel like an eternity, but its all going to turn-out the way it should have turned out.
Thanks all for your comments and support.

Lenin

You made the right move. Good luck.

Kamui

Hi everyone:
Just to quick update you all. RENNtech has the vehicle now. They are going to start working on it next year. Based on the conversations, it looks like the vehicle will be a beefed-up 3.2L supercharged.
On another note: Does anyone know of a thread on how to replaced the oil filter housing seal along with the oil cooler seal on a E350? I need to replaced mine pronto, and I figure I might be doing this either this weekend or next.

Thanks in advance.