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Well, I just heated the solenoid resister(s) up with a heat-gun until they were way too hot to touch and all four resistors stayed at a solid 6 ohms. Put everything back together and tried to take it for a few laps around the block. I made almost two laps (less than a mile) before it just stopped running. There was just a slight "thud" as the engine stopped firing, then nothing. Engine temp was barely moving, and I only had to wait a few minutes for a restart and a dash back to my driveway, where I held it at a fast idle for the next 10 minutes with no problem.
I really don't think it's a fuel problem any more, because this thing just stops running without any missing or fuss of any sort. I also know now that the spark is continuing to fire when the engine is turning. So, it just about has to be something like a wiring short or some sensor telling the ECU to shut things down. I see in the manual that there is a "Fail-Safe System" that "either controls the system by using data (standard values) recorded in the PCME (ECU) memory or else stops the engine."
The problem is, why no trouble code if the ECU is stopping the engine? Is there a sensor in there that could give a reading that is "not quite good enough" so that it shuts things down, but is good enough to not give a trouble code? Oxygen sensor, maybe? The engine does have over 200,000 miles on it and everything in the engine except the maintenance stuff and the coolant temperature sensor is original. I hadn't done anything too the engine since changing out the timing belt about 20,000 miles ago. This problem started maybe 20 miles past getting home from a 3,000 mile trip with lots of highway driving.
The only things I can think of at the moment that the ECU might think was "serious" enough to do a dead shut down over is the oxygen sensor (for political reasons) and possibly the scenario that LokiRx7 talks about above with the ignitor.
Anybody got a clue?
BillyDoc
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