Well frankenstein broke down on me on 285 in rush hour traffic, had to wait an hour for a tow truck while it was 90* and sunny. I'll give yall a brief explanation of what it did, but if I cant come up with a concrete idea as to whats wrong with it then I'm puttin it in the for sale section int he next day or so.

40 mile trip coming home from work, car was running just fine, it was about 90* outside and with the AC on the car was staying at about 225* in stop and go traffic. After about 30 min of that my voltage started to drop so I started to pull over, by the time i was in the shoulder the car was dead.

Tried to crank it and got nothing, popped the hood and noticed the voltage booster i got from ZZP was heat warped, pulled it off and the monte cranked just fine. Let it idle for about 5 min, when i revved it up it made a sound that seemed like a mix between a bad electric motor and a ****ty 4 banger, no specifics as to where the sounds was coming from because i was on the side of a busy highway lol.

I decided to try and drive it for the last 4 miles to get home, since it hadnt killed itself idling i figured it could handle slow speeds. I made it about 50 feet down the highway before it died on me again. After that it could hardly idle, it has 2 small puddles of what appears to be coolant on the LIM, where it dip down near the injectors.


The coolant on the LIM makes me think its a cracked or warped UIM, the voltage drop makes me think its a bad ground or wiring, and the sound it makes and the fact that it dies when it tries to move under its own weight makes me think its a valve train issue.

Here's a quick list of all the work I've had done to it that could be related to this.

July 2009 2.5" DP with high flow cat from ZZP

June 2010 New water pump, radiator fans and LIM gasket

February 2013 Alternator voltage booster, rear O2 emulator

August 2013, replaced the head gaskets and everything up from there, new radiator, cap, and coolant system flush

January 2014 new battery (optima red top)

All maintenance is up to date, other than the battery and some suspension issues the thing has been running perfectly, even managed to drive from houston to atlanta (800mi) non stop with no issues and 90* weather.

As much as I love my monte i have an 80 mile round trip for work 5 days a week and need something reliable, if yall have some solid ideas as to how to get it running i may keep it, but chances are I'll be selling it soon since i doubt its a simple fix.

 

Lim prolly blew. Also voltage booster is a scam

 

Second this except
it boosts voltage, just drops current. E=IxR

So it does exactly what it says it does.

 

Didnt mean that it doesnt boost volts, scam cause its not a good mod. Zzp even says so on their wbsite lol

 

an aluminum LIM gasket shouldn't fail from being at 225* after 8,000 miles. It was installed correctly by the way, i might have torn the thing down in a rush, but i took my sweet time putting it back together lol.

 

Every company makes defective products time to time

 

True, but if my LIM failed wouldnt i have coolant everywhere? I've never heard of them failing internally, isnt it usually the RTV corners?

 

Sounds like the alt crapped out. Pull the alt off and have it bench tested. Also coolant on lim is signs of either uim cracked or lim gaskets.

Is 225 factory temp for these cars? I don't remember it's been so long since I've had factory t stat I use a 180 and going to a drilled 160 probably. If I see coolant temps over 200 I get scared lol

 

I think the secondary fan kicks on at 220 or 225 so that shouldnt be too high. Alternator sounds like a good guess, its the original and im pushin 150k so it should be on its way out. Any way to verify the UIM is faulty without tearing it off?

 

Alternator checked out fine, went ahead and pulled off the UIM, couldnt see any cracks and it sat flush on a flat table