How To Tell If Car Running On Both Banks While In Garage?

I bumped a coil wire loose during a smog test and it was running on one bank for a very short time. You'll know! When 4 cylinders drags 4 dead cylinders - - - - you'll know.

How to find out which bank is on the fritz: One way is switch of engine, pull a coil wire from one of the banks, Attempt a start. If it starts, you pulled the wire on the dead bank, no start - the other bank has a problem. USE LOTS OF COMMON SENSE AROUND HIGH TENSION LEADS, 20,000+++ VOLTS LURKS WITHIN.

 

You'll know when its down. I could here it when mine lost one cylinder. 2dinos is correct. Be very careful. You get a decent wack if you touch any lead while running.

I used an infra red heat sensor to point at the exhaust which told me which cylinder was down. This intermittent misfire etc eventually contributed to me in deciding to do a full resto on the car.

 

I put an inductive timing light on the plug wires, to check if all are firing.

 

It's hard for me to imagine that you can't easily tell if an engine is not firing on half its cylinders. But as a new Ferrari owner, is there something I'm missing (no pun intended)?

Re getting whacked by plug wires... If they are connected on both ends and will short to YOU if you touch them, they need to be replaced.

 

Yes its true. You can unplug a ECU on one bank on my car (Mondial t) and it will sit there and idle like it is running on all eight. Its not until you step on the throttle and feel the lack of power that you get the picture. Wild 'eh?

Now that is completely different than having a missfire. I can hear a misfire a block away.

 

OMG, seriously guys, I thought about chiming in, thought again but finally did. The original poster was talking about one bank being down. Not one cylinder. On some parts of previous posts I agree. If one BANK fails and you do not recognize: Well, let someone else do the "starting ritual" for you. I go a step further, even if only one cylinder (repeatable) misfires and you do not recognize, look above.

So to the original poster: If it feels/sounds alright it probably is. Don’t get confused by other people having problems. It is about your car and you should have a good idea about the normal condition.

Regarding the ignition system: Oh yes, it is more dangerous than "the most poisonous fish in the world". While I think it is good to give warnings, I am tired of reading that the HV is sooooo dangerous. Yes, you should know what you are doing. But guess what, when I learned (the hard way, 22 years ago) about the secondary coil/HV the HV did nothing to me directly (BTW we are talking about microAMPs). In the second place the HV took control of my hand/arm and it more or less was bashed against some other parts in the engine room. I got a heavy bruise on my elbow because my arm developed a life on it’s own. So what?

As long as you don’t wear a pacemaker (IF SO, STAY AWAY FROM IGNITIONS AS LONG AS YOU DON`T KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOU ARE DOING) the actual risk is quite small. Ever got bruises because of that damn nut which wouldn’t surrender, until you made a bold construction to really apply power and at the very same moment (normally the one when a surrender of the nut would make you bash your hand/elbow/any other part of the body into something which will really hurt you / Murphy’s Law) the nut decided to give up?

Of course it is a very bad idea to touch the car/battery ground with your left hand while playing around on HV side of the ignition with your right hand. If you ask yourself why => STAY AWAY FROM THE IGNITION. But again, High Voltage (combined with very little current) in general is very much overestimated.

Jeremy, I can only repeat: If it feels right and sounds right, don’t worry.

Dirk

 

I do this. You'll need jumper cables too, the battery is WAY down at the the other end of the car. If you have an extra laying around, that works also.

 

I agree. If any plug is not firing the timing light will pick it up. This can save an awful lot of time when trying to find a single cylinder that is failing to fire, as well as a whole bank.

 

Take it from someone who has experienced a "dead bank" it can be harder to determine or hear than one might think... The crank in our cars is a "flat plane" 180 degree crank, so if one bank goes down the sound of the 4 firing cylinders is the mostly same as the normal 8... You can tell some thing is "off" but it's not as pronounced as in a 90 degree crank engined car. The coil wire trick is the easiest way to determine if you have a problem...

 

If it's only running on one bank it will sound/feel terrible and won't rev properly.

 

IMVHO, this is a very dangerous opinion to be passing along. One person living through an electrocution doesnt make it safe for others. They dont put labels warning of death on things unless its been known to happen.

 

I only have three solid experiences with a 308 losing a bank. First was a car I was looking to buy, second a friends whos dinoplex lost a bank, and once on mine when an MSD took a dump. In all cases the cars idled and ran smoothly at more or less normal idle speed, but they all had almost zero throttle response and zero power. Giving them gas resulted in a extremely labored acceleration, and no power at all trying to drive.

 

I have an 84, too. When mine had one bank down, the 'Slow Down' light stayed on after starting.
That's one way to tell while still in the garage.

 

Many years ago I watched an old friend of mine use a unique procedure to test if all cylinders on his 166 MM Barchetta were firing. He liberally licked a finger then touched each exhaust header pipe and watched the spit evaporate. If the spot stayed wet the cylinder was dead. He let me do one bank of cylinders - no burns, you just touch the pipe. I didn't wash that finger for weeks.

 

Yeah, but real Ferrari's dont have slow down lights.

jk

 

Yes, other things can make it run bad. The timing light is the best way to identify for certain if a whole bank is down due to ignition. It's something you can tell just by the sound if you have the experience, and pulling a coil lead will give you that experience.

 

Just purchased a '78 GTB. Has not run in 15-20 years. Did the pre-run stuff and it fired up. Sounded ok but not great. Tried to go down the street and way too little power. Looked on F-chat, checked my car and determined that yes, one bank is not running. Now my question is: where is the ecu located? Is there anything else I should be looking for. I feel stupid not finding it as I have owned an F430 and built or restored quite a few cars in my day - but never an exotic. Thought it might be fun - what was I thinking?!!! Anyway, your help is greatly appreciated! Thanks.

 

You can't find it because a '78 308 doesn't have an ECU. If you have a bank not working, it most likely is an ignition system problem (bad points, cap, rotor, etc.).

 

Thank you! That's one possibility to cross off my list. On to the next...thanks again.

 

I'm not sure if they're still available but I use a Firing Indicator from Champion. Just touch it to a plug wire and the light (in the window) pulses with each firing.
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