87 TBI 350 intermittent timing loss

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Sam71395

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Location
Minnesota
First Name
Sam
Truck Year
1987
Truck Model
V10 Silverado
Engine Size
350
Hi everyone, my 87 kind of has me stumped right now. For the last few times Ive been using it, it will be sitting idling fine and then for a spit second the rpm drops to nearly stalling but then it corrects itself just in time before quitting. So Ive been doing some troubleshooting and hooked up a timing light to it, and what is happening is that at idle my truck will be at about 14 btdc and then randomly drop to 0 and shoots back up again, creating a big surge in the idle speed. It does this completely randomly, I cant find any rhyme or reason to it. I unplugged both the knock sensor and esc box (the one by the map sensor) and it didn't change anything, it still did it with those unplugged. I've looked for loose or faulty wiring and found none. the only time i could get it to stop is when I unplugged the temperature sensor, i didn't think that temp sensors affected timing on these unless someone else knows otherwise. some advice would be greatly appreciated.
also, has no issues starting, or running otherwise, and no engine light is on
 

gmbellew

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glen
Truck Year
1990
Truck Model
suburban 1500
Engine Size
350
I’d guess that you have some stray voltage zapping the ignition control module wires. Do you have a code 42?
 

Sam71395

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1987
Truck Model
V10 Silverado
Engine Size
350
i just checked, it showed code 43, it never lit up on the dash, can codes show up and not light up on the dash?
 

gmbellew

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suburban 1500
Engine Size
350
i just checked, it showed code 43, it never lit up on the dash, can codes show up and not light up on the dash?
sometimes. code 43 is the ESC. there is a diagnostic for it in the drivability manual
 

Sam71395

Full Access Member
Joined
Jul 29, 2023
Posts
64
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52
Location
Minnesota
First Name
Sam
Truck Year
1987
Truck Model
V10 Silverado
Engine Size
350
i just did the procedure for diagnosis on a code 43, and it seems to be pointing to a esc module, the knock sensor checked out the wiring has no visible breaks or is loose, so Im going to get a new module and let you know how it goes
 

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