Reasons to plan ahead. Duh!

[lordherald]

I changed out the camshaft sensor on my Daewoo today.
It was a pretty quick job, much faster then I had planned.
Once I had finished I turned on the car with my code reader attached and cleared out the 342 that has been keeping the CEL on for months.
I started the car and within about fifteen seconds the light comes on again.
I check every thing over clear the code and try again.
This time I get two codes, things are looking up or down, depends on how you look at it.
I then spent another hour checking voltages and making sure of where the problem is.
I found that the plug between the main harness and the senors harness has a questionable connection. I am getting the 5v i need on one side of the plug and 2.74 on the other. I think yay I found it.
I jumper past the plug and still the light comes on.
So i change to a smaller gauge wire to more closely match the original.
Still the light comes on.
I redo a previous set of solder joints and make all three wires match the stock size.
It takes longer to set off the code.
I think I am making progress.
Then the truth dawns on me the head in my car is a 1998 and it didn't have a cam sensor. There isn't anything on the cam gear to break the field of the sensor. So I wasted about four hours installing a $20 part that wont do anything.

[gone-ot]

"...live...and learn..."

At least your "lesson" was only a $20 lesson and not a $2,000 one.

[lordherald]

Update on stupidity
I started the car this morning to head into school and it started to miss.
The comp in the car was trying to use the newly repaired sensor to adjust the engine and because it was out of range kept making constant adjustments to the fuel mixture.
I checked a number of things and eventually just cut and taped my new wiring job to the sensor and then it started to run correctly again.
I guess I will continue looking for a different head for the car and hopefully wont botch it up as bad the second time.
The car does need a "new" head since the previous owner stripped a plug, had it sleeved, and then never changed the plug until it became one with the sleeve.

[P-hack]

not sure I follow you but there are thread repair kits for spark plugs, you tap the hole for the adapter and then try to get all the crap out (blowing/sucking/usb inspection camera).

How to Repair Stripped Spark Plug Threads: Auto Clinic - Popular Mechanics

[lordherald]

What I called a sleeve is the same thing as the adapter just bad terminology on my part.

At some time in the past my car had the head replaced with one from an earlier model.
It has an adapter on one of the plugs.
It has leaked in the past as someone used a bunch of RTV on it to stop the leak from the valve cover o-ring.
The first time I tried to change this plug the adapter came out with it. The brass from the adapter had fused itself to the sparkplug and so far I haven't been able to get it off.
This adapter is not a helicoil it is a brass sleeve with threads inside for the plug and cutting threads on the outside. It almost looks like a tap on the outside and is larger than a bigger sparkplug.
I am going the change the valve cover gasket and o-rings this weekend and will see if I can do anything to salvage it.
I will shoot a picture of the sleeve too, it actually has the spark plug number stamped into it.

[lordherald]

+ TIME-SERT® SPARK PLUG THREAD REPAIR KITS + spark plug stripped thread repair kits for spark plug problems, thread stripped spark plug repairs in damaged threads in spark plug hole stripped out approved thread repair, aluminum head spark plug repair
The inserts on this site are very similar to what I have.

[lordherald]

A side note from my failed repair.
While trying to attempt to diagnose what I did wrong my car was nearly flooding for an extended period of time. I now get the pleasure of changing my oil early due to the excessive amount of gas that ended up going past the rings. Luckily I didn't start the engine on fire.