I pulled her out for a test run just now. Idled and ran great -- for about ten minutes, Then it suddenly hit what I think is limp mode (and I could have sworn the clutch was losing pressure, but I can't say for sure). No power at all, sounded strange, wouldn't idle. I got it back up the driveway and popped the hood. There was smoke coming from somewhere under the alternator (definitely NOT from the alternator itself). I know it wasn't gas and I'm pretty sure it wasn't oil.

WTF? Could I be burning wires somewhere?

God, I miss this car. My DD right now is an '84 Subaru GL 4WD hatch with a very tired 4-speed pushing less than 80 hp.

 

"I pulled her out for a test run just now. "

What were you testing? Go back and check the work you did that required a test. Aside from that, what did the "smoke" smell like? Electrical, sweet smelling, what? Was it really smoke or steam? You should be able to pinpoint the origin of the smoke and that should suggest the cause.

 

The problem I was trying to fix was that the ECU wasn't telling one of the primary injectors to fire. Rather than try to solder it back together, I just replaced the ECU (with the same model). So I took your advice and checked all the connections to the ECU; they're good as far as I can tell.

I don't know if the smoke smelled electrical, but it wasn't sweet. Now that you mention it, though, it could easily have been steam. I checked to see if it's losing coolant, but it's not. And obviously the first thing I did when this happened was to check under the car for a puddle, but there wasn't, so I'm reasonably sure if there's something leaking it's only leaking when the engine is warmed up and running.

I've been going through the Haynes manual and I'm stumped as to what could be going on here. Please help me keep this one alive