Going Nuckin futs

O.K. I've had this car running for 3 days now and I'm getting frustrated. I'm having a few different problems, so here goes. First the car won't idle at all, it stumbles and hunts till it finally dies. When attempting to restart it it cranks and cranks till finally after a few minutes it finally catches. When it does fire it smokes like a train for a few and runs rough. I'm pretty sure it's fuel smoke due to the injectors washing down the cylinder during cranking. It's probably fouyling a plug at the same time. Next is # 4 header tubes is glowing for about 3 inches down the pipe after a short drive. I've checked the plug and it's dark brown to black colored. I have the initial timing @ 10deg and FP @ 40psi. I currently have an autologic chip in it. The tune isn't perfect but it wont run at all without it. I have'nt really had it over 4000rpm yet, I did free rev it a couple times to 4500 and could still feel a bit of a shake or misfire. I'm kinda at a loss here and could use some feedback and or motivation:) I will be getting a new tune as soon as I put 4 or 5 hundred miles on it. Until then I'd just like the car to be driveable and safe. I read on Alternative Auto's website that they sometimes will set initial timing to around 20 deg, leave the spout connector out and manage timing with the BTM. Could this work for me? I'm not totally confident in this chip since I think it caused my last meltdown:mad: Thanks in advance for any replies. Mike.

i had some similar issues when i put my car back together. first thing i would do it remove the chip, change the plugs and reset the computer.

make sure your timing is set to the proper base.

when your cranking it and it doesn't want to start hold the gas pedal to the floor and that will shut the injectors off. when she fires relase the pedal. change your oil if it smells like gas.

i finally figured out all my problems were my vavles were not properly adjusted. when my lifters pumped it was enough the hang the valves open. car ran like poop and when it warmed up it would stall and wouldnt start again till it cooled off.

good luck

I'm going to do a leakdown test today prodably change the plugs while I'm at it. How do I reset the ECU? Removing the chip is easy enough, just never known to reset the ECU.

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Originally posted by BlownGTS
I'm going to do a leakdown test today prodably change the plugs while I'm at it. How do I reset the ECU? Removing the chip is easy enough, just never known to reset the ECU.

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Ok, are your plug wires in the right spot? Are they connected to the distributor correctly? I would have to agree on removing the chip and run it without one for now until you get the car running right. To reset the computer, disconnect the battery terminals and touch them together(your positive and negative cables) and hold for 30sec-to a minute then reconnect. It should reset everything. Try those things and let us know.

Yea I'd run an resistance test on the wires and check your cap and rotor. Another thing you might want to consider is you might have a bad injector or bad injector connections. Keep us up to date and good luck.:)

O.K heres a breakdown of what I've found so far. #1 like a dumbass I left the dist hold down bolt loose. This caused to timing to go back to 10deg reatrded:eek: . #2 My "new 180 deg T-stat" actually opens at over 215deg:confused: . #3 So after setting the timing correctly, the car ran awesome. Except for getting hot quickly. Putting an infrared thermometer on the radiator showed the center 80 to 100 deg cooler than the rest. Now I'm sending the rad out to get cleaned, repl the t-stat and coolant. Hopefully this clears up my problems. Thanks for the ideas guys. I'll keep you posted. Later, Mike.

Don't feel alone, I've done that before. Left the distributor loose and forgot about it and thought what the hell, why is this thing running like a POS:D . Good luck with the cooling. Are you running a aluminum radiator? I run a 180stat, I drilled a hole at the top of it so it would burp itself and I run a Fluidyne radiator. It's awesome, with dual elec. fans. Mine stays around 160-180 even in the summer.:)

Don't forget to add a bottle of redline water wetter ;)

I remember I did a few of those things before, like leave the dist. hold down bolt loose, and wondered why the car ran like crap.

"It" (add the S and H infront of "it")happens.

Or 2 or 3

Well this cooling thing is killing me:mad: :mad: I,ve tried 3 new t-stats. 1 Ford and 2 Stant's. Heres the scenario, First thing in the morning I can get maybe 2 or 3 mins from my house. The heater is not hot and the temp guage is on the "N" of NORMAL. Within 5 minutes the temp guage will creep towards the "L". I pull over and check things out. The upper rad hose is hard as a rock, radiator cap is cold, radiator core is cold, lower hose is cold. If I shut the car off and wait 1 or 2 mins and restart then the temp guage will go back to the "N" and the heater will blow hot. There will be no more problems for the rest of the drive to work (another 40mins and 20miles). The same thing will happen after work on the way home. I've replaced the radiator with a new factory unit, I have no A/C condenser to block airflow, new 180 deg t-stat and I filled cooling system with a vacuum assisted cooling tool. This sucks all the air out for a less likely chance of air pockets. I have a new Stewart components water pump also. I initially thought I had the water pump spinning the wrong way, I've checked that over and over with pics in magazines, on the internet etc. I'm seriously going to trade this thing in Monday if I cant fix this problem this weekend:mad: Should I try using one of those hi-perf t-stats? Turn the water pump the other direction? I'm at a total loss here. Thanks for the replies, time to go find some gas and matches for a bonfire!!!!

I've had great success with using Robert Shaw thermostats from autozone.

The 180 * is perferct!


What is the weather like over where you are at... the colder it is, I have noticed it takes a little longer for my car to get to operating temp to burp the system out properly. It makes sense. It takes me like a few mins in our 100+ * summers to burp the system out. Big difference.

How long do you spend burping out your system?

Radiator... Did you have it cleaned out thourougly? You are certain that you have the t-stat in correctly?

The radiator is brand new from Ford. The temp is about 60 deg in the afternoon right now. About 40 deg in the morning. I was filling the coolant inside of a 75 deg shop. I installed the t-stat with the smaller side facing the radiator. Does that sound correct, it showed a picture on the box of how to install it. It takes about 5 mins using the coolant tool I'm using. Although I'm starting to think the tool isn't helping me any. I'm gonna try another t-stat and not use this tool. I'll just try to burp it the regular way. Hope this works.

I agree... ditch the tool and try a new t-stat (Robert Shaw :) ), and burp it the old fashion way. See what the results are.

Post your findings!

I was having problems with overheating a while back. After changing the t-stat several times and not getting the problem fixed I finally bought one from Ford. It comes with the bleeder on the top so no drilling is required. And I haven't had any problems at all and that was about 2 years ago. Sometimes it seems like the factory parts work the best. Its the same story for U-Joints IMO. Good luck!

Trey

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Originally posted by 2Tone91GT
Sometimes it seems like the factory parts work the best.

Trey

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Ain't that the truth!!!!!!!!

Well heres an update. I replaced the t-stat with a 180 deg Robertshaw that my buddy had. Works perfect at this time. A new problem arose in that after driving it hard or driving it for an extended period, after shutting it off it will lose coolant. I made a little trip out of town this weekend. The entire trip @ 90mph + it stayed in the "N". When I started driving around town it went up to the "A" and would go back and forth to the "L". As far as I could tell I did not lose any coolant anywhere. After letting the car sit for a few hours I pulled the cap off and it was nearly 1/2 gal low. The overflow bottle was @ the "Full hot" mark. This tells me that either I have a weak rad cap, or it's burning off in the combustion area somehow. Can I run a 19-20 # cap? Will this cause any problems? If that does'nt work then I'm going to have to get rid of this thing, since I can't afford to tear it apart again and find a cracked head or block.:( I'll pull the plugs out later and pressure test the cooling system to verify whether or not thats the culprit. God I hope not:confused: On a lighter note I finally throttled it a bit over the weekend.... I don't remember having traction problems in 3rd or 4th gear before:D I blew the doors off of a H/C/I 91 GT Saturday. He was also running a 75 shot. We raced from a 50mph roll, I put 2 or more bus length's on him before shutting down @ around 125. Man that felt good. BTW it did'nt even heat up to the "R" on that run:confused: Damn car's got me stumped. Later.

O.K. I give up, I have tried everything anyone has suggested...all to no avail. This thing will still push coolant past the radiator cap, into the bottle. I went and got 2 more Robertshaw T-stats, drilled holes in the tops of both, no change. I got new 16# Ford rad cap and a Moroso 18# cap, no change. I filled the coolant from the heater hose, temp sensor hole, radiator filler neck, upper water outlet, no difference. I can say without a doubt that there is no air in the system!!! My only other options are
1) Replace the water pump.. Could this Stewart pump be too strong and it's cavitating the coolant? I'm using a fox style W/P pulley, it's smaller than stock. Could this be a problem? Spinning too fast?

2) Yank the intake and look for a blown intake gasket, maybe that is filling the cooling system?

3) Pull the heads and look for blown H/G, cracked head etc. No evidence of this in oil, coolant or out of tailpipe though:confused:

4) Keep filling the system and drive it till I can find something else to buy and just get rid of this pile!
I am at wits end here, any more ideas?:mad: :mad:

But it sounds like you have blown a head gasket. Temp guage fluctuations, loosing coolant, etc. I know tearing apart a motor can be a pain, but you're probably not going to sneak this kind of a problem over on a potential buyer.

Swapping head gaskets builds character, believe me.

Good luck.

Mitch

Well Mitch your the winner:D . It was a blown H/G. I swapped them last Friday. It only took about 5hrs or so with a couple of breaks. The #5 cylinder was blown from a steam hole into the fire ring:confused: The general consensus was that I , 1)Did'nt torque the heads enough (70ft lbs the first time) 2) Did'nt properly burp the cooling system upon first start up (air pocket) 3) Did'nt coat the gaskets with Gasgasinch. So this time I called the ARP tech line and asked. I was told to torque my studs to 90#'s on top and 80#'s on bottom. I filled the cooling system through the temp sensor hole, and waited for it to burp. It runs like a banshee now, no more o-heating, all 8 cylinders firing. Feels like a different car now. Thanks to everyone for the help. Dyno & Track #'s coming soon:D Any guesses.

That's a good turnaround time for swapping head gaskets too!

Glad to hear it worked out. There are a lot of variables such as suspension, type of transmission, fuel system, tuning, etc that will determine what numbers you can run. I've seen mid to low 11's and even 10's with similar combos.

Mitch

Well I actually was only expecting low 12's- high 11's. It went 12.50 @ 115 with the old wounded motor. Hopefully I'll be suprised:) Thanks.