[Shotimes] Intermittent Misfire on '94 w/ATX (long)

Carl Prochilo gr8sho@prochilo.myserver.org
Tue, 16 Mar 2004 09:56:00 -0500 (Eastern Standard Time)


The stumbling you mentioned can be the camshaft position sensor. 
For me, that threw a code when the stumbling happened and I got the
CEL to come on momentarily.  I noticed that the problem was
temperature sensitive.
-- 
Cheers,
Carl Prochilo
1992 Ultra Red Crimson

J.B. Hebert said:
> Ah, totally forgot to mention that.  Yes, I did both tests when the
> problem
> first started, but I have not done them since the most recent
> increase in
> severity.  When I ran the tests, everything came back normal.  I'll
> try
> them again tonight if I can get the car running long enough to warm
> up.
>
> Thanks,
>
> J.B. Hebert
>
> At 09:29 AM 3/16/2004 -0500, you wrote:
>>Just curiious.  In any of that long list of work did you do a KOEO
>>or KOER test?
>>--
>>Cheers,
>>Carl Prochilo
>>1992 Ultra Red Crimson
>>
>>J.B. Hebert said:
>> > Hello:
>> >
>> > I've been working on a problem with my '94 SHO 3.2 ATX.  It's
>> > driving me
>> > nuts, so I'm hoping that someone here can point me in the right
>> > direction.  It started a few months ago with a surging/misfire
>> at
>> > light
>> > throttle input.  I thought I might have gotten some bad gas, so
>> I
>> > ran a few
>> > containers of Techron through and the problem seemed to go away.
>> > Then a
>> > week or two later it came back again.  It felt like one or two
>> > cylinders
>> > were not firing properly.  Following standard troubleshooting
>> for
>> > these
>> > cars, I first checked the spark plug wells.  Sure enough, 2 or 3
>> > were
>> > nearly full of oil, so I replaced all the valve cover seals and
>> > cleaned out
>> > the spark plug wells thoroughly.  After reassembling the car,
>> the
>> > problem
>> > once again seemed to be resolved.  However, after a few hours of
>> > driving it
>> > returned.  At this point I had my mechanic run a few tests, and
>> he
>> > found
>> > that one of the cylinders was running lean.  I decided to have
>> the
>> > injectors rebuilt in case I had one intermittently sticking.  At
>> the
>> > same
>> > time I replaced the coil, in case I had one that was failing, as
>> > well as
>> > the air and fuel filters.  I put the new injectors in, and once
>> > again
>> > everything was fine for a while.  Then the problem returned.  At
>> > this
>> > point, I thought it might be a spark issue.  Even though the
>> > previous owner
>> > had recently had the spark plugs and wires replaced, they did
>> not
>> > use
>> > quality wires, so I replaced the spark plugs with the
>> appropriate
>> > Motorcraft platinums and put a set of Taylor spiral core wires
>> in.
>> > After
>> > doing this, the car ran great for about 15 minutes.  I took it
>> out
>> > on the
>> > highway and got it warmed up, then did a couple hard
>> acceleration
>> > runs.  It
>> > was running out smoothly and with good power.  However, after
>> the
>> > second or
>> > third run, I noticed that the car wouldn't rev over about 3800
>> RPM.
>> > It was
>> > like it was hitting a rev limiter or something when it tried to
>> open
>> > the
>> > secondary runners.  Suddenly, I completely lost power and the
>> tach
>> > dropped
>> > to around 300RPM, even though the engine was still turning much
>> > faster than
>> > that.  I managed to get to the next off ramp and at this point
>> the
>> > car was
>> > running on MAYBE two cylinders.  It would move, but the exhaust
>> note
>> > was
>> > very bad and the transmission was having trouble shifting.  The
>> tach
>> > was
>> > way off; it would read around 400 RPM even after a shift.
>> Around
>> > this time
>> > the cabin started to fill with nasty, burnt plastic smoke.  I
>> pulled
>> > off to
>> > the side of the road and shut down.  I popped the hood and could
>> not
>> > find
>> > the source of the smoke.  It soon disapated so I started the
>> car,
>> > and it
>> > ran much better.  However, while limping home it got worse again
>> and
>> > the
>> > smoke returned.  I made it home and shut the motor off, coasting
>> > down the
>> > driveway.  Once again I was unable to find the source of the
>> smoke.
>> > One
>> > last thing to note:  at no time during any of this has the check
>> > engine
>> > light come on.
>> >
>> > This car is driving me nuts, and making me long for my '89 MTX.
>> > Does
>> > anyone have any ideas what might be causing this?
>> >
>> > Thanks in advance.
>> >
>> > J.B. Hebert
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > Shotimes mailing list
>> > Shotimes@autox.team.net
>> > http://www.team.net/mailman/listinfo/shotimes
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