North American Turbocoupe Organization



Missing? and running like crap
Ryan H Offline
Posting Freak
#1
I can't tell if the engine is missing or being starved of fuel pressure.

When you put any load on the engine (it will rev at idle just fine), it starts "bucking" back and forth and acting like its got no gas or something. At this time I can smell fuel but it goes away when you drive it under 2500 RPMs. In general, it will do this above 2200 RPM or so or whenever there is light load and especially when there is heavy load it seems.

It had a bad spark plug wire, so I put a good Motorcraft one in just to see, and it didn't do anything. Also, it keeps losing coolant. I thought maybe it was leaking it overnight, but it isn't.

I tried to rev it this morning and thick black smoke followed by wet carbon crap was left on the road. And now more coolant is gone.

Does this sound like a bad head gasket maybe?

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Ryan Harris

1988 TC, 5 speed, all options including sunroof Smile

1987 3.8L V6, C4, 160K miles, no options (winter car, when it works)

RIP 1987 TC, "Built" A4LD, 119K miles, all options except sunroof Sad

My Audio Mixes
'88 TC Smile Walbro 255HP, Stinger FMIC, PIT BOV, Pro 5.0, Kirban, RR cam, FRPP strut tower brace, T3
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Ryan H Offline
Posting Freak
#2
Here's a picture of what came out of the tailpipes. This was dumping the clutch in 1st btw.. Maybe I don't need to be doing that anymore [Image: biggrin.gif]
'88 TC Smile Walbro 255HP, Stinger FMIC, PIT BOV, Pro 5.0, Kirban, RR cam, FRPP strut tower brace, T3
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V6TBird87 Offline
Posting Freak
#3
i think youre running a bit rich...

my Dodge did the same thing, left carbon everywhere

it was a pig untill full boost, but the bugger took off!, factory controller was limited to 11psi, it was up at 13 [Image: biggrin.gif]

but back on topic, my dodges issue was a fuel pressure regulator, what you can do, is pop the vacume line off the regulator, and have someone crank it once or twice to see if fuel comes from the regulator nipple, that will at least tell you if the diaphram is ruptured

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1987 Thunderbird 3.8
1987 Turbo Coupe, 5-speed

www.foxthunderbirds.fast-go.com

aka Tbird232ci
2018 Mustang GT
1988 Turbo Coupe, 5-speed

aka Tbird232ci
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Ryan H Offline
Posting Freak
#4
No fuel is coming from it- the car even ran without it connected. Whats next [Image: confused.gif] Also there doesn't seem to be any coolant in the oil from pulling the dipstick. The oil is fresh also.

Its losing MASSIVE amounts of coolant it seems! I can top it off and after maybe 15 minutes of idling and short revs the coolant will have gone down about 1/4th from the top or more!

The car idles fine, revs fine when not in gear, and if you rev it to about 3K it will nearly die when you let off the throttle.

[This message has been edited by Ryan H (edited 01-19-2005).]
'88 TC Smile Walbro 255HP, Stinger FMIC, PIT BOV, Pro 5.0, Kirban, RR cam, FRPP strut tower brace, T3
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Joe F Offline
Posting Freak
#5
The coolant has to be going somewhere; if you fill it up, and none is dripping to the ground yet you're down 1/4 in 15 minutes, it has to be going into a cylinder and then out the tailpipe as steam. I could be wrong, but I can see no other reasonable explanation.

Have you checked compression yet? That's probably the best place to go from here to check for problems.

HTH.

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Be Cool,

Joe

JR's Place - My 87 TC
JR's Place - My '87 Turbocoupe
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Walsted Offline
Posting Freak
#6
I recently fixed a small coolant leak that wasn't obvious until the car was running - a heater hose was starting to leak at the clamp, and would shoot a small stream of water toward the exhaust manifold. I knew the water was going somewhere, but it was hard to find since it evaporated upon hitting the exhaust.

I don't know if this is helpful, but it may be something worth checking.
Mike Walsted - Sold my 1986 5-speed TurboCoupe
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Sluggo Offline
Posting Freak
#7
Sounds like HG the way you describe it.

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Doug
88 TC, $350 POS, 5sp, Spec stage 3, automotorsport cam, T3, Gillis, Walbro 255, K&N, 3" DP to Dynamax
Doug  
88 TC / T5,4.56,Log,SC60,NPR,2277,MegaSquirt
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Ryan H Offline
Posting Freak
#8
I just changed the plugs and wires completley with fresh Autolite 764's gapped @ 0.32 and Motorcraft 8mm's and it fixed the problem [Image: smile.gif]

There is still a slight stutter, but I'm thinking once I do the rest of the tune up and change the TPS (idles at around 1500 at random) everything will be okay.
'88 TC Smile Walbro 255HP, Stinger FMIC, PIT BOV, Pro 5.0, Kirban, RR cam, FRPP strut tower brace, T3
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Ryan H Offline
Posting Freak
#9
Oh, and the coolant hasn't drained any and I drove it about 20 miles. I don't know why it was eating it up but that went away I guess [Image: confused.gif]
'88 TC Smile Walbro 255HP, Stinger FMIC, PIT BOV, Pro 5.0, Kirban, RR cam, FRPP strut tower brace, T3
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Pete D Offline
Administrator
#10
Keep an eye on that coolant. If you had a problem to begin with and did nothing to fix it, it's still there. I suspect the rough running will return shortly.
Pete Dunham


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