T-Bird for Dinner

Heay I'm not sure what happened last night but my wife brought the car home from work and when she drove it up it was knocking like crazy and starving for gas to stay running. She said it died twice getting it home. (edit) I just went out and started it now and I got it started but if you give it any gas the engine is knocking severe so bad it shaking the car and the noise kinda of a pulsating thud feels like your running over something...its pretty bad. I also noticed some coolant coming out of the water pump seal. If I give it a few seconds it pretty much just kills the engine. (more info) well I just called my normal mechanic whos going to look at it but he said it sounds like it might had let a rod loose..hoping for the best.

Sounds familiar to me, last Nov. mine let a rod loose. I finally have the motor all rebuilt, but the rest of the car needs help. Snowball Effect.

Good Luck Hope its not to bad.

this kind of sucks only engine I can find so far locally is a long block from Schucks for 1200+ 300 core. Not sure if thats a good price but I'm still on the hunt for someone that can rebuild.

Be careful of ready to go remanufacturesd engines. Even if they claim to be specific replacements for a turbo engine, many of them do not come with the necessary forged pistons

Originally posted by Pete D:
many of them do not come with the necessary forged pistons

is this the only shortcoming?

I don't know, but this point has been verified more than once. Check with the manufacturer (not the seller). It would be enough to make me look at plan B.

well for now its sitting in the shop for the weekend. He looked at it and said its backloading (not exactly sure what this is). He mentioned he doesnt think its a rod but more like a blown or cracked head. Hes going to pull the plugs and check it on Monday and let me know.

The coolant leak may be coincidental to real problem ...or not...I'd have your mechanic do a compression test FIRST...and make sure ALL cylinders are healthy. You may have a popped rocker or an electrical concern...secondary ignition like wires,cap,rotor, etc. Timing belt could have jumped a couple teeth. Still could be a head gskt or head problem...BUT...do the compression test FIRST.

Got the call this morning that it the number 4 cam, lifter and follower are shot to hell. He's quoting me $1k to do the job. Shop rates in this town go for $85hr and the parts are quotes at $300. Now thats the scoop from him, but I would like some input before i do it.

a grand for a head? if you can turn a wrench and read you can save most of that money.