no power, takes forever to rev up in gear

ok guys i just finishing putting my engine back in the car. i had to replace a freeze plug. and now its like i have no power. i have a header leak on the drivers side on the very first exhaust port. the car idles fine, the rpms drop a little bit but then it jumps right back up. the car just has no low end power. when the engine was out, i put new spark plugs in it, a new king cobra clutch and all new freeze plugs. i also replaced the cap and rotor. now i was exactly giving it full throttle since i have to wait for the clutch to break in, but it should have more power than it does now. i was going up a hill in 3rd gear and was barely making it. now before i pulled the motor, the car screamed up the hill with no problems. i have no CEL's and all my vacuum lines are hooked up. any clues or hints on whats wrong with my stang
 
HPIM2385-1.webp
 
thanks for the pic. i will go test that and see. do u think maybe my injectors could be clogged? would that cause the loss of power? i mean i removed them from my fuel rail and sat them on the work bench. maybe sawdust or dirt got in them? i wiped them clean before i installed them
 
I seriously doubt you clogged your injectors. In my experience (with varnished injectors, not externally dirtied ones), they work like crap at a low duty cycle and lower fuel pressure (i.e. idle). Once you get their DC up (even if it idles like crap), they start to work ok.

It still feels like an 'adjustment' or something like a bad plug or plug wire. A slighly lopey stang will idle ok like this but runs like total crap under load.
 
ok, i was out there unplugging vacuum lines, and my exhaust leak i had, went away. i had the egr vacuum line hooked up to a port my the fuel regulator, when i unplugged this line my exhaust leak went away and the lopey idle went away. now im going to test drive it and see if i have power. where should the egr vacuum line be plugged in at?
 
ok, i was out there unplugging vacuum lines, and my exhaust leak i had, went away. i had the egr vacuum line hooked up to a port my the fuel regulator, when i unplugged this line my exhaust leak went away and the lopey idle went away. now im going to test drive it and see if i have power. where should the egr vacuum line be plugged in at?

The EGR gets a dedicated line from the EGR solenoid. It should have a green trace. This is the *only* vac line you can use for the EGR (the EGR has its own solenoid and needs to be connected to it).



Here's a vacuum schematic in case it helps.

Good luck.
 
my vacuum lines are all dry rotted and cracked, the previous owner used tubing and jimmy rig'd them together. so there are 3 ports where the fuel regulator vacuum line plugs into. what 3 things are supposed to be plugged in there?

after i disconnected the egr line from that place by the regulator, i got the power back in my car and it idles perfect.

i hate vacuum lines
 
where is the egr solenoid at? in the fender well? i thought i had the problem fixed but it turns out i dont. when i lug the car down to low rpms, i get a popping noise through the intake. i thought my tranny mount was bad and my exhaust was hitting the floor boards cause thats what it sounded like to me. so i fixed the tranny mount cause it was bad too, but i still get this popping noise. i have none of my egr or smog pump vacuum lines hooked up. could this be the problem? where do the red, green and pink hard plastic lines plug into? i have one nipple on my intake by the fpr, one on the egr and two on the smog pump lines. so which colored line goes where? i tried looking at that vacuum schematic but i cant read it and understand it, i need to physically see stuff to understand it.

thanks for the patience

chad
 
Yep, the solenoid is in the passenger fenderwell.

The popping while lugging should not be normal. Go over all vac lines and check for a leak. Any that are disconnected (from smog stuff, etc) should be capped off. There are times when they dont suck at idle but will at other times, thus creating a vac leak while you drive.

I dont have any actual pics of the system so I cant help with that.

Good luck.
 
ok well i took my fender off and i looked over all the vacuum lines, and i think i have everything hooked up right. but i still get this knocking/ popping sound when i lug the car on take off. however i think it might be the air tube that goes to the h-pipe. i broke the bracket that held it to the header when i removed the motor and i think the shaking of the engine is banging it against my floor boards and i thinking that might be my sound. im going to remove that tube and drive the car and see if it stops. thanks alot hissin for responding. your a cool dude

chad
 
How bad are you lugging it? If you're doing something like taking off in 4th gear from a stop, that will make lots of bad noises.

Lugging otherwise does create a lot of vibration (and it's really tough on the bottom end of the motor) so your idea with something hitting something else is good. Lugging will even rock the engine pretty good if your mounts are worn.

IF the fenderliner is off (all you had to do was remove the liner inside the wheel well), check the EGR's vac line at both ends. I plug one end and connect a Mitivac to the other. PUmp it up and make sure it holds vacuum. This also allows you confirm that you have the correct solenoid that you're checking (if the EGR vac line is plugged and you pump a line up and it wont hold at all, either the EGR plastic line is broken or the vacuum pump is on the wrong line).

Good luck.
 
lugging it is like below 1000 rpms, like when i first take out in 1st gear, is i rev it up a little and let it out it goes fine with no noise, but if i let the clutch out at like 800 rpms i get that noise til i get the rpms up. or if i slow down to take a sharp 90 degree turn and i have it in like 3rd or something and the rpms are down it will make the noise. basically i guess i just need to run the car harder. lol

i dont have a tool to check for vacuum. but i did follow the green vacuum line from the solenoid inside the fender to the egr valve, so im sure i got everything hooked up right, but maybe my egr is bad
 
Noises like that in first gear below 1K RPM suggest a miss. The EGR should not be a factor for you at this RPM, unless it was sticking open (which it sounds like you've eliminated the possibility of).

If you haven't done it, run a cylinder balance test. It takes an additional two minutes to do after you pull codes (it's part of the self diagnostics). If you have a cylinder that isn't contributing as much as it should, this will find it for you.

If your car idles a little lumpy normally, it can be very tough to hear a miss otherwise.

Good luck.
 
I agree with Toyman. Even better is a code scanner (not reader) that allows you to view PIDs.

All you need is a paperclip to do a CBT.
 
ok, so whats a good scanner to get? are they all the same? like the local auto parts store will have them?

would the tweecer r/t allow me to read codes? cause i was debating on picking one up and learning to self tune

whats with the paper clip trick?

thanks for the patience

chad