Hi Guys,
Need some help here. I don't drive my 98 GT much (car only has 42k on it), and in fact had it parked in my garage for year, but a few months ago, I decided to drive it again. Car ran fine when parked. Charged the battery and went to start, and all it would do is crank. Realized fuel pump was dead, dropped tank and replaced. Guessed it's all the alcohol they add to gas today that locked up the old pump. Car ran great for 2 months.
Went to start the car a few times and got a weird slow crank, occasionally it would start and run real rough and sound like the timing was all retarded. Then, other times, it would fire right up like nothing was wrong and would run great. I caulked up the strange starts to a dying battery, as it's at least 4-5 years old.
Changed the oil last week (Mobil One), and went to start the car and it ran super rough and smoked at idle. Double checked everything under the hood, couldn't find anything wrong. Was sure car had a vibration at around 1500 rpm. Pulled plugs, most looked ok, except #8, oil fouled. Cleaned MAF, no change. Changed plugs (still had original plugs), to Autolite AP104s, still ran rough. Thinking my smoke was being caused by a sticking injector (hey - the fuel pump died due to additives in the gas, thought it might have gummed up the injectors too), swapped injectors with ones I pulled and cleaned from a '96 GT. No change, still ran rough. Pulled plugs again, most look fine, some light fouling/deposits on 5-7, could be from when I pulled the injectors and spilled fuel from the rail down the injector holes. Plugs #4 and #8 are black and oil fouled. In fact, #8 had oil dripping from the electrode. This set of plugs was in for less than a hour of runtime.
Swapped plugs out Motorcraft SP-432's. Car runs 'better' now, vibration seems to be mostly gone, BUT, car still has a definite miss, idle recovery is slow and dips to around 400-500 before settling. Car still smokes, just not as much, I'd call the smoke white. And, here's the funny part, the exhaust temps (at the outlet tip) are different, by 75-80 degrees! The right side is so hot, you can only hold your had at the tip for about 10 seconds before it's just too hot, the left side exhaust is lukewarm at best.
So, to recap, my symptoms are:
1. Miss, present at idle, and when driving.
2. Down on power
3. White smoke from exhaust, worse warm than when cold (I think)
4. Wildly different exhaust temps
5. Problems persist with plug changes.
I should also note that the car has NEVER given a check engine light throughout all this. One time, I unplugged the IAT sensor just to see if it would throw a code, it did and I cleared that.
HELP - I'm not sure what problem I'm chasing here. Any ideas?
Thanks!
Need some help here. I don't drive my 98 GT much (car only has 42k on it), and in fact had it parked in my garage for year, but a few months ago, I decided to drive it again. Car ran fine when parked. Charged the battery and went to start, and all it would do is crank. Realized fuel pump was dead, dropped tank and replaced. Guessed it's all the alcohol they add to gas today that locked up the old pump. Car ran great for 2 months.
Went to start the car a few times and got a weird slow crank, occasionally it would start and run real rough and sound like the timing was all retarded. Then, other times, it would fire right up like nothing was wrong and would run great. I caulked up the strange starts to a dying battery, as it's at least 4-5 years old.
Changed the oil last week (Mobil One), and went to start the car and it ran super rough and smoked at idle. Double checked everything under the hood, couldn't find anything wrong. Was sure car had a vibration at around 1500 rpm. Pulled plugs, most looked ok, except #8, oil fouled. Cleaned MAF, no change. Changed plugs (still had original plugs), to Autolite AP104s, still ran rough. Thinking my smoke was being caused by a sticking injector (hey - the fuel pump died due to additives in the gas, thought it might have gummed up the injectors too), swapped injectors with ones I pulled and cleaned from a '96 GT. No change, still ran rough. Pulled plugs again, most look fine, some light fouling/deposits on 5-7, could be from when I pulled the injectors and spilled fuel from the rail down the injector holes. Plugs #4 and #8 are black and oil fouled. In fact, #8 had oil dripping from the electrode. This set of plugs was in for less than a hour of runtime.
Swapped plugs out Motorcraft SP-432's. Car runs 'better' now, vibration seems to be mostly gone, BUT, car still has a definite miss, idle recovery is slow and dips to around 400-500 before settling. Car still smokes, just not as much, I'd call the smoke white. And, here's the funny part, the exhaust temps (at the outlet tip) are different, by 75-80 degrees! The right side is so hot, you can only hold your had at the tip for about 10 seconds before it's just too hot, the left side exhaust is lukewarm at best.
So, to recap, my symptoms are:
1. Miss, present at idle, and when driving.
2. Down on power
3. White smoke from exhaust, worse warm than when cold (I think)
4. Wildly different exhaust temps
5. Problems persist with plug changes.
I should also note that the car has NEVER given a check engine light throughout all this. One time, I unplugged the IAT sensor just to see if it would throw a code, it did and I cleared that.
HELP - I'm not sure what problem I'm chasing here. Any ideas?
Thanks!