Disappointment At Track Tonight..

[earleys94gt]

Well guys tonight sucked. I went to the track for the first time to see what my car would do, and to get a "baseline" before I do any other work to it. The weather was in the mid 70's at almost no elevation. I've got a 94 with and automatic, full exhaust, K&N filter, FRPP 9mm wires and an MSD coil. My first run was a [email protected] mph and my second was a [email protected] mph!!! I knew my car wasn't going to run 10's or anything, but that seems ridiculous.
One thing I have noticed is that my car seems to have an "ignition rattle." What it's doing is when I barely touch the pedal, my motor seems to make a metalic rattle noise on both sides. I don't know if the spark plugs are wrong, maybe the distributor or who knows. I did replace the cap and rotor about a year ago. Any imput on either/both topics would be great, thanks.

 

[88GT460]

a u to m a t i c.. and I don't see gears listed as a modification.

 

[NotQuik]

thats weird, i ran mine a couple months ago and it went 15.3@92 bone stock to paper filter and it was in the 80's. i would check your fuel filter as well thats atleast a cheap easy fix. i really cant think right now though but i know others will brain storm possible problems for you

 

[Mustangless]

I think that is what mine would run. Mine runs like crap, won't even spinout.

Try cleaning your maf, if you havnt

 

[rustang94]

Try cleaning your maf, if you havnt

I'm with him

 

[WhiteDevil]

That metallic rattle might be pinging

 

[nito88stang]

check your timing, i'm betting its way off.

 

[RIO5.0]

hese

These cars can be mutts if outta tune some...they aint all that powerful anyway... so don't feel bad there...we all been there...

Got yourself a pinger there....thats odd... The GT scurge is what we should call it...as mentioned it's time to clean things up maybe??...MAF....check the vac lines all around for splits or cracks...actually you can change em all for under 15.00 or so and be done with it rather than trying to find a bad one or a leak??
Lotta miles?? Maybe a top end cleaning such as Seafoam to clean up the carbon deposits, thats a contributor too....wheres the timing??
Those are some simple things you could check and do for not alot of dinero to start...it can be worthwhile to check the codes and see if somethings there...we have our fair share on sensors that can also contribute...
mine was a pinger from day one so I know the problem.....happy hunting...

 

[Pokageek]

I'm with him

The MAF will KILL your car if never been cleaned. The only mods you have that are worth anything in my o are the x pipe and shorty. Catbacks don't do squat and neither do k&n panel filters. Your gears probably also suck big time. All this is enough to make your time REALLY suck. Hang in there and let us know.

 

[earleys94gt]

So the consenus is clean the MAF and look for vacuum leaks. That's kind of what I figured. The timing is at the facory setting, according to the marks on the bottom of the distributor. Tomorrow I'll take a look at my car and see what I can figure out. I'm gonna clean the MAF, check for vacuum leaks and maybe mess with the timing some. Hopefully, I can somewhat fix the problem.
Yes, my car has the stock gears and also has 133,000 on the clock. I did a quick look around earlier this morning and I think I saw some coolant leaking from undernath my header on my passenger side, by cylinder 2. I'll have to check on that too. If anyone has any ideas or comments, plese let me know. Thanks.

 

[rustang94]

So the consenus is clean the MAF and look for vacuum leaks. That's kind of what I figured. The timing is at the facory setting, according to the marks on the bottom of the distributor. Tomorrow I'll take a look at my car and see what I can figure out. I'm gonna clean the MAF, check for vacuum leaks and maybe mess with the timing some. Hopefully, I can somewhat fix the problem.
Yes, my car has the stock gears and also has 133,000 on the clock. I did a quick look around earlier this morning and I think I saw some coolant leaking from undernath my header on my passenger side, by cylinder 2. I'll have to check on that too. If anyone has any ideas or comments, plese let me know. Thanks.

good place to start. I would set the timing at about 12*

 

[JJ95GTID]

Coolant leaking from under the headers is not good. Blown head gasket most likely and that is a major power killer.

 

[earleys94gt]

Today I checked out my car. I cleaned my MAF as well as the sensors on my throttle body. I also checked my timing. It was at 12* already, I messed around with it some and decided that 10* seemed to make it run better. After all that I decided that the metallic rattle is under my valve covers. Probably my rockers or maybe a lifter. Hopefully I can get this diagnosed and/or fixed sooon. Thanks for everyone's imput/help.

 

[94YellowStang]

did you clean the hot wires on the mass air sensor, you have to have a special hex bit to take the black sensor off the mass air housing and you will see 4 prongs, thats what you clean.If the prongs are black cleaning them will help out a lot because the black on the prongs dont give the sensor a good signal when they heat up and dont provide the computer with the right voltage.
Go to the autoparts store and buy the bit and clean the hot wires good.

 

[earleys94gt]

Alright, so I took my MAF apart to clean it and it was spotless!!! So it can't be my MAF causing my problem. My Dad said it could be my spark plugs because they are the stock plugs, but I have headers. He said I may need to switch to a colder plug. I am in the mode of thinking that my car has 133,000 miles on it and that my rockers my have come loose or possibly a collapsed lifter or something. Maybe even carbon build-up in the combustion chamber. It's making the metallic rattle/"pinging" with the MSD coil and the stock coil. I'm kinda stuck, but I'll keep everyone posted on what I find.