Spark knocking?

[Silver Talon]

A while ago i went on a trip with my wife in the mustang as i had just got a new radiator in it and was going to test it out on a longer road trip. We got to our destionation fine, ran nice and cool. So after we were done i filled back up and headed back home. I noticed that the oil pressure was as high as it would go and that it started knocking and i lost all of my power. I stoped immediatly and let her cool off as she was getting kinda warm by then. I figured i might be low on oil as usal as i have a rear seal leak. i added 2 quarts of oil and started it again. It immediatly started ticking, and it sounded like it was coming from the valves. I killed it and pored some oil in the heads on the other side i hadent filled in. I didnt start it just turned it over for a while to get the juices flowing agian. When i started it it was still doing it, but it quickly went away. I couldnt hear and noises no matter how much i listend and reved the engine. I took off on my way. It still knocked when i steped on it but i still had to get home so i drove it the rest of the way. I made it without it knocking and proceded to start asking questions about what had happend. It was smokeing also so I figured it was piston rings. When I finnaly had a mechanic drive it and he didnt go more than 20 feet and he turned around and came back and said that it was deffinatly spark knocking. I still had not used all of the gas from when i filled up from my return trip, so i milked it around for a few days and filled her up with super. He said it should go away pretty quickly. Well 3/4 of a tank later and nothing has changed. He said that my distributer cap might have moved, but i cant even hardly move it my self so i dont know how it did that on its own. I ran the bad gas out of it till i had less than empty on my gas gauge (which is REALLY low) then filled it. Now im almost out again and still no improvements. I pulled the plugs out of the passenger side and the first plug looked normal, pretty white. The next one was really rusty looking. Not very wet either. The 3rd was Black as hell, it really looked like ****. and the last one was rusty like the 3rd. I havent changed them yet as the mech. said to wait till the gas clears up. They also went into the same place they came out. I cleaned the cap and made sure the connections were good. It runs on all 8 as far as we can all tell, except when u romp on it then it goes to 4cyl mode and pusses out. What the hell happend guys?

 

[Silver Talon]

Sorry bout the long post, just thought the whole story would help.

 

[Ray III]

was it one of those arab marts with fuel tanks full of dirt? cuz I think they screwed your injectors up.

 

[Silver Talon]

It was a ****ty old nasty place. And i filled it right to the rim. How would i Check/clean my injectors? Its an 82GT Ive never seen a fuel line on it. how do i get to them and what do they look like?

 

[Ray III]

oops that's gonna be a carbed motor... I still think it was bad gas, one time my dad filled up the truck with diesel from a new place that had just had the tanks put in, it made several miles and then the injector pump seized. So fuel quality is important especially in diesels.

 

[bsedwebt70-5.0]

to clean your injectors I HIGHLY suggest BG products fuel injector cleaner and fuel conditioner - it is 17-20.00 a bottle for 1 tank of gas but NOTHING compares - in about 1 tank time you WILL know it!!!!!!! You can find this at some good repair shops only - not found at Advance, AutoZone etc....

 

[Ray III]

dude no injectors.

ok I looked at how the plugs were - the ones in the middle are blackest and farthest out they are a bit leaner. You should check the other side and see if they also look like the middle cylinders had more fuel. I'm thinking dirt screwed up the jet or something else and caused poor fuel atomization, so it is dropping out of suspension and running mostly into the middle cylinders causing the ones farthest to the front and back to run lean.

 

[Silver Talon]

I pulled the other set of plugs and there all fine. But is there 2 jets one for each side? And do i have to pull the carb to adjust/ clean the jets and stuff?

 

[Silver Talon]

bump

 

[DJTR]

There is a product from lucas that is a CARB and Injector Cleaner that is a gas additive, works extremely well, or there's the standard spray ***** you can use but I like the Lucas better.... their oil additive is the best I don't do an oil change without a jug of it, even on a brand new motor! Also the carb could be starving itself for fuel due to a dirty filter! Try replacing that as well!

Good Luck!

 

[Silver Talon]

I just used nearly half a can of carb clean on the engine, and the only difference was the good side of the motor, it didnt touch the side i wanted. I do have a new fuel filter but im not going to change it untill i get another half a tank or so of gas through it to make sure its all gone. Ive been told that my carb has never been adjusted also. They said that u have to take off the carb and drill 1-2 holes in it so u can adjust it. While they do this will the jets be available to work on? Or do i even have to take the carb off to get at them? Its a stock 2 barrel carb. Thanx

 

[bentheredunthat]

When you said it would idle fine but dies when you rev it, it sounds like your fuel filter. Go ahead and replace it, don't worry about running any more gas through it...3 tanks (if I counted right) and a bottle of cleaner is plenty, you would have noticed an improvement by now. You've most likely got rust or dirt in your filter and it can't get enough gas. I don't know if the 82 2 barrell is like the 85 4 barrell, but the only filter is brass screen where the gas line connects to the carb. I had to rig another filter on mine (with gas line and an inline fuel filter) that wouldn't get clogged as easily and was easier to change. I can give you more detail on that if you want to try it.

How many miles on the car? Has the carb ever been rebuilt? After 2 rebuilds on my 85 I finally broke down and bought a new carb...WOW what a difference! I don't know if that's in your budget, but if you can't buy a new one you could at least rebuild the one you have.

 

[Ray III]

ya replace fuel filter, I was going to mention that before. If those things seriously do not have a real filter you need to get an inline fuel filter from NAPA, preferably a clear one that you can see how much dirt is in it.

If it continues to run like crap have the carb rebuilt.

 

[Silver Talon]

It idles alright i guess. And it revs cleanly all the way up. Not a knock in sight. Its when ur going down the road thats the prob. If ur in 3rd or any gear for that matter, and u step on it hard, like 1/2 throttle or more, it knocks, the further u press the worse it gets. Im pretty sure its getting enough gass, just not to all of the cyclinders. On that side one is getting dumped on it looks, and the first one/ farthest away is hardly touched, looks almost new, with very little fluid on it. Thats y it sounds like its got **** in the jets. But i dont know how to do that or even adjust the damn thing, it dosent have the jets on the outside of the carb as far as my self and some freinds can tell. IT almost dosent even sound bad idiling, unless u know what ur listening for.

 

[blackstangt]

1. do timing
2. fuel injector/carb cleaner for gas tank
3. change fuel filter
4. use spray carb cleaner
5. Change all plugs

none of these things are extremely expensive, especially if you can or know someone who can do timing. Even if one seems to solve the problem, do the others.

 

[blackstangt]

Lucas better.... their oil additive is the best I don't do an oil change without a jug of it

dont use lucas every oil change, I've heard it can expand your seals until there are leaks or they get weak.