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Engine WAS missing...

3K views 13 replies 6 participants last post by  GeneralSnoopy 
#1 ·
My engine overheated while pulling up steep hills with 4 people. We pulled over let it cool off it got back to normal and made it the rest of the way. It drove fine for the rest of the night. When we fired it up the next morning I let it warm up while packing the car and the engine started missing when I put it in reverse but didnt die so I kept going. Then put it in drive kept missing but it still didn't die. I put it in neutral revved it up and it quit. At this time it was running about 600 rpm or so idling and didn't have much power and after about 1/4 mile it stopped and we drove 45 mins home down the mountain. I can see the rpms drop sometimes. Checked oil and its a little thick put not over due.
 
#2 ·
when was last time you did a tune up? check your plugs and wires but this sounds like a weak distributor or coil to me, and unfortunatly for us the coil is housed in the distributor so it would require replacing the whole dizzy.
 
#4 · (Edited)
I do not believe this is necessarily the case kms but you may be right. Missing or a bad Dizzy would not cause overheating... At least not to my knowledge.

It sounds like the overheating may have messed something else up such as overheated the distributor. I would try to figure out why it overheated first. How is your cooling system? Clean? Clogged? Is the cap sealing properly. Was it low on coolant? I would check all that first.

Start up the X when you are fairly certain it will not overheat and run a power balance test.

You can unclip the injectors ONE at a time or Unplug the Sparkplug wire one at a time which can be dangerous so be careful. The injectors are not dangerous just the sparkplug wires. Rubber gloves would be awesome.

Listen to the RPM or using a gauge or the Tachometer in the X to determine whether the RPM drops everytime you remove one. (If you use the tachometer you need a second person since you cannot be in two places at once). If it did NOT drop then you have a misfire in that cylinder. unplug it and re-plug it in multiple times to see how many times out of 5 it Drops and how many times it does not.

This may or may not send a CEL.

This test will tell you how much one cylinder is contributing. compared to the other.

Once you narrow it down to which cylinders are misfiring then you can determine the problem. Your X Dropping to 650 Rpm only sounds like 2-3 Cylinders are misfiring and they may not be a dead miss so it is a little harder to tell. The X idles normall between 700-750 Anyway so it is not loosing 4-6 Cylinders obviously since it is not cutting off.

Once you determine which cylinders are misfiring then then see what is in common.

A distributor going bad like KMS said can cause a WIDE variety of problems. 1 Cylinder dead... multiple cylinders dead... Multiple misfires....Random multiple misfires... The list goes on and on.

A Sparkplug Wire, spark plug and fuel in injector would cause only 1 cylinder to go down in either a Dead miss or partial misfires and is usally NOT random. Most of the time there is some type of pattern to it.

I agree with KMS about your misfire problem it could be the distributor bearing that many people have problems with or the coil. hose two sound more likely; however, I had a similar issue to this except that mine did not overheat prior to misfiring and It was caused by the wire and boot coming loose. It would randomly misfire then go away.

I am assuming you have not received a CEL so it sounds most likely like
Random multiple misfire Symptoms to me.

Random multiple misfires make it Extremely hard for the computer to count the Misfires and like 3/4 times will not throw a CEL because of how many are missing and how when.
 
#5 ·
It still hasn't missed again...yet. My coolant levels are and were on the dime. My res has been getting low in the past from leaking but it was full this time when over heating. When i checked again a couple days later my res was almost empty, but like i said it is known to leak. I am getting all new wires and plugs and going to have the radiator flushed then i will see about it not missing again and hopefully overheating. We also think the button maybe going bad in the distributor.
 
#6 ·
I got up under the hood and listened good and my distributor is definitely going bad. It makes a noise when revving the engine and then quits. Is the whole thing going bad or just the cap?
 
#7 ·
Usually, it's the bearing inside the distributor. You can either press it out and replace, or buy a new/reman one.
 
#10 ·
look up in the DIY section there's a sticky of all the diy's . one is the replacement of the bearing- it's easy to do. hardest part is to press the bearing out then back in. I made a frame for my bottle jack to do it. [I don't have a arbor press]. just read it a couple of times to follow then do it. It also shows how to tell if it's bad.
 
#11 ·
Ok, so I took the same trip today and ended up pulling over in the same spot I did last time but I was about 400 pounds lighter this time. It started smoking this time on the passenger side and I was able to locate it. It was a small drip onto the heatshield, i think? I also found this under my oil cap a couple days ago. I have about a 2 mile trip to work everyday and I have read that can also do it...head gasket?
 
#12 ·
Ok, so I took the same trip today and ended up pulling over in the same spot I did last time but I was about 400 pounds lighter this time. It started smoking this time on the passenger side and I was able to locate it. It was a small drip onto the heatshield, i think? I also found this under my oil cap a couple days ago. I have about a 2 mile trip to work everyday and I have read that can also do it...head gasket?
That does not look promising. Run the engine for a few minutes, shut it off, and pull the dipstick and see if the oil is the color of pancake batter. If it is you have a blown head gasket.
 
#14 · (Edited)
Now that its summer my yellow goo is gone so no cracked head. my pass. valve cover is definitely leaking. I took it to the shop today because she over headed on the interstate. They said the valve cover leak was nothing to worry about my rear main is leaking and the bottom half of my radiator is not flowing. They said it may be because of the bumper valest was off. What do you guys think about that?

Also I just had the new water pump installed along with the belts at the same place. could the new waterpump have something to do with it? Now I wish I had just changed to radiator
 
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