bizarre issue.. won't stay running..

[ltd88]

Hope i'm in right blace.. lol i have an 88 LTD. I was driving home from work the other day and the red check engine light came on, so i pulled into the next parking lot and shut it off to check everything. soon as i shut it off a burst of smoke came out from under the hood. oil was full, radiator took 2 gallons of water once it was cool enough to open cap. started car up and it ran like crap. shaking the whole car. drove it home like that. next day comes i start it to go to work. shaking like crazy again. then stalled, now just cranks.. if i leave it sit a few hours it'll start again and repeat. starts, runs like crap for a minute and dies.. will just crank. even with a shot of starting fluid it won't fire at all unless it sits a while.. i'm totally lost on this one.. changed spark plugs and no differance.. help me...please..

[marquisman]

That's not a good sign that the rad took that much water. I am also going to guess your in a warm climate, after using plain water. At any rate, sounds like you have damage to overheating. It is very possible that you have baked the TFI module(on side of distributer and controls spark), since they are known to fail from heat, even in normal operating conditions. Do all the old plugs have consistent burn colour? Or are some different?

[gadget73]

the red light of doom means the engine is seriously overheated or is making no oil pressure. Seems obvious in your case it was overheated.

See if you have any spark. Last time I overheated an engine the TFI died the next day. The ignition pickups are also not real happy about lots of heat.

[GM_Guy]

In general to everybody;
1. Read the owners manual. Learn what your lights mean. Turn off the damn radio when this light comes on0.

2. Engine light = low/no oil pressure or overheating. In your case, she was overheating. Probably started innocently enough as a failing thermostat and/or fan clutch and even a radiator that has probably developed a seep and won't hold pressure any longer.

3. If she's ticking/tapping/clattering, pull over and shut it off. You lost oil pressure. Don't move it more than necessary to get safely to the side of the road. Theres still hope for recovery. Get towed. Don't try to make it to the next exit, your house, your work, your friends house. shut the f'ing thing off.

4.If she ain't ticking, she is probably hot. Turn off your a/c, stop driving like a mad man, and turn the heat on full blast. Pull over, open the hood and see if the fan is turning at all. If its not, stop of you WILL cook it. Your heater core will help keep the temp from climbing to dangerous levels. You are at the ragged edge of keeping it alive and melting the piss out of the poor thing. So, turn off the damn radio and listen to what the car is telling you, and let your nose and sense of temperature tell you if things are going worse. Best thing, pull over somewhere and get it towed. Do not exceed 55mph. I found my sweet spot speed was 50mph to keep the temp from climbing. You will hear burbling, you will hear the sound of excess heat. Trust me, when you hear it, you will know it. Pay ettention to those sounds, they tell you if its getting worse or not. If in doubt, pull over and tow it.

5.If you keep trying to drive it as usual, your engine is going to be toast. When that light comes on, there is no limp home mode in the ecu like a new car, you the driver are in sole control of limp home (or to the side of the road) mode.

Alex.

[fmansfield444]

Sounds like ignition module or pip got toasted to me. It's also worth checking to see where the coolant went, leaking or burning.

[ltd88]

if it was ignition module it wouldn't start at all right? thats what it did last time it fried and i dropped a used distributor in? sometimes it will start but only run a minute then dies.. and i wish i lived in a warm climate.. lol but it was 1:30 AM and water was all i had availible.. (thanks to my grandfather teaching me always carry a few gallons of water in your trunk for emergencies)

[ltd88]

tested for spark with an old spark plug grounded with a jumper cable. (no spark tester) it sparks orange.. should be blue?

[marquisman]

It can be intermittent. When he TFI died in my bros town car, It did similar. It would some times run after sat and cooled down.

[ltd88]

ok, will try another distributor.. glad i cleaned the yard out of them and grabbed all 3 since hard to find parts for this car all of a sudden... (when i got the car 3 years ago, yards were full of em...) and i know where the coolant is going.. (i think) i think its the heater core... just never installed one and shops want a ridiculous amount to change it.. guessing its that cause even when rad is full i have 0 heat.. replaced a lot of cooling system parts since previous owner had cooling system full of washer fluid because "it's cheaper and doesn't freeze like water will"

[marquisman]

previous owner had cooling system full of washer fluid because "it's cheaper and doesn't freeze like water will"

Say what? This is a joke, right?

And good idea having spare dist. I put one in the trunk of my bros cars. Its easy to swap out in emergency.

[ltd88]

Say what? This is a joke, right?

And good idea having spare dist. I put one in the trunk of my bros cars. Its easy to swap out in emergency.

no joke... bought it off an 18yo kid.. his grandfather gave it to him and he said he couldn't afford antifreeze when the upper hose exploded... so he filled it with deicer washer fluid. first thing i did when i got it home was drain it...

[ltd88]

he told me to just pull the bulb out of the red check engine line cause it came on all the time while he was driving it. told me it was a vacuum leak according to his dad.. never came on for me till this.. I did not know it was more serious then the check engine light on a modern car

[fmansfield444]

Yeah both the pip and ignition module can be intermittent. Mine would have problems when really cold outside but ran perfect when warmed up. And yep I've got extra dizzys as well when I was fuel injected had a dizzy wrench too which makes it way easier to change out

[gadget73]

The red light means no oil pressure or overheat. The yellow light that says "Check Engine" is a computer controlled light. Many 88's didn't even have that, it wasn't common till 89.

Washer fluid has alcohol in it, which will eat up the hoses and cause leaks. I wouldn't be surprised if the cooling system in that car needs all the rubber parts replaced. I'd flush the washer fluid out and refill a 50/50 antifreeze and water mixture, put a pressure tester on it to find where the leaks are, and fix them.


Orange = weak spark. Change the TFI and see what you get. The coil is also suspect since its mounted right there on the front of the engine.

[pantera77]

he told me to just pull the bulb out of the red check engine line cause it came on all the time while he was driving it. told me it was a vacuum leak according to his dad.. never came on for me till this.. I did not know it was more serious then the check engine light on a modern car

Yep, it's called the replace engine light for a reason.