my 88 vic: problem child

[88crwnvc]

problem after problem with the crown vic i bought about 3 months ago.. nothing too major, but it just dollars me to death, but what 20 year old car doesn't, i guess? when i bought the car, the air blew cold, cruise worked, everything in perfect condition.. two weeks later, no air, no cruise, horn sticks when i go around corners.. air is no big deal, i want to do away with the air and smog pump.. i had dual exhuast with flowmaster super 40's put on and the exhaust guy removed the back to cats.. can i just unbelt the smog pump and leave the lines, or do i need to take it all out and plug each line? where do all the lines go? i think if i do away with the smog shit and the air conditioner it will take some lag off my motor and might start running right.. it surges on takeoff and hesitates badly at all times.. i just had the transmission rebuilt, new platinum plugs, new belts, new fuel filter, oil filter, everything expected of a good car owner (i hope), and it still runs a bit like shit and the gas mileage is horrible.. any ideas? i'm getting about 10-12 on average and sometimes as low as 8-10, and i don't exactly drive it hard.. i also have a very annoying suction or blowing type noise near the gas tank (fuel pump?).. any ideas on how to get some more hp and less hesitation out of my 5.0 lopo efi?

[turbo2256b]

Is your timing set properly. If you want to remove the cats I have pipes to do it.

[88crwnvc]

i don't know how to check my timing, and i already removed the back two cats.. i don't want to remove the front ones because i don't want my exhaust too loud and it's not a big deal anyway, i just want to unbelt the smog pump.. can i just unbelt it and leave it how it sits with the lines and all, or do i need to plug anything off? if my timing was off, wouldn't the car run like shit at all times, i mean it's pretty hesitant, but it runs smooth over 2,000 rpms.. it surges in first gear and first gear only, but the transmission was rebuilt so i figure it's something else.. also, when i reach a certain speed, say 55, and let out of the gas, my car surges a little but it makes a bad knocking sound and vibration.. is this because of play or slack in the rear end? i don't know.. anything anyone can do to help me try to figure out how to unleash my lopo 302 would be very much appreciated

[89LincolnTWNcar]

The horn and cruise are on the same fuse. Check that fuse right under the dash below the headlight switch. If not the fuse then its probably a short/bad ground somewhere. My radio goes off when I corner hard, i think its the ground. As for the gas milage fix 1) Check Timing and adjust to 10 degrees BTDC with SPOUT disconnected, im sure someone will chime in if you dont know what SPOUT is. 2) Get a vacuum tester gauge from Advance/Pep boys and hook it to a vacuum line and see what vacuum you run at idle. If the guage reads below 20lbs or psi you could have a leak somewhere. 3) Replace the fuel injectors, my car hesitated, got terrible milage, had no power and ran rich, just because of 2 bad injectors. Oh and the 55mph bump/knock is due to injectors your story is deja vu for me man hahah

[91 LTD]

FIND OUT IF YOU HAVE A TRANSMISSION W/ A TV CABLE, IF YOU DO AND IT FAILS OR EVEN GETS MISADJUSTED YOU COULD IN SHORT ORDER KILL YOUR TRANSMISSION LIKE I DID. DONT FEAR, THIS PROBLEM IF IT DOES RELATE TO YOU IS EASILY PREVENTABLE, w/ all the info. you need here somewhere.

[87mefull]

Sounds like you have the timing advanced too far, follow what 89 towncar said about setting the base timing. The engine is pinging and the engine is probably racing, which causes some of the surging problems you are having. Easiest way to tell this is if you car can pick up a lot of speed with your foot off the brake, not on the gas in drive. It should only move or creep little bit if its set at 10btdc once you take your foot off the brake. Run it at 10btdc, its a stock lopo and its summer. You can bump it up to 12 if you want to for a little extra power, but I would do that later after you get it set at 10btdc.

For the injectors, easiest way to tell if buy pulling the plugs. If one is soaked in gas or is black with alot of crud on it, chances are its a bad injector or a bad injector o-ring on that cylinder.

What did the exhaust shop exactly do? The stock four cat system is a two stage cataytic system, which is different from the standard two cataytic system. You need all four cataytics to pass emissions if your still using the stock cataytic convertors, plus it may be causing some other problems too. There are metal air tubes that run directly into where those lower cataytics were, if they are not plugged its going to blow air into nothing. This could be the sound your hearing, you have to look under the car to make sure. I would check the rest of your exhaust system and make them fix any leaks.

If you need to pass emissions in your state, convert to the two cataytic system, which combines both stages into one. If you don't, you could buy an off-road h-pipe or use some cat eliminator pipes, but it might be loud to you. Could leave the exhaust alone if you don't require emissions either, just have those air tubes welded shut. Some don't require the smog stuff either since they don't require the air tubes. Before you ditch the smog stuff, do they check to see if the smog pump and emissions equipment is there and functional? Its not hard to take off but some states, like mine are strict on that stuff and will fail your car on the spot.

Here's what you need to do to remove the pump:
The belt you need is a 560K6 belt if you plan on running without the air pump. Might want to check the tensioner for the AC/smogpump/crank, they can be loose and worn after 20 years making it harder to put the tight 560k6 belt on. Also, when you take off the smog pump you might want to keep the long bolt and the spacer and screw it back into the engine block. It provides a little extra support for the short belt.

The caps you need are tiny rubber vacumm line caps you can find in autozone or another similar parts store, sometimes they are color-coded. You also need two heater hose caps, one will plug the air divertor valve/metal tubing that you see coming out the back of the passenger side cylinder head, right next to the tranny dipstick tube. The other metal tubing with an air divertor valve will be sticking up in the middle of the passenger side of the engine bay behind the air pump, you can trace the air tubes from the cats to it. The rubber heater hose caps are found in the help section of most parts stores.

Also, buy a code scanner if your still having problems, it makes it alot easier to find any other problems that your having also. You might still have problems with hesitation, surging, etc, and this will tell you what you need to replace and/or check.

[88crwnvc]

the exhaust guy left the upper two converters, the ones closest to the manifolds, he said something about he didn't want to get into moving the oxygen sensor being that there is little room between the manifold, the sensor, and the first cat. there are no emissions tests here, thus i want to do away with the smog pump.. however, i do NOT necessarily mean i want to take it out, i just want to unbelt it, it's not like i'm trying to lighten her down for racing or anything (hehe).. can i just unbelt it and leave the air hoses in tact, seeing how the air wouldn't be pumped, it would just be free in the lines?

i just changed all the plugs and none of them were too bad, the idiot that owned the car before me replaced every other plug with wal-mart cheapies, but none of the original motorcraft plugs were even pasted with carbon or gunk.. does this mean that my injectors would be okay as the plugs were? perhaps something else is causing the surging and hesitation, and how am i supposed to check my timing? also i do not want to buy a vacuum gauge to test them, does the local shop have those and is it expensive to test? i've had a code scanner in mind for a while, but i keep putting off buying one..

[91 LTD]

Glad to hear you took care of that tv cable, forgot to add factory shop manuals go for around $20 on ebay, finally got off my ass and ordered one.

[85crownHPP]

also try check and clean you egr vlave and idle air control valve

[87mefull]

If the plugs looked ok, the injectors are probably fine, just might want to run some cleaner through them. STP fuel injector cleaner works well along with seafoam. Seafoam works great, run it through the pcv system also but change your oil after doing this.

To get to the upper cats you have to disconnect the downpipes from the mainfolds, you can't get to them really any other way. Check to see if the air tubes were welded shut under the car.

The smog pump can be run without a belt, but it causes some problems. I ran my car without the smog pump belt and it did not run well. Plus you can't hook up the AC unless you leave the belt on there or remove it to use the 560k6 belt. It relies on vacuum from the brake booster to work along with vacuum from the egr solenoids to open the valves. Its really easy to remove the pump and plug the lines, it only took me a half hour to do it. It took longer since I cut the belt before when the pump seized, which made it harder to get the pulley off. Don't cut the belt first so you can get the pulley bolts off, might want to use some liquid wrench or pb blaster on them also.

The smog pump has little to no effect on the engine's performance unless its seized or about to seize. Only thing is that the pump is noisey vs. without it where the engine will sound smoother and quieter. I didn't notice a difference in performance when I put my smog pump back on, I think it only frees up somewhere between 1-3hp, not noticeable on these beasts.

The most common sources for vacuum leaks are the line from egr solenoids on the passenger fender, under the upper intake, behind the upper intake on the firewall, and the brake booster on the driver's side fender. The lines from the egr solenoids are plastic and break easily and the lines from the upper are rubber, which are probably deteriorated after 19 years.

Vacuum gauges aren't cheap, but if you know someone who does or you smoke, you can find some vacuum leaks yourself. A shop will use a vacuum gauge, but they still have to hunt down the leak. Could mean they have to remove the upper intake, etc. Blow smoke into one vacuum line, intake, etc , where it comes out is your vacuum leak.

[turbo2256b]

i

I pull the smog pumps and pull the cover off and pull bust the vanes out and put them back on or have planed to use them as a crankcase vacuum pump. Might try that with the new motor.

Just worked on a guys 302 Bronco same problems. Found the plugs not tight enough. The coil was wobbling around its samwitched material running around and through it. Think its a electo magnet. The timing was set at 30* with the spout connector removed, Throttle speed screw was busted. Runs great now. Milage way up he dosent want to sell it now.

[89LincolnTWNcar]

to check your timing you have to get in your possession a timing light (Mine cost 39.99, A vacuum tester is like 24.99) Then you just use chalk or white-out to mark the 10 degrees BTDC on the harmonic balancer (i get under the car and crank it really fast until its in plain view), then disconnect SPOUT the grey plug in the black socket on the alternator wiring harness near the distributor that goes to nothing (it just hangs there), then hook up positive and then negative terminals on the light to the battery and put the sensor on the #1 spark plug wire close to the cap or to the plug. Start the car and aim the light until you see your mark and observe where it is. If its to the right of the metal timing tab, you are advanced. So you would loosen the distributor bolt and turn the dist until the white mark you see (with the car running) is under or on the metal timing tab. and thats how you do timing in a nutshell. I took off my smog pump and plugged the lines and never looked back. Of course I had to put 9/16" by 1/2" bolts in the smog holes in my cylinder heads with threadlock, and I have Flowtech headers and no cats at all so all that crap is gone heheh. My car runs great without it sold it on ebay for like $50 something bucks too, lol.

[88crwnvc]

i do not think that my injectors are bad, being that all plugs were relatively clean, even the factory ones 20 years old and 60,000 miles later.. i use STP fuel injector cleaner about every third or fourth time i fill up, and it helped a little when i started doing it, but i have reached the performance plateau as far as cheap things i can do to the motor.. everything i do seems to have no effect.. i changed the plugs, fuel filter, put dual exhaust on, changed the oil back to back times to get all old residue out, and many other little things.. still no effect. it runs like a grandma's car, and i think maybe that is the problem. an older lady had the car before i did, and maybe she just dogged it around all the time and thats how it was broke in. could that be the case?

second of all, i'm only 16 and i have little to no mechanical inclenation, i know how to change oil, plugs, filters, you know the easy stuff.. can anyone please define, locate, and suggest how to fix the following things? your help would be greatly appreciated:

what/where is the EGR valve? what is it's function?

what/where is the idle air control valve?

also i do not have a welder or torch and i want to delete the smog pump, so how do i plug the lines without welding them? use those heater hose caps? and how many lines are there, just the two that go into cat system?

[89LincolnTWNcar]

your injectors are just fine if your plugs are clean. I got this car when I was 16 with 57K on it from my great aunt lol, and I am 18 now. I remember it was really slow when i first got it, its made for old people and slow driving. I don't know if you know but the stock engine is rated at 150hp 270tq, with dual exhaust its around 160/280. You probably have 2.73 or 3.08 open gears which aren't helping. I did the HO conversion all by myself when I was 17, granted it took me help from the guys on here and from a shop manual, 6 months, and around 1500 bucks...but it was a great learning experience and it was a ton of fun. also as for the lines, you'd have to get them welded shut by a shop where they come off the H-pipe. You'd be better off just taking it off the belt with a 560k6 belt and leaving everything right where it is.