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[Brook24v]

My old man's MTX finally crapped out. He said it just didn't seem right leaving work and he noticed a loss in power. Gave it **** and it was like two cylinders were missing. Still somewhat pulled to 7,200 RPM though. Made it home and it was smoking really bad from under the car, which doesn't surprise me with as many oil leaks the car had.

My first thought was the rod bearings finally failing, but that wouldn't necessary drop power like that would it? I threw a set of rod bearings out the side of an SHO block years ago and that car ran like a bat outta **** until all of the oil drained out. I'm just having a hard time thinking of what else could have failed. Any ideas?

It would also be worth mentioning that it's still on the original timing belt @ 287,000 miles (don't ask). I wonder if a few teeth fell off......

 

[kevinspann]

It'd be knocking if it were RB.

Sounds like the car needs a little bit of everything. Could be the timing belt though.

 

[zblackbeast]

Do a full 60k and rodbearings, flush the cooling system and drive the snot out of it for another 288k?

EDIT" Hopefully you didn't pop the head gasket.. But thats fairly uncommon.

 

[zblackbeast]

Also, Brook. I never realized that car was yours.. OR ever really looked at the plate before.

Shit, if I still lived out there I'd bring a 24 pack down and help ya bust that out.. Give Tim a call, lazy bastard should still remember how to do this.

 

[Brook24v]

Sounds like the car needs a little bit of everything.

It hasn't served as a primary vehicle for years so maintenance wasn't ever kept up beyond the usual oil changes and plugs/wires. Oh and valve shims at 260,000. I've told him to service the timing belt but he's always told me he'll worry about a belt when it breaks. I'm really wondering if it didn't lose a bunch of teeth.

 

[zblackbeast]

Sounds like you just need to get down and dirty with this ***** and do a 'lil work!

 

[frosho]

It does sound like the belt could have lost a few teeth. That or an ignition problem. (DIS would be my first guess based on the symptoms.)

 

[Brook24v]

Would the car even run on a bad DIS? I eliminated that possibility early in my head thinking it wouldn't run. Is the DIS different from 3.0L to 3.2L? I only have a 3.2L DIS lying around.

 

[Brook24v]

Sounds like you just need to get down and dirty with this ***** and do a 'lil work!

You're exactly right. The car is not close to me otherwise I'd have a better idea as to what is going on. I'm just crossing fingers that it will drive again so I can hit 300,000.

 

[zblackbeast]

The ignition modules are the same.

Usually when I see DIS's go bad, they start to crap out when the motor is hot.. theyll run ok cold, but yeah.

If youve got the extra parts laying around, i say swap um. DIS's are really easy to replace.

Loss of power could be due to a bad belt.. but that wouldnt cause excess smoke...

 

[Brook24v]

The ignition modules are the same.

Usually when I see DIS's go bad, they start to crap out when the motor is hot.. theyll run ok cold, but yeah.

That's the answer I was looking for. Thanks.

 

[General Geoff]

287k on the original timing belt? Outstanding!


Due to the smoke, I'm going to hazard a guess and say it has something to do with loss of compression involving an oil or coolant leak, which is possibly burning up against an exhaust component and causing the smoke.

 

[Brook24v]

287k on the original timing belt? Outstanding!

:laugh_ti:

Due to the smoke, I'm going to hazard a guess and say it has something to do with loss of compression involving an oil or coolant leak, which is possibly burning up against an exhaust component and causing the smoke.

How many of you guys beat on your higher mileage SHO pretty hard and then noticed smoke coming out from the car? I've had quite a few of them do that. Actually, before I replaced the valve cover gaskets on my V8 SHO I had a couple coils go bad and it started misfiring pretty hard at a stoplight. Minutes later smoke started rolling out of the hood cracks. Totally random. I'm wondering if a similar smoke situation happened here.

 

[frosho]

Mine had smoke coming out of the wheel wells after I took it out last weekend. Not from burnouts, but from oil burning off the exhaust. I've been keeping a fire extinguisher handy until I get my 3.2 swap done.

 

[notbange]

My mother in laws 97 ****** just went 277k on its original timing belt, broke in half last month. Supposedly interference, but it runs like a champ with a new belt.

 

[Brook24v]

WTF haha. Damn lucky there.

Tearing into the car this weekend hopefully.

 

[jthod]

If you value our SCR friendship, you will post the junkyard picture.

 

[Brook24v]

Update:

I go to start it and you can tell right away there is something wrong with spark. Not a timing issue. Pull it into the garage and yank the plugs out. They were all gapped over .75 on the front cylinders and .68ish on the back three. Put new plugs in and it still runs like shit across all the cylinders, although the RPMs climb easier now. Wires look ****** so I swap a few different ones I had lying around and it didn't do much. Check the coil and one of the three sections was reading out of spec on the high end. Figure that is my issue so I hop in to drive this turd back to my house (50 miles) and grab an extra coil I have. Fire it up and the stupid thing runs PERFECT. What the ****??? I didn't touch anything else.

Okay, so I drive it to my house with zero problems and swap in another used coil. Don't notice a difference. Runs smooth either way. Go out and take the engine to 7,200 RPMs a few times. On the last pull I hit redline and it felt as if I broke something. Power dropped off and it is running like ********, barley idling. Great, now what did I break? I park it for an hour, come back out and it's running perfect. Take it out and she pulls smooth to 7,000+. Sweet! Go out this morning and it starts up perfect. Let it idle for five minutes and now it's running like shit again. Just my luck. I have no idea what to do now.

If you value our SCR friendship, you will post the junkyard picture.

Fair enough.

 

[zblackbeast]

Ignition module on the intake and or cam sensor.

 

[yamahaSHO]

Im going with crank sensor.