Herkey-Jerky Engine

[Ford Man]

89 SHO with 132K, new timing belt, plugs. Engine has great power but when luged down in gear around 2500 RPM it has this wierd Herky-Jerky effect. As soon as you down shift and accellerate it takes off. Any Ideas. I am also looking for some gen I parts and misc. stuff.


Thanks
Ford Man

 

[SHOMurph]

Has she had the 60k/100k done? Also you might have bad plug wires.

 

[Mr Anonymous]

The SHO motor doesn't take kindly to lugging, and will send it to an early grave.

 

[Ford Man]

SHOMurph:
Has she had the 60k/100k done? Also you might have bad plug wires.

I just inherited this SHO. It had a blown timing belt. So far all I have done is belt and plugs. Does onyone besides Ford OEM the wires for this car. I have another 89 that doesn't run near as strong as this one and have done all the 60K stuff once at about 130K, it has 184K on it now.

It doesn't have the power but lugs down easily without these symptoms. It gets way better mileage but I do get a pre ignition knock real easy with it. I am suspecting it is running too lean, I was thinking about replacing 02 sensors, maybe knock sensor and going from there???


Thanks Ford Man

 

[SHOMurph]

put on the ford motorcraft wires on. Run the codes and see if something is aloof.

Also check and see if the cats have been replaced. You might have clogged/no bueno cats. Then its time for a performance y-pipe.

 

[projectSHO89]

Murph beat me to it, but I was also going to suggest restricted cats.

A good exhaust shop should be able to test them for flow.

Steve

 

[Ford Man]

SHOMurph:
put on the ford motorcraft wires on. Run the codes and see if something is aloof.

Also check and see if the cats have been replaced. You might have clogged/no bueno cats. Then its time for a performance y-pipe.

Thanks for the reply guys, I will get some wires on it and start checking out the exhaust.

 

[NoFlipping]

Hey all, I had the same kinda thing happening to me. The MAF turned up some bad voltages (although no codes showed up !). After a trip to Autozone and $78.00, my car once again drives like a bat out of **** Like it did four or five years ago.

I think the sensor's demise was gradual enough to not let on until I started bucking on WOT and real bad low RPM performance started. It also manifested itself by causing the engine to surge slightly when the AC was on.

Be nice if something as critical as the MAF sensor would throw codes when it isn't up to *****