CitizenOne
New Member
First, let me give a bit of the back-story: '93 SHO MTX. Body = 200K miles, Engine = 44K miles. I've owned this SHO since '97. Originally intended to do a complete restore, inside and out, and even super charge it. Collected all sorts of parts for about 10 years. Early last year, I began the restore, but by that time, priorities changed and instead of the full fix-up, I decided to just make it a daily driver. I had an engine that had 21,972 original miles that was taken from a rear-end collision donor. The engine had sat for 9 years before I got it. So, I completely disassembled it, and I mean COMPLETELY! Every part was cleaned and inspected; I even built an electrolysis tank to de-rust the block (which worked better than I expected). All the internals were checked for wear/out-roundness, all showed zero wear. Each cylinder still showed the factory, cross-hatch hone marks from top to bottom. I repainted the engine block and reassembled the engine, replacing all the original bearings with new, standard sized ones. I replaced each camshaft with new, OEM ones that I had collected over the years (I used the original ones in a different engine.) I replaced the oil pump with a new, OEM one. I replaced all the seals, and I even replaced every single sensor with new ones. I also replaced every coolant hose on the engine with new ones; I even had a new hose that has the metal section! (I know a guy who worked for Ford who was able to track down a lot of old-stock parts over the years.) Anyway, I say all this to highlight the point that essentially the only thing that I didn't replace in this low-mileage engine with new parts were the block, crank, pistons, rods, and bare heads. Almost every other moving part was new. I mated this engine to a freshly rebuilt MTX with a Quaiffe diff, installed it in the car, hooked up an all new SHO-Shop exhaust, connected all the hoses and wires, turned the key and the thing cranked up like it was new! It idled at a perfect ~700 RMPs, and it has ran great for about 20K miles until now...
...So, here's my problem. About 2 weeks ago, the car started running sluggishly. It would start up fine, but from about 1500 to 2500 RPMs it would lose power and sound like it was missing. After passing 2500, the power would pick up again, and it would run fine. As of about 1 week ago, it started to occassionally have difficult starts. When turning over, it actually sounded like it was back-firing, and when it would finally start it would still sound like it was cutting out at the 1500-2500 range. Now, just today, the darn thing lost power in town when pulling out from a red light and then died completely on me. I coasted to the side of the highway, waiting about 20 sec and started it again. It fired right up and took me home. I've checked to see and there are no leaks, so I don't think is the CPS (I know what happens when they go out, the engine just dies. It doesn't lose power). I've checked and the coil pack is fine, the plug wires are new (20K), just as are the Motorcraft factory-spec plugs. Also, I've verified that there's no oil in the plug wells, thinking that maybe a couple were fouling out due to pooled oil. I know alot about the assembly of these engines, but I have honestly never had to do much trouble-shooting over the years with any of my 4 SHOs (only have 2 now) cause I've always been meticulous about preventative maintenance. Now, I've got so little time to troubleshoot these days, and being that literally every sensor under the hood has only 20K miles on them, do you guys have any advice on what I should check first? Thanks in advance for any help!
CitizenOne
...So, here's my problem. About 2 weeks ago, the car started running sluggishly. It would start up fine, but from about 1500 to 2500 RPMs it would lose power and sound like it was missing. After passing 2500, the power would pick up again, and it would run fine. As of about 1 week ago, it started to occassionally have difficult starts. When turning over, it actually sounded like it was back-firing, and when it would finally start it would still sound like it was cutting out at the 1500-2500 range. Now, just today, the darn thing lost power in town when pulling out from a red light and then died completely on me. I coasted to the side of the highway, waiting about 20 sec and started it again. It fired right up and took me home. I've checked to see and there are no leaks, so I don't think is the CPS (I know what happens when they go out, the engine just dies. It doesn't lose power). I've checked and the coil pack is fine, the plug wires are new (20K), just as are the Motorcraft factory-spec plugs. Also, I've verified that there's no oil in the plug wells, thinking that maybe a couple were fouling out due to pooled oil. I know alot about the assembly of these engines, but I have honestly never had to do much trouble-shooting over the years with any of my 4 SHOs (only have 2 now) cause I've always been meticulous about preventative maintenance. Now, I've got so little time to troubleshoot these days, and being that literally every sensor under the hood has only 20K miles on them, do you guys have any advice on what I should check first? Thanks in advance for any help!
CitizenOne
