Popping noise from engine

[Denny]

Ah crap.

The 90 started making this popping noise when you give it some gas. Kinda like a backfire or something. Engine does seem down on power a bit, but nothing too drastic, didn't turn into a Kia or something. Oil light didn't come on. Checked oil level, that turned out ok.

There's also a slight ticking or zapping noise at idle, can't quite make it out on the vids, but it's noticable.

Any ideas?

http://www.msu.edu/~rodri200/vids/pop1.AVI

http://www.msu.edu/~rodri200/vids/pop2.AVI

 

[Bizzy]

Denny, it's really hard to pick out the popping noise from the other normal engine noise to tell if it's rev related or not. Did you happen to check the level of fluid in your trans? You might want to do that as I know when I had the issue with my trans that it made a slight popping type noise at first. Worst case is you've wasted 5 minutes to check it.

From there you might want to see if you can narrow down where the popping noise is coming from, left top, right top, etc. You might have an arcing plug wire or maybe the cam chain is starting to tap the inside of the valve cover every now and then? It's just really hard to say with the clips you provided. Sorry I'm not more help.

 

[Denny]

Yeah after viewing them, it doesn't sound like the vehicle does in person. I kinda freaked out because it made the popping noise after a loud engine "burp" when getting ******* the throttle in second right outside the apartment complex as I was coming home. I am thinking towards some sort of spark issue. It's coming from the rear as far as I can tell. Either way, it may be time to put the ol' SHO to rest.

 

[Storm-Chaser]

Check the coil wire and see if its shorting from the base of the coil wire to across the top of the coil. This will produce the "ticking" noise you're describing, periodically result in loss of power at higher rpm and/or acceleration, and possibly infrequent timing errors to include misfires.

Its really easy to see plug/coil wires shorting at night. Its even cooler when you see it in broad daylight - a short electrical "zap" jumping across clear air !