92 4.0, 6 cyl. auto, ford explorer. most parts new oem, reman'ed short block, heads and fuel injectors etc. no codes. Drove the car for 500 miles, then on day sitting at a light the idle started to sputter and hitting the accelerator it would barely move, going about 12 - 15 mph until it stalled. Had it towed home where i got odb 1 codes 172 and 538. Addressed and cleared those but idle is still erratic and gets no power when in drive. recently started to overflow coolant reservoir. i have tested, swapped out and or replaced everything within me skill range, gotten input from a couple of mechanic friends to no avail. now i appeal to you good ppl and the world. any and all ideas are welcomed. thanks for hearing me.
Start with the basics, do a compression test to check overall health of the engine. Check that camshaft timing hasn't jumped.
on task for tomorrow.
did you re-torque the head bolts after getting the engine hot?
can't remember that i did.
Correct me if I am wrong, but coolant reservoir overflowing is a pretty sure sign of headgasket being not tight, imo.
Not saying this is the problem but I have heard of cats getting clogged up completely and causing this kind of issue. How many miles is on it?
minimum 180,000.
compression #'s 1 = 160 tiny bit of oil on it
2 160 also a little oil
3 150
4 150
5 150
6 150
plugs look good and properly gapped. have not fully explored the cats theory yet, only observed that there is no excessive heat before the cat.
gonna test the coil pack and put in some double plat. plugs, should these be gapped the same as the copper?