[Mekanic]

Hello all, first post.

I have an 86 with the 2.3 1bbl , and it has suddenly lost all power.

It does start and run, idle is still good, and it will drive, however it has no power, and will not run over 45mph.

I'm thinking its a fuel issue, I checked the filter and it was flowing, I also checked all cylinders have spark, and timing is a solid 10* at idle. It just seems as its starving for fuel whenever its under load.

I don't have a fuel pressure gauge, but I held a finger over the fuel line to the carb and pressure seemed a little low.

Anyone have any ideas other than a fuel pump? And also, if you agree that the fuel pump seems bad, where is it? I looked all over the drivers side and couldn't get eyes on it.

Thanks in advance!

~Rich

[heavy metal]

fuel pump is on right under p/s pump......think your cat.convereter i sstopped up?

[fox81]

Hell mine must have stopped a long time ago then lol...an 86 with a carb? I thought almost all Fords were fuel injected by that time...maybe the carb needs to be rebuilt?

[Mekanic]

Thanks for the info Heavy. I'll pull it and check it out. No cat, previous owner removed it. Although thats almost what it feels like

HP, it used to be able to get out in traffic safely, and run at highway speeds, right now the 0-60 doesn't exist, as it takes almost a minute to get to 45, and wont go higher.


Fox, I was thinking the same, but it was very sudden, this car is my girlfriends daily driver, she was out running errands, and made 3 stops, and the car was running fine, she went to leave stop 3 and then it just fell on its face.

Thanks for the info so far

[sleeper_inc]

Check your compression, and also your cam timing

[Mekanic]

I was thinking about the cam timing Sleeper, but its not missing or sputtering at all, so I kind of ruled it out.

I'll do a compression test tomorrow.

Also, this may sound funny. How the hell do you take that timing belt cover off? I removed all the bolts and that 1 screw (why not all bolts? lol) and could not fish it out from behind the pulleys.

I'm thinking about just ripping it ou and dropping in a 460 and C6 lol

[sleeper_inc]

I snapped mine in half so I can check the timing ASAP when somethings wrong

[krk105]

check your sensors. When a sensor goes bad it throws other things off as well. I had a similar problem where you would be driving fine then the car would just seem to loose all horsepower and be sluggish but then after a while would drive fine agian. My problem ended up being an old O2 sensor was giving a faulty reading to the computer and inturn opening up the egr valve (which mixes in exhaust into the intake for emission purposes). When the egr valve mixes in the unburnt exhaust gases this throws the air to fuel ratio way off. Which is why you have no acceleration and rough idle but will run seemingly ok at high cruising speeds.

Check your egr valve (should open and close with vacuum pressure) and replace your O2 sensor if you haven't.

[heavy metal]

what do the plugs,cap,button and wires look like?check them....

[Mekanic]

Originally Posted by heavy metal

what do the plugs,cap,button and wires look like?check them....

Checked them all, pulled down the top of the distributor and cleaned it, cap and rotor look good, so do the plugs, wires were good as well, #1 looked a little off so I rebuilt it, no change.

Rechecked cam timing, its spot on, pulled the fuel line off and hit the key, had tons of pressure compared to the last time.

Did a compression test, all cylinders were good, #3 was down a touch, but still well within spec.

All cylinders had good spark, so it wasn't the coil.

I seriously can't figure it out. its like as soon as it gets put under a load the timing goes way retarded.

I think its either in the distributor/icm or the carb, but it happened so suddenly I'm leaning to it being something electrical.

I really appreciate all the help so far. But I'm starting to fear that you will see me parting out the drive train eventually, so I can get a tubular k member and something that will move this thing in there heh.

[Buddhahb]

If it's the ICM I think I have an extra one laying around... Send me a message and we will work out the shipping, If you want...