Propane John

I just bought a 94 FD that has had many owners and is in poor condition. My plan is to restore it for the purpose of autocross racing. There is a whole laundry list of problems with this car but I would like to address two main problems. I have been reading posts on this forum for the last 10 days trying to find fixes but nothing has worked yet.

Problem 1. Engine runs terrible as soon as it gets warmed up. At first I thought it was runing out of fuel, replaced fuel filter and fuel pump. Ran a little better but not much. Read thread about TPS, Tested TPS, was out of range. Replaced TPS, now idles smoothly.

Compresson test showed even pulses as engine cranked with max pressure 85psi front, 90 psi rear.
Engine has had 4 vacuum selenoids deleted.
Check engine codes are 6, 28, 31, 32, 50, I believe all these codes pertain to missing selenoids except code 6 which is speed senser(thats problem 2).

Symptoms, engine starts OK. Car will start out feeling strong in 1st and second gear, boost gauge will come up to about 8psi, by the time you are in 3rd, misfiring starts when accelerating. After about a 1/2 mile I turn around and head home wondering if I will make it back, thats how bad it runs. Previous owner only drove the car a couple of miles, He installed new spark plugs and wires.

Problem 2. Tachometer, speedometer and odometer don't work. Odometer backlight lights but thats it. I tried the fix I found in the FAQ section. I replaced 5 capaciters on the speedo board, still doesn't work. I don't know if this makes a difference but the article said to watch the polarity on the capaciters, but 4 of the 5 I got at Radio Shack said they were non polarized.

Any advice on addressing these problems is welcomed.

gracer7-rx7

iTrader: (16)

Welcome. paragraphs are your friend. make it easy on us reading your posts.

Going through your questions now.

gracer7-rx7

iTrader: (16)

When you were testing compression, I'm assuming you used a piston tester, did you get 3 even pulses? Were you holding the 'release' button or were you just cranking until it stopped increasing? I believe there is a link to the procedure in the FAQ.

What mods does the car have?

Which 4 solenoids are missing? Post a pic or refer to the vacuum diagram in the FAQ.

What is your boost pattern? You mention 8 PSI in third but what is the boost pattern from say 2000 to 7000 in second gear?

When you say "runs terrible" when warm, what exactly do you mean? Does it not rev up or does it feel like its breaking up? Please try and describe or make a quick video and post it up on youtube.

Cheers.

Propane John

Thanks for your response. I used a piston tester with the shrader valve removed. When the engine was cranked the needle pulsed evenly from 0 to about 75psi on both rotors. I then reinstalled the shrader valve and max psi was 85 front and 90 rear.

The mods I can see are air filter box removed and replaced with two cone filters with flex hoses, air pump disconnected, air conditioning compressor removed, and simplified sequental vacuum hose routing removing the following selenoids. relief 1, switching, egr and double throttle control.

It is hard to describe the boost pattern. Car starts out feeling strong in 1st and 2nd gear with boost rising to about 8psi. I'm not pushing it hard because it isn't fully warmed up and I know it isn't running correctly. By 3rd gear it is beginning to miss when pushed into boost zone. I have probably made it to 70 or 80mph by nursing the throttle in 4th. All this is guess work because the tach and speedo. do not work. I doubt I have been over 5000 rpm. When fully warmed up it runs half-way decent at light throttle and breaks up when pushed into the boost zone.

dgeesaman

iTrader: (7)

Have you checked fuel pressure when things are not working well?

If you think the car was not well maintained, I would also use the next good opportunity to pull the injectors for ultrasonic cleaning, fresh o-rings, and flow testing.

David

duval7

iTrader: (1)

I will try to help out but there are a lot of people on here who have forgotten more than i know about this car. 1. pull all four of your injectors and send them to RC or Witch Hunter for cleaning. A dirty injector will send you in circles trying to figure out what is wrong. 2. Check the two crank angle sensors that are side by side on the front of the engine. They are located at about the 2 o'clock position behind the main crank pulley. I have 3 used engines and one of the two sensors were broke and leaning over on all three engines. Their plastic bodies gets brittle and cracks from the vibrations and this will throw your timing out of wack.

Something else, isn't lose of power at higher boost sometimes the result of spark breakup? So could the coils be going out? Another thing that probably isn't causing your problems but you should address is a full exhaust. getting rid of the cats helps the engine run cooler and last longer. Hope this helps.