Can't figure out what's going on... please help !

MathieuG89

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My Mustang has been running like crap lately, rough idle and fuel consumption been going down the drain. Last week, I decided to install a K&N filter and a C&L MAF housing. I thought it would help the engine breath better and might help with the issues I had been having. When I took the car out for a drive things quickly worsened at a red light. Suddenly the engine felt like it wasn't running on all cylinders, the whole car started shaking, smoke went out the tail pipes and a very strong and unpleasant odor of unburnt fuel. When the light turned green I tried to pull over the nearest parking lot. The car would jitter back and forth and there were backfires out the exhaust.

Fast forward to this weekend...

Here are the things I have done :

- Rubber manifold intake elbow and throttle body were full of gunk and oil so I cleaned both.
- Cleaned the IAT and MAF sensors with MAF cleaner as well.
- Removed the rubber hose from the intake elbow to the valve cover which was worn out, capped the elbow and put a breather on valve cover instead.
- PCV valve wasn't even in the lower manifold anymore, the vacuum hose was hanging loose behind the engine and the PCV mesh filter was clogged with dirt and sludge. Cleaned the PCV filter, replaced the PCV valve and rubber grommet with new ones.
- Redid the IAT/MAF harness after I found out it had been modified by previous owner...

- Oil change, transmission oil change, sparkplugs were done last summer
- Fuel pump and fill gasket was changed a couple hundred miles ago

And here are the things I have noticed but haven't got around to fix yet :

- Noticed the vacuum hose from the charcoal vapor canister to the canister purge valve is rotted and all cracked. Haven't gotten around to replace yet. (looks like I need to removed the fender to access the charcoal vapor canister??)
- Cap & rotor needs replacing asap, the posts are corroded. Will be done tomorrow.
- Timing might need to be redone. Will be done tomorrow.

Now I've been trying to find just what the hell is going on with the car. It starts and idle good but then after a few minutes out of nowhere the engine starts acting up like there's a cam with loping idle inside, crazy amount of white with a tint of blue smoke blows out the tail pipe and it worsen the longer you let it idle until the car slowly dies.

[video=youtube;gotOMPCkWgc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gotOMPCkWgc[/video]

[video=youtube;UWYZ1c3Us1A]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWYZ1c3Us1A[/video]
 

g36 monkey

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I would guess the valve seals are starting to poop out. The rough running is most likely from the vacuum leaks that you seem to be readily addressing.
 

evilcw311

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First off, what list of mods does the car have?? Second, that busted vac line could cause the issue as it creates a major vacuum leak. Third, does this car still have the factory egr?? If so it could be shot.




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MathieuG89

MathieuG89

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First off, what list of mods does the car have?? Second, that busted vac line could cause the issue as it creates a major vacuum leak. Third, does this car still have the factory egr?? If so it could be shot.

Well, the engine is stock as far as I know. There's a BBK off-road H-pipe on it with stock cat-back. Thermactor air pump is still on along with all the EGR stuff from what I've seen. Fuel pump was done about a month ago, changed the stock one since it had become increasingly louder covering the exhaust at time... new one is a Walbro 190 LPG. Maintenance (oil change, transmission oil change, fuel filter and sparkplugs) was done at the end of last summer. And last friday I put on a K&N air filter and a 73mm C&L MAF housing.

Today I've replaced the ignition cap and rotor and I've also put a brand new MAF sensor on. Replaced the PCV mesh filter with a brand new one as well. Also yanked the rotted vacuum and canister purge valve, then plugged the upper intake manifold. I also did a reset of the computer and took the car out for a 10 minute drive around the block including a WOT so the computer could relearn some parameters. It does seem to handle better through the gears and smoke appears to be gone (whatever is left seems reasonably normal to me) but the idle is really shitty... the engine seems to turn around 800 rpm and acts like it's got a loping idle on also there's a very noticeable smell of fuel coming out of the tail pipes...
 

DeepList

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Whenever I smell unburnt fuel being dumped into the exhaust, it's usually ignition related. I know you said you replaced the cap and rotor just recently. Have you checked the plugs since you put them in last summer? Which plugs did you use? Maybe one or more of them has fouled? All it takes is one cylinder to act up and it'll create a noticeable loss in performance, rough idle, and symptoms similar to that of a vacuum leak.

I'd pull the plugs out and take a look. If anything, they may give some additional clues.
 
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MathieuG89

MathieuG89

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Whenever I smell unburnt fuel being dumped into the exhaust, it's usually ignition related. I know you said you replaced the cap and rotor just recently. Have you checked the plugs since you put them in last summer? Which plugs did you use? Maybe one or more of them has fouled? All it takes is one cylinder to act up and it'll create a noticeable loss in performance, rough idle, and symptoms similar to that of a vacuum leak.

I'd pull the plugs out and take a look. If anything, they may give some additional clues.

Replaced the sparkplugs with genuine Motorcraft plugs from Ford. Haven't got around to check them yet but that's on my list along with a compression test as soon as the weather clears up over here.

Small update :

Yesterday I had no choice but to take my car to get to work, fortunately it isn't too far away. The car felt ok-ish until I got to a red light, same thing happened, idle progressively worsened. Light turned green and I made it to work. One of my friend told me I could've had a bad batch of gas when I last fueled and there could be humidity in the fuel tank, he recommended I put gas line from Kleen-Flo. Why not give it a try? When I left work, I opened the gas cap and it felt like there was a lot of pressure build up behind and it immediately had a strong puff of fuel odor coming out, didn't think much of it and dumped the whole bottle in. Started the car and drove back home. Surprisingly the car felt normal, I even went on a small segment of the highway with it and it accelerated normally up to 60 mph... when I made it back home I left the engine running for a solid 5 minutes and everything seemed normal to me... the idle wasn't all that great and could use some tuning but it didn't feel like it was misfiring or anything anymore...
 
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MathieuG89

MathieuG89

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Changed the sparkplug wires with a brand new Ford Racing set today, didn't seem to do much improvement to be honest. Car still has a horrible idle to it. Pulled the codes with the engine shut off (KOEO) for a second time and it seems to be giving a bunch of codes... I would appreciate if someone could chime in and read them for me... thanks !

[video=youtube;gawlsorf3M8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gawlsorf3M8[/video]

Cylinder balance test results

1st pass : 2, 5, 7
2nd pass : 8
3rd pass : 9
 
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MathieuG89

MathieuG89

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Just wanted to tell everyone that the problem has finally been resolved ! The car is running like a champ, better than it ever did... Just as everyone suspected on this thread the issue was within the C&L housing and the reason why is because the mass calibration sample tube inside was calibrated for 24lbs injectors not for the stock 19lbs ones ... I did not even know you could swap the sample tube inside. I could've bought and swapped the correct sample tube (two allen screw) but I had a killer deal on a set of Ford Racing 24lbs injectors from a Cobra. I swapped the injectors in tonight and the car is an absolute joy to drive around now... I'm glad I did, some of the o-rings on the stock injectors had needle holes in and you could tell a few were worn. I would like to thank everyone who tried to help me, I know that I'm stubborn but in the end all is good, I got to know my car better and fixed all sort of little issues. Hopefuly this thread might help someone in the future too who knows ?





 

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