Opinions fellow snake owners

jpajkos

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Alright everyone I have a buddy of mine who owns a 1996 SVT Cobra with about 130k on the motor. Here's the scenario. Our mustang club met up one night. We drove around a good 50 miles and his car ran excellent. We all went to shoot pool one night and he went out to start his car so we can leave and it wouldn't start. He came over to get me to tell me his car would start. Well when we went back over there he started his car but it took acouple seconds then the car started. It ran really rough by the way it sounded. So we all stop at a gas station down the street to fuel up. When we looked at his car white smoke came just billowing out of the pipes. Popped the hood check for whole in the intake nothing. There is no visbile fluid anywhere. Well sense then the car sat for about a week. My buddy took it to his school (UTI) and hooked it up to every machine you can think of and the only thing that came back was his was mis-fireing on cylinder 5 and running lean on bank 1. So we took all the plugs out and checked them. Some of the plug electrods were bent and has serious oxidation on them. These plugs had less the 100 miles on them. So we put new plugs in it. Now he has a flowmaster cat back with stock h pipe and stock headers. He car used to sound way louder then what it sounded like tonight. Sounds as if something is blocking it or some sort of level is off. The car doesn't smoke anymore at all maybe alittle puff here and there once in awhile but nothing serious like that night. My question is if he didn't have correct compression who wouldn't be getting enough oil pressure correct? Im trying to narrow this down. Since the car had trouble starting at the pool hall and then started smoking could it have sent a bad signal to an O2 Sensor? I mean his car seriously till this day gets on it hard and throws you back in our seat. Bad compression would allow you to do this? I was thinking about putting a new smog pump his is car since his doesn't work and some new 02 sensors to see if thats the problem of why it sounds so much more mellower. We smogged it and it pass super clean all the carbon levels were great. I just don't know maybe you guys ran into a similar situation? Sorry for the long story its just im very detailed. Any help would be awesome thanks guys.
 

uncltrvlnmatt

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The compression and oil presure have nothing to do with each other. Low compression does not= low oil presure and viseversa.

The big question is how did the electrodes on the plugs get bent. He needs to make sure he has the correct plugs. Hopefully they did not give him a set of plugs that were to long and they kissed the piston dome.

If he put new plugs in it he may want to install a new set of plug wires to. It is possable that he could have damaged a plug wire when changing the plugs. Stupid things like that could drive you nuts.
 

Lightning Struck

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uncltrvlnmatt said:
The compression and oil presure have nothing to do with each other. Low compression does not= low oil presure and viseversa.

The big question is how did the electrodes on the plugs get bent. He needs to make sure he has the correct plugs. Hopefully they did not give him a set of plugs that were to long and they kissed the piston dome.

If he put new plugs in it he may want to install a new set of plug wires to. It is possable that he could have damaged a plug wire when changing the plugs. Stupid things like that could drive you nuts.


ouch............kissing the piston is something you NEVER want to do :-[
 
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jpajkos

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We did buy some new plugs. He has the 10.5 mm taylor wires. On one of the wires where the seams were looked like that was some sort of white goo. If theres low compression in any car the car would smoke continuously. Oil pressure would be unstable I thought due to the pistons not able to hold the compressions due to bad rings. If he had bad O2's it would make his car run rough wouldn't it?
 

94gtstang50

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O2's can make the car run retarded, it should throw a code if they were malfunctioning though. I'd just change the upstreams if he couldn't afford to do all 4. Also has he changed the PCV valve and what plugs is he running and at what gap?
 
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jpajkos

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He was running NGK v powers. Now we through some autolight 764's in gapped at .54
 

94gtstang50

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I'd say just run the autolite coppers, test the wires to to be sure they haven't gone bad. Can't remember what resistance they are supposed to have but it may be that one or two of them have went bad. if thats not it, it may be a bad coil pack. Check the O2's as well.
 

uncltrvlnmatt

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jpajkos said:
We did buy some new plugs. He has the 10.5 mm taylor wires. On one of the wires where the seams were looked like that was some sort of white goo. If theres low compression in any car the car would smoke continuously. Oil pressure would be unstable I thought due to the pistons not able to hold the compressions due to bad rings. If he had bad O2's it would make his car run rough wouldn't it?

Loss of compression and low oil presure have nothing to do with each other. Your cylinder walls are splash fed or they have a spray tube that cools the piston and oils down the cylinder wall. There is no presure involved. Therefore worn oil control rings will not affect oil presure. The car would blow a bluish color smoke, more so under a load than at idle. If he has low oil presure that is more likely pluged oil filter, crapy oil, Weak oil pump, worn main bearings, worn rod bearings, or engine sludge. Being the car has 130k on it, if it was not well maintaned with consistant oil change intervals( I try to do mine at 2000-2500 miles) You could have a bearing problem, pump problem, or sludge problem.

I don't know if the 4.6 DOHC has piston coolers.
 

SLITH3R96

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My buddys snake is doing the same thing. 130000 miles on his too, he has underdrive pulleys on his which is (Im sure) the problem. Those pulleys will tear up the oil pump gears on our High revving 4vs. Id say its a oil system problem.... but hes not burning it otherwise you'd see blue smoke.
 
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jpajkos

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Bad or scared rd bearings would produce a knocking sound. I know this cuz it happened to me. We will change the oil and filter check everything else. Probably put some new wires on it too. His car wouldn't runn the way its running if it had low compression. You can feel all 8 cylinders pulling. Just sounds like something isn't right. Exhuast has a way lower tone then what it used to have. We'll find out. If anyone has any suggestions let me know.
 

4.6snake

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jpajkos said:
He was running NGK v powers. Now we through some autolight 764's in gapped at .54

see, theres your problem. thats a HUGE gap!!!!


sorry, im just messin with you. :hammer: i think you meant .054 anyway, i have autolites in my car and they work very well, so thats a good start.
 

SLITH3R96

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+1 on the autolites :thumb: Did my ignition tune-up and pulled the original plugs out for the Autolites, switched the wires to MSD too :thumb: Best damn wires I ever got
 

uncltrvlnmatt

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When you change the oil filter cut it open with a hack saw and see how bad it is inside.

Just because you don't have a rod knock does not mean your rod bearing are o.k. The only real way to check them is to drop the pan and do a visual inspection, and check them with plastigage.

After you change the oil and filter if you still feel the oil pressure is low according to the electrical gauge, I would install a mechanical gauge and double check it. If you do make sure you check it when the engine is hot, through the entire RPM range and compare it to what the specs are from Ford.
 
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jpajkos

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Will do. How about the IMRC's? Could they be causing this? I was going to pull his intake clean it and clean the IMRC's as well.
 

97vertstang

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something no one has mention is a torn headgasket. if u have a torn headgasket, it will accumulate water in the cylinders and have trouble starting.it will also smoke white.water will also make ur plugs look new. do a compression check on it.
 

SLITH3R96

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+1 on teh headgasket idea.... but he said it happened all the sudden. The car was parked and now it wont start. Did he drive it hard before he parked it??
 
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jpajkos

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No we were just cruising. Car was just sitting at ldle and white smoke came out. Were going to do a compression check tomorrow. We took the mid pipe off and smell went away and theres no smoke. Im thinking blocked cats might have been causing the smell and the 02's looked pretty bad. Were defiantly gonna change the head gasket and clean the IMRC's along with a new SLP catted mid pipe and some brand new 02's for starters. Also gonna return the plug wires. Cylinder 5's wire has some white googy shit coming out of it. Looks like the wires are bad. So next couple weeks we got our hands full.
 

97vertstang

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the white googly shit is probably dialectric grease, is used on the spark plug so it doesnt get stuck to the wire.i doubt the wires are bad if they are taylors and are farly new.might have been the cats been cloggded.did it smell like rotten eggs???
 

SLITH3R96

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jpajkos said:
No we were just cruising. Car was just sitting at ldle and white smoke came out. Were going to do a compression check tomorrow. We took the mid pipe off and smell went away and theres no smoke. Im thinking blocked cats might have been causing the smell and the 02's looked pretty bad. Were defiantly gonna change the head gasket and clean the IMRC's along with a new SLP catted mid pipe and some brand new 02's for starters. Also gonna return the plug wires. Cylinder 5's wire has some white googy shit coming out of it. Looks like the wires are bad. So next couple weeks we got our hands full.

Sounds like youll cover all the bases :thumb: Keep us updated
 

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