1996 trooper purchase

I just added a 96 trooper to my collection. I purchased it knowing it had some sort of problem with the engine. It has 191,000 miles. The seller said the mechanic blame a rod knock or bearing noise. I paid $500.00 for the vehicle. It has brand new AT tires P245 70r16's and a new battery. I felt I could not get hurt. He bought it with 110,000 and has only changed the oil and sparkplugs for maintenance, never has touched the timing belt.

He swears he did not let the oil get low. It starts and runs. I drove it three miles to my brothers. Has oil pressure but is only seems to be running on 4 or 5 cylinders. CEL is lit. It did knock when I first started then quieted down.
I am trailering it from my brothers. What should the oil pressure be? I thought it was a little low.

Is it possible that the t-belt just skipped a couple of cogs? I plan to drain the oil when I get it home. That should tell me alot. Then I will do a compression check. I suppose it could be a valve. It did sound very ugly with sound predominently coming from the passenger side of the motor. After I drove it it quieted down. Any ideas? I guess $500.00 was not to much. Shoot, I can just part it out if I need to.

Does anybody out there have any ideas about what could be wrong with my 3.5 sohc trooper? Was it common for this one to spin a bearing or have major engine malfunction? Need a little help. I also need to find a manual for this year. I know some people have been kind enough to upload there manual.

Sounds to me like it's the timing belt tensioner you are hearing; they will sound like a rod knocking if they are failing. And if you have 191k miles and that hasn't been changed, I can guarantee you it's definitely on it's way out and that's probably what you are hearing.

What I would do is change out the timing belt, T-belt Tensioner, waterpump, and the camshaft/crankshaft seals while you're in there, cause those 3.2L & 3.5L's are not the easiest engines to dive into.

I agree the t-belt tensioner is probably bad. Why am I running on 5 cylinders with CEL. I need to get me a OBD-ll code reader. Could it have skip a couple of teeth on the t-belt? I plan to dive in over the weekend. No time until then.

I looked at the trooper over the weekend. Pulled the upper t-belt covers. The noise was not coming from there. I do believe I will change the belt and tensioner.

What I found was #3 spark plug had backed out. The coilpack was shot. Threads also appear to be stripped as I could not get my compression tester to thread right.

This is where most of the noise was coming from. I need a coilpack for a 96 $$$. There are used ones on e-bay for 98's. Part numbers are not the same. Does anybody know if these will work? Does anyone have one laying around doing nothing.

Also...is there a tool that I can chase these threads with on that cylinder? It is so deep in there that alignment is going to be a problem. I thought I would chase then vac out as much as possible. Pulling the head with this many miles I might as well rebuild.

Overall I think $500 was a pretty good deal. How could a mechanic miss this? This is why I do not like to take my cars anywhere. I try to do everything myself. It is a issue of trust!!!

thx,

BrianMO

Yeah. Seems like a good deal. You'll have to let us know how it turns out. I bought a similar "good deal" (93LS, V6, Manual, 120k) and put about a $1,000 in it. Seems to work fine. I'm thinking of doing the timing belt, waterpump, tensor, etc., next.

($1000 = complete inspection, 2x hydraulic hose, window, battery, cd player reset, tune-up, clutch adjustment, master cylinder.)

Driven since June (05) 12,000k