93 Ford Escort Runs like CRAP!

[hakachukai]

Ok, now that the cars starts... time for round 2.

93 Ford Escort
4 cylinder 1.9 Fuel injected.
5 speed manual

The car runs like CRAP! Here are a few symptoms.

Sometimes it idles rough.

(in nuetral)
When I step on the gas a little bit, it'll die down, then rev up a litte bit

(in nuetral)
If I give it moderate throttle, I'll hear a "ssssst" sound, while it hesitates, then it will rev up.

(in nuetral)
If I rev it up to 2k, and hold it there, the revs will go up and down like crazy. Eventually it will go up to 3k with the same amount of throttle, and kinda stay there for a second or two, even after I let off the gas pedal.

(on the road)
When accellerating the car does ok in 1st, but once it starts to have to work a little bit it surges like CRAZY! It'll just about shake you out of the drivers seat! Once you let off the gas it will stop surging. Then you can gently give it a little throttle to make it drive smoothly, but too much and its surge city!

Here is what I have found by looking over the car, and trying a few things.

The spark plugs are covered with white stuff that looks like baked on powerder. (exactly the opposite of what I expected to find)

The plug wires are burnt and litterally crispy at the end near the spark plugs,

The air hose that goes from the air box to the oil cover is totally trashed! It collapsed on it's self its so bad.

I found a little vacuum hose that comes off from the bottom of the throttle body into some type of electrically controlled vacuum switch. It was disconnected and split, but there didn't seem to be any vacuum on it, OR on the swtich that it was disconncected from.

On the tranny there is some type of sensor near the shifting linkage that has it's wires cut off too close to reapair. (is this for the back up light?)

Also, the EGR valve is not connect in any way (there is no EGR tube, and no vacuum hose). I looked over the exaughst manifold to see where it used to connect... but I see no place for it. I'm assuming that this manifold is some type of substitution.

The cruise control actuator has a blue wire cut that is in a clump of wires zip tied to it.

Oh yeah... and the serpentine belt fo too long. the tentioner pulley is flexing so far that it is rubbing on the beck side of the belt on one of the other pulleys!

That's all I could find so far.

Some guy at Advanced Auto told me that there is a hidden PCV hose behind the engine on that car that always goes bad, and it hard to find. I looked even fron under that car... I don't see ANY hoses back there except fuel lines.


Anyway... The obvious stuff I can figure out, but I don't have a much experience with fuel injection cars yet. I need to know how to get this thing running well. I think I have all of the tools to get the job done, just need a little guidance.

I have vacuum and compression gadges, and I even have a hand vacuum pump. volt/amp meter. One things I don't have is any repair manuals on this car. I'd love to have the official shop manual, but I can't afford the $70 for it, plus this car has to be fixed in a day or 2 at the most.

Thanks again for your help.

[mightymoose_22]

Sounds like an obvious vacuum leak. Repair/replace the things you know about... inspect all vacuum hoses and replace as necessary. Once you have all that stuff done, report back with any remaining problems.

[hakachukai]

How can I use my vacuum gauge to tell if i have fixed all of the leaks or not? Can I connect it to a certain place on the intake, and read so many mercury inches of vacuum?

[mightymoose_22]

You probably can. There is a vacant port on the vacuum adapter on my car... maybe yours too.... but I don't know what the readings should be.

It's simple though... inspect the hoses that are attached to the intake manifold... that's where the leaks seem to come from the most. Replace the hose you said was damaged and collapsed.

You said you heard a hiss... rev the engine from the throttle body and locate the hiss. Hopefully you are doing all of this with new plugs and wires installed already... and gapped correctly.

[hakachukai]

Also, I'm going to check the timing belt, and the pulse wheel on the crank pulley (because I was reading some other posts). How do I do that?

I have no problem installing timing belts, I just don't know what the indecators are on the Escort. Where is the TDC pointer, and how do the marks on the cam pully line up?

How do I line up that pulse wheel that is on the crank pulley?

I'm also gonna replace the plugs and wires first thing. Thost things are FRIED!

P.S. I'm open to suggestions on any other major, easy things that I can check.

Since you mentioned the spark gap... what should the gap on this car be?

[mightymoose_22]

Sounds like what you need is a manual... no offense. You don't seem familiar at all with this engine. Get yourself a Haynes manual for $20 at the parts store. It will have most of these answers

[hakachukai]

Got me there, I don't know anything about this particular engine. I'm just used to fixing stuff without having the manual because that's the way it usually happens.

Thanks for the help.

[szigatti]

im almost positive the gap should be 0.052 inches. if you by the right plugs more often than not they come pre gapped.


these pics will help you figure out the plug situation so you dont ruin your new pair too.....
http://www.spark-plugs.co.uk/pages/t.../diagnosis.htm

aswell that collapsed vacuum hose coming out of the valve cover can cause the car to stall out and idle irratically, i would replace all bad vacuum hoses.

[hakachukai]

Ok... new info:

New plugs and wires, it runs a tiny bit better.
Repalce that large trashed vacuum hose, runs a bit better.

Placed a vacuum gauge on the intake, right at the back side of the throttle body (I can't find any place else to put it), and it reveals a problem.

When the engine idleing, vacuum is normal about 20 hgin. If I open up the throttle more then just a little bit, the vaccum falls to 0.

so either the engine is not producing enough vaccum, or it is and it's leaking out somewhere.

I started spraying WD40 around the intake to see if I could hear the engine change it's Idle speed. So far no luck (but then again I've never sucessfully used this trick... so may it is working VERY slightly and I'm not trained to hear it)

I can hear an what sounds like an air leak... but it sounds like it's coming from inside the throttle body... How can that be?

This car does not have very many vacuum lines at all, so I'm going to go pull them all off, and plug them up with duct tape, so I can narrow it down to just the intake. If that checks out ok, i'll add one hose at a time till the problem happens.

If the Intake checks out bad, I'll check the timing belt next.


Info, or advice?

BTW.. I got the Haynes Manual... so far it's almost useless, as always.

[mightymoose_22]

You need to inspect all those hoses where you hooked up the guage. There is a particular one with an elbow right on the top that like to get a crack on the back side of it. Also check your PCV valve and the hose coming from it. Could also be an intake manifold leak.

[hakachukai]

I've unplugged every vacuum hose I can find and plugged the hole with duct tape. The problem still continues. So it can't be any of the air hoses (unless there is a super hidden on that I missed).

I'm thinkin git gotta either be one of the large compenents on the intake itself, or the intake gasket, or the engine not prodcing enough vacuum.

I'm trying to check the timing belt, but I can't get the damn cover off!


I haven't done a compression check yet, but all 4 plugs looked exactly the same. They had a little bit of white on them, but not too much. They matched the picture of a good but possibly worn out plug.

[hakachukai]

I haven't got that timing belt cover off yet, but I will tomorrow.
I got a can of carb cleaner and sprayed all over the throttle body area, intake gasket area, over all of the injectors... no change in rpms.

Just out of curiousity I pulled off a vacuum hose, and sprayed some in there, and it went vroooom... reved up just like I figured it would. I'm gonna go over it tomorrow with a fine tooth comb, and double check for leaks, but it appears not to have any.

What now? Why is teh engine not producing vacuum? This car has over 100,000 on it.

Here is one crazy idea that I though of. What is the injectors are slow to open? When the throttles opens, air flow increases, which means vacuum decreases. Normally the injectors would open up and to compensate, and the engine would rev up, which would raise teh vacuum level.

But if the injectors are NOT opening up... the engine will NOT rev up, and the vacuum level will NOT increase. What do you guys think? How could I even test this theory?

One thing is for sure... this car has a massive vaccum problem! I drove around for a while with the vacuum gauge stuck under the windshield wiper blade so I could watch it. If you are gentle on the gass pedal, the vacuum stays in normal range, and the car runs fine (but no power). If you open it up too much when it's below 2500 rpms or so, the vacuum falls to almost nothing, and the car surges like crazy! Above 2500 rpms, its not as critical, but you can still tell that something it wrong.

If I find no leaks, and the timing belt if on there correctly, what am I looking at next? I'm guessing either valves, or injectors not functioning properly (which could be a side effect of another sensor failing)

[KimMG]

Since you do not wish to invest in a manual, try your local library. Many libraries have shop manuals in their reference section.
Not as detailed, try http://www.autozone.com there are free repair guides available. The site should also have a vacuum diagram available.

[hakachukai]

I did buy the Haynes Manual. It just isn't real helpful... least not yet. Not that i've had time to read the whole book.

[mightymoose_22]

To remove the timing cover you will have to remove the passenger side motor mount.
If you have been undable to identify a vacuum leak, try a compression check... maybe your head gasket is toast.