95 SHO sluggish

[snige54]

I just bought at 95 SHO and the first week i got it, it drove wonderful. I ran the tank empty, and without even thinking i put a low octane gas in, they say premium with a high octane is desirable. Not to mention the gas station where i got the gas is known for horrible gas. I wasnt even thinking and i come from a small town where thats the only gas available. My question is, would this "bad gas" and low octane make my car sluggish, and when idling have a "gurgling" (not to sure how else to explain it) sound?

[shorod]

I wouldn't expect the lower octane to cause the car to be noticeably sluggish. Now if the gas is truly bad, like being contaminated with water, that could have all sorts of effects. If the plugs and spark plug wires are in good shape on your SHO, it should idle fine with the lower octane. You may notice decreased power under load, like when going up hills, etc. If the car's knock sensor is working properly, you shouldn't notice any knocking from the lower octane either.

What is the chance the gurgling you're hearing is an engine miss? Are you familiar with what an engine miss sounds like? Maybe it's a miss combined with a vacuum leak sound. Pull a spark plug or two and see how they look. While you're under the hood, trace the vacuum lines and make sure you don't have any that are cracked, brittle, or broken. Replace any that are questionable or bad.

Although it may not look like it, replacing the plugs and wires on the V-6 SHO really isn't that bad. It isn't too bad to get the intake runner assembly off the top of the engine, and once that's off, the plugs are easy.

A common problem on the V-6 SHO is for the plug well seals in the valve cover to leak, causing the wells to fill with oil and short the spark to the head. To replace the seals you will need to get the intake runner assembly off, then the valve covers are easily removed.

The small town you're from wouldn't happen to be near Cedar Rapids, Iowa, would it?

If so, I'd be willing to help you with the project.

-Rod

[snige54]

Thanks for the reply, i pulled the plugs and to my dismay, it was filled with oil. Im hoping its an easy fix i kind of left myself short with money when buying the car. My dad used to be a mechanic he thinks he should be able to fix the problem, myself on the other hand is clueless. The small town im from is from Treynor Iowa, i think thats about a 4 hour drive but thanks for the help. Any other helpful advice on fixing this problem?

[shorod]

Originally Posted by snige54

Thanks for the reply, i pulled the plugs and to my dismay, it was filled with oil. Im hoping its an easy fix i kind of left myself short with money when buying the car. My dad used to be a mechanic he thinks he should be able to fix the problem, myself on the other hand is clueless. The small town im from is from Treynor Iowa, i think thats about a 4 hour drive but thanks for the help. Any other helpful advice on fixing this problem?

The appearance of the engine is intimidating, but it's really not that bad to work on. I nearly got to the point where I was taking the intake runners off for the fun of it. After doing it a time or two, you will be able to do it in less than an hour. Pay attention to what bolts come from where and you should be fine. If I remember correctly, the worst part about the whole job is getting the cap head screws loose for the idle air control servo. There is also a coolant line on the bottom side of the throttle body that is easy to overlook the first time. Most of the gaskets for the intake runners are metal and reuseable. If you're careful, you won't need to replace any gaskets.

Since you'd like to save as much money as possible, you may have luck using LocTite Ultra Black RTV to seal the spark plug wells. I actually did this once. My plug well seals started to leak. The valve cover gaskets weren't leaking, and I didn't want to wait for a gasket set to come in. The valve cover gasket set includes new plug well seals, but not too many places stock the gasket set. Since I almost pull the intake runner for fun, I wouldn't have minded if I had to do it twice. So, I pulled the intake and valve cover gaskets, removed the rubber plug well seals and rubber valve cover gaskets, cleaned everything off well, sprayed the valve cover surfaces and mating surfaces of the manifold with brake cleaner and let everything dry. With the surfaces clean and dry I applyed a light coating of the RTV to the surfaces and the old seals, let it skin over for about 20 minutes, and started putting everything back together. Let the car sit overnight and the following day. None of the seals ever leaked for the next year or so before I traded it off. Maybe you'll have as good of luck.

Sometimes I really miss that car. I traded it in for a Nissan Pathfinder since I had another sports car and figured I could use the utility of the Pathfinder. After about 2 years with the Pathfinder, I missed my SHO and happened across another imaculate SHO, this time a '98. So, the Pathfinder got traded in and I now drive have a '98 as my daily driver. It's more comfortable than the '93, but not quite as fun (or attractive IMO).

-Rod

[snige54]

Thanks for all the help. Im gettin ready to start the project and hopefully in a few days i wont have to be drivin my old clunker. I'll repost and let u know how the project went in a few days.

thanks
nigel

[snige54]

I suppose that if a guy is going to start working on cars, he might as well pick a hard one to learn on right?? haha. Quick question.. the allen head screws on the manifold covers, those things r giving me a hell of a time. Dont suppose you know the size of those do u. everything i keep grabbing comes up wrong. I think its safe to say im at about the halfway point, prb 5 hours into it.I've got the front side done and put back together now going to the back side. Hopefully i can finish it up by tomorrow got most of the day to do it. Thanks for any help

[shorod]

I don't recall if those are Torx or hex/Allen. If Torx, I would guess they are T-45, as hex/Allen, I think you will need a metric set, but I'm not sure the size. I can check my service manual tonight to see if it lists a size. It should at least have a torque spec, but that does you no good if you can't get them loose.

-Rod

[shorod]

I didn't find anything telling the size, the instructions just say "Remove the bolts...." The torque spec upon reinstall is 8-11 ft-lbs.

-Rod

[snige54]

Got the whole project done. I completed it thursday, putting about 12 hours of work into it id say. It was actually not to bad, i was told that alot of cars are easier to work on, but i guess not knowing any different i didnt really notice that it was that bad to work on. I think i'll feel more comfortable doing just about anything on the car so thats a deff plus.Thanks for all the help.

[shorod]

Congratulations! I'd agree with you, I've worked on a lot of General Motors products that are a lot more miserable to work on even though they look less intimidating than the SHO.

So have you had a chance to drive the car enough to verify the leaky plug well seals were the problem?

-Rod

[snige54]

Ya, i ended up taking it on a road trip this weekend, i wasnt sure how i felt about drivin it so much but it ended up being fine. The plug seals deff. needed to be replaced there was alot of oil in all of the plug wells. The backside plugs had oil up over them, so most deff they needed to be replaced. Its running great again, im kinda looking for something else to do to it, i enjoyed working on it every night. Hopefully shes good to go now. What do you know about changing the timing chain? Can it be done or is it best to leave it to a professional?

[shorod]

It can be done, and if you have the time and patience, you can do it yourself. There are a few tricks to doing it though. That is the only project that I paid an independent shop to do on my SHO, basically because I didn't want to be without the car for as long as it would take me to do it, and I wanted someone else to be responsible for it if it wasn't done properly.

I would suggest you replace the crankshaft position (CKP) sensor and water pump at the same time. If there's any indication that the water pump or a crankshaft seal is leaking, definitely replace the CKP sensor. Otherwise, it will leave you stranded somewhere and you'll get to do the job all over again to replace it. Fortunately I'm not speaking from experience, just from hearing about other's experiences.

You might want to check out www.shotimes.com. Somewhere on that site is steps for replacing the timing belt.

[edit] If you have a manual transmission SHO, see http://www.shotimes.com/php-bin/modu...thold=0&sid=64

If your SHO is an automatic, go to http://www.shotimes.com/php-bin/modu...thold=0&sid=65

-Rod