'89 mustang- lose power when engine warm, acceleration bucks and stutters.

[zgraum]

1989 4 cylinder mustang lx, 2.3 liter. 150,000 miles.

car runs fine when fresh in the morning, but after it hits operating temperature, the power i can get signifigantly drops. Acceleration is very unresponsive, and if im in cruise control at a steady speed, the car acts like it is going to die, and i slowly lose speed. The car jerks when i try to accelerate. and i must accel slowly. feels like it wont shift gears, but this might be because im not getting enough power to shift. similar problem occured once, but i found one of my ignition wires was split and my spark was jumping to the block. REplaced that and it acted fine for about a month, now its back, and i cant see any wire tears. Once blew my radiator and car overheated, could this now be causing these later problems? dont think the heads cracked. Possible Electrical? Replaced ignition module and distributor rotor, no dice. help please.

[parrish5o]

I had a problem similar to this with a Nissan 4X4 SEV6. When I put it back together after replacing a few valves I didn't align the dots on the timing gears. It did exactly what you describe but I'm sure they have nothing in common. Good luck anyway.

[zgraum]

i did blow a timing belt this summer, and maybe the alignment is slipping again. i just replaced the wires and plugs this morning, and am going to go on a drive this afternoon. the plugs were all burnt, hope this is it, and it works right now. ill check the timing and injection nozzles tonight when i have time. anymore ideas out there?

[StangNut86]

do you have enough tranny fluid? definitely check that, cuz you might not have enough pressure in the lines.

as for the loss of power, my 2.3 doesn't even start on its own, and only runs on #4 when i pushstart it. the reason? head gasket that's completely fucked. combine that with bad piston rings, and you have the reason i'm replacing the engine with that of a '90 LX 2.3

point being, do compression and cylinder leakage tests, see where air is escaping. if your coolant level drops consistently, you have coolant entering the combustion chambers, another of my problems.

good luck =)

[parrish5o]

I'm pretty sure this has nothing to do with your prob, but I pulled my hair for two days trying to chase down a problem in mine. It ran fine until I laid into it, but as soon as it hit the sweet spot in the powerband it just fell on it's face. Whats funny is that it popped up right after I put a fuel pump on it, so that is where I started troubleshooting. Imagine what was going through my head by the time I found the injector plug backed off just enough to break the circuit. It was under the intake runners and a bitch to see yet alone get to.

[HiFlow5 0]

Since you said the car runs fine when cold, but bad when warm, leads me to believe it has to do with an emissions component. I would check the EGR valve and O2 sensors first.

[MustangRoadRacer]

lean condition?

[zgraum]

haha, wow this is an old thread- havent been on here in years, but i was googling some old screennames and ran across this post again. i did figure out wat it was soon after posting, so just in case someone with a similar problem runs across this, here it is- the winner is HiFlow 5 0- it was my O2 sensor. just swapped it out in a matter of minutes and for just a few bucks. ran like a child again. thanks everyone for their help.

[HiFlow5 0]

Originally Posted by zgraum

haha, wow this is an old thread- havent been on here in years, but i was googling some old screennames and ran across this post again. i did figure out wat it was soon after posting, so just in case someone with a similar problem runs across this, here it is- the winner is HiFlow 5 0- it was my O2 sensor. just swapped it out in a matter of minutes and for just a few bucks. ran like a child again. thanks everyone for their help.

LOL, that's too funny. Usually it's frowned upon by digging up old threads let alone 4 year old threads, but thanks for coming back to put some closeure to such an old thread. I agree it will help in future searches. Cheers!

-Craig

[n8medina]

I have an 87 Mustang GT and it was doing the same thing but now it will start and shut rite off,did u figure out the problem

[K5Calamity]

He said the problem was the oxygen sensors. He replaced with new ones and runs great now. I'm gonna check mine for response, or maybe just replace.