Lack of power??? Any ideas?

[painterdude]

I have a '97 Eddie Bauer with 110,000 miles (I bought it with 107K) and have very little power, especially up hills and when I pull one of my 3500# trailers it feels like I'm pulling a bus.......30 mph max.....floored. I replaced the fuel filter, spark plugs, all fluids and had the injectors cleaned and still no improvement. The fuel pressure is fine, the compression is 160-170 on all 8 and the transmission checks out fine. A muffler shop checked for back pressure and found it to be normal. They said that the O2 sensors could be bad but that there was no way to know. (They wanted $600 to replace the sensors). Could it be my gear ratio as one shop suspects? I believe that I have a 3.73 but how do I know for sure?

Thanks

Jake

[tb40nd]

Originally Posted by painterdude

I have a '97 Eddie Bauer with 110,000 miles (I bought it with 107K) and have very little power, especially up hills and when I pull one of my 3500# trailers it feels like I'm pulling a bus.......30 mph max.....floored. I replaced the fuel filter, spark plugs, all fluids and had the injectors cleaned and still no improvement. The fuel pressure is fine, the compression is 160-170 on all 8 and the transmission checks out fine. A muffler shop checked for back pressure and found it to be normal. They said that the O2 sensors could be bad but that there was no way to know. (They wanted $600 to replace the sensors). Could it be my gear ratio as one shop suspects? I believe that I have a 3.73 but how do I know for sure?

Thanks

Jake

you may want to pull your throttle body and have the egr valve ports cleaned on the inside of the throttle body. they have a tendancy to get clogged badly and one of the symptoms is reduced power and torque.

normally, there will be a code p0401 but maybe your's isn't throwing a code YET.

when i first read this i immediately thought spark plugs and wires but you changed them you said... oh, now that i look back at your post i see you only mentioned changing the plugs. did you change the wires also?

if you didn't go it right away and i bet you'll be good to go. i changed my plugs a few months ago and after a few weeks of what seemed to be a cure - things began to go downhill again... poor power, rough ride from terrible misfires.

i changed the wires even though i just knew i was wasting my time and i haven't looked back since.

just noticed you posted this sometime ago - hopefully you've fixed the problem or will think to check back here again.

good luck.

[ctesla]

hope your problem is solved painterdude,
and tb40 had super input, but also may clean the MAF with some air intake cleaner as Ford's MAF is suseptable to dust and humidity.
if your hauling a trailer, does that mean your in and out of construction sites?
plus is it humid where you are at in Oregon?

good luck,
hope this helps,
ctesla