95 escort... very slow acceleration when warm, back firing, etc..

[ashleydawn]

i have a 95 escort lx 1.9 liter. its an automatic.... just recently i changed the spark plugs and wires but it seems to be having some serious technical difficulties.. when it warms up and i am driving it its fine till i have to slow down and speed up again. it will not accelate and sometimes it seems like its dropping gears while going up steep or prolonged hills. it also has been backfiring but that has only come about in the last couple of days and this has been going on for a while.. i will try to accelerate and the car will actually slow down for a couple seconds and then the rpms will rev up very high as though it droped a gear and it does it quite often now.. its usually fine when its cold.. i dont recall having a problem with it.. when driven often the overflow tank will bubble or boil and not sure why.. the check engine light goes on and off quite frequently also as does the check coolant light but i have coolant so i dont understand.. i dont know much about cars so any help if possible would be great..... Thank you so much...
Ashley

[Davescort97]

You either have a blown head gasket or a cracked head. The pressure is causing the the coolant to blow into the reservoir. You may also have white smoke or steam coming out your tail pipe. It doesn't do it when it is cold because the engine hasn't expanded enough to make it leak. This condiltion will make the engine put out very little power.

When your engine doesn't make enough power it downshifts to a lower gear. I think your transmission is fine. It's just doing what it's supposed to do.

The coolant light is going on because of air in the overflow reservoir. Check your wires on the spark plugs for the Check Engine Light. Make sure they are on all the way and in the proper order. The longest goes on the left leading the shortest to the right. Number 1 is on the left side of the engine leading to number 4 on the right side. On the coil pack number 1 is on the bottom right hand side. 2, 3, 4 are counterclockwise from number 1.
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Good luck to you. Dave

[ashleydawn]

thank you.. i kinda figured it was going to be something really bad... i already replaced the wires when i replaced the spark plugs and am really sure they are in right cause i took one off at a time so i didnt mess it up. anyways thanks again...