I am working on a 1987 Ford Taurus (Mercury Sable) 3.0 with a 6 cyl.
It has not ran in two months nearly. Just cranks and cranks and cranks, rarely starts. I work on cars but have exhausted my knowledge here. I have owned the vehicle for about 8 months.
Let me give you guys some background:
Filter was stock and clogged. Air filter same. Spark plugs were blackened. It had an idling issue. Sometimes it would idle high, idle normal, die when i didnt have my foot on the gas. Because of a bad gas hand i ran out of gas frequently. These conditions existed for months. Finally, it reached a point were fuel economy got worse and worse. Its all time low was beneath 6mpg. I let my mom borrow it one night to go get her and a neighbor some food, she returned, i tried to crank it 3 hours later it had no power. I could floor it and it would barely go. It reached a point where I couldnt even floor it anymore, it would just die out.
From there filter was replaced, spark plugs had been replaced a week prior, air filter too, the starter had died 4 days prior and i replaced that. Older filter had major obstruction. I was told many things, TPS could be bad, fuel pressure regulator bad, fuel pump weak. I went the fuel rout not because I lacked it but due to the fuel economy and the obstruction issue. Pressure regulator was good, got 2 different good pumps, did not help, lines were cleaned & checked for crimps, different coil was bought, ICM was checked, failed, replaced with 2 more, neither helped.
It reached a point where I knew I had spark and fuel but maybe not at the right time. With compression decent in all cylinders and good fuel access I focused on timing. Some of the plug wires were switched, two gave out. fixed that. Inspected chain, had slack i didnt like, got new chain. I could get the car to start by manually setting crank in time with ratchet. Lot of backfire, taurus forum suggested i needed to retard timing since they want it 10° btdc. Out of like 100 attempts to start the vehicle it may have started 15. Adjusting distributor made it run.
The problem was i would do the exact same things and get random results. I would manually put it in time, it would run right 2 or 3 times then refuse to start. Sometimes I could put it back in time and get a good start, usually not. It ran the best sadly with no timing cover on it and oil swinging everywhere. Maybe 6 consistent starts with the cover taken off. Put it back on, still ran, but became unstable again. It reached a point where no dizzy adjustments or manual time sets would work. Now we all know obd1 is a joke but i decided i might try to use it to get some codes, thats when i noticed no CEL coming on at any point. I know a ECM/PCM being damaged can cause a no start and researched showed that no CEL could mean no power from the ECM.That is why I have turned my focus on the computer, not just because of the no start, but because of the randomness and inconsistencies of the engine functioning and because the codes might solve the mystery.
Should also say timing sprockets did not have worn teeth. fuel pressure had ample psi. Been told the PIP sensor also known as your modern crank sensor might be bad. I have not gotten a clear answer to whether or not its possible to have a bad Profile ignition Pickup in your distributor and still get any spark? I have also been wondering about the ECU relay but am not sure if the entire relay module needs to be switched out or if it features an individual one? Is there any way to bypass the relay briefly to see the results?
It has the things it needs to start. Maybe someone here knows about this type of issue.
It has not ran in two months nearly. Just cranks and cranks and cranks, rarely starts. I work on cars but have exhausted my knowledge here. I have owned the vehicle for about 8 months.
Let me give you guys some background:
Filter was stock and clogged. Air filter same. Spark plugs were blackened. It had an idling issue. Sometimes it would idle high, idle normal, die when i didnt have my foot on the gas. Because of a bad gas hand i ran out of gas frequently. These conditions existed for months. Finally, it reached a point were fuel economy got worse and worse. Its all time low was beneath 6mpg. I let my mom borrow it one night to go get her and a neighbor some food, she returned, i tried to crank it 3 hours later it had no power. I could floor it and it would barely go. It reached a point where I couldnt even floor it anymore, it would just die out.
From there filter was replaced, spark plugs had been replaced a week prior, air filter too, the starter had died 4 days prior and i replaced that. Older filter had major obstruction. I was told many things, TPS could be bad, fuel pressure regulator bad, fuel pump weak. I went the fuel rout not because I lacked it but due to the fuel economy and the obstruction issue. Pressure regulator was good, got 2 different good pumps, did not help, lines were cleaned & checked for crimps, different coil was bought, ICM was checked, failed, replaced with 2 more, neither helped.
It reached a point where I knew I had spark and fuel but maybe not at the right time. With compression decent in all cylinders and good fuel access I focused on timing. Some of the plug wires were switched, two gave out. fixed that. Inspected chain, had slack i didnt like, got new chain. I could get the car to start by manually setting crank in time with ratchet. Lot of backfire, taurus forum suggested i needed to retard timing since they want it 10° btdc. Out of like 100 attempts to start the vehicle it may have started 15. Adjusting distributor made it run.
The problem was i would do the exact same things and get random results. I would manually put it in time, it would run right 2 or 3 times then refuse to start. Sometimes I could put it back in time and get a good start, usually not. It ran the best sadly with no timing cover on it and oil swinging everywhere. Maybe 6 consistent starts with the cover taken off. Put it back on, still ran, but became unstable again. It reached a point where no dizzy adjustments or manual time sets would work. Now we all know obd1 is a joke but i decided i might try to use it to get some codes, thats when i noticed no CEL coming on at any point. I know a ECM/PCM being damaged can cause a no start and researched showed that no CEL could mean no power from the ECM.That is why I have turned my focus on the computer, not just because of the no start, but because of the randomness and inconsistencies of the engine functioning and because the codes might solve the mystery.
Should also say timing sprockets did not have worn teeth. fuel pressure had ample psi. Been told the PIP sensor also known as your modern crank sensor might be bad. I have not gotten a clear answer to whether or not its possible to have a bad Profile ignition Pickup in your distributor and still get any spark? I have also been wondering about the ECU relay but am not sure if the entire relay module needs to be switched out or if it features an individual one? Is there any way to bypass the relay briefly to see the results?
It has the things it needs to start. Maybe someone here knows about this type of issue.