new motor not right

[monterey1962]

I am so fuckin' pissed of at that shop, right now, I can hardly think.

New plugs are in. Used Autolite 25's gapped at .45. Only improvement, so far, is that the car has a little more "pep". Engine still shudders at idle. I removed Motorcraft 44C's from the heads that were gapped at .50.

I replaced the two small hoses that come off the pump (mentioned previously) and found them to be quite old and worn. Why were these not changed in the first place?

Before I took the car in to the shop, I specifically told them to replace the oil pan because the rear plug threads were stripped (someone had cranked a metric plug into a standard thread hole before the car was purchased). What does the shop do? Gives me an oil pan with metric plugs and, what seems to be, stripped rear oil plug threads. I had to play with that rear plug almost as much as the old pan just to get it out and in.

Now, the show stopper. I actually stopped breathing when I saw this. My transmission pan is COLLAPSED! Looks like they didn't know how to support the trans when removing the engine.

I'm enraged. $2600 paid to the shop, not to mention a few hundred dollars in fuel with all the bullshit running back and forth ... and ... all the extra money spent on parts since I've got the car back ... O2 sensors, coolant, hoses, spark plugs, fan clutch, and IAC valve. AND IT STILL DOESN'T FUCKING RUN RIGHT!!!!

The "ptth" out the tail pipe is still there, too. It's been suggested to me by a neighbor that they possibly didn't lube the cam properly before installation, thus stripping a lobe enough to cause trouble.

This was supposed to be the top shop in the whole fucking state. What a bunch of bullshit that is. Going to be paying them a visit first chance I get.

[monterey1962]

Pics of the damaged trans pan. So much for a "professional" shop. Should the car even be driven this way? Could it cause issues with the trans/filter?

[Lincolnmania]

next time drive 1800 miles to the best panther shop
i have a trans pan mang

[monterey1962]

next time drive 1800 miles to the best panther shop
i have a trans pan mang

You know I would have had you build the motor if it weren't for the distance and time. I'm mad enough at myself for all this trouble it's causing for my mom. However, she's falling in love with my '91 now that she's needed to use it so much.

How soon could you send the pan? Let me know a cost and I'll PayPal you a.s.a.p.

We took the '90 out today to run errands. Still running around the 205-215 deg. F. range. Light shudder under light throttle conditions (same as before). Fuel pump has been whistling for a year, now, but has gotten terribly louder with the new motor. I have not tested fuel pressure since I don't have the equipment on hand.

[cld783]

my pan is alot worse and hasn't gave me trouble for years. unfortunately the shudder could be caused by a million different things (you already figured that out though) did they use new motor mounts?

if your fuel pump is whistling i would look into checking your fuel pressure ASAP.

[88grandmarq]

sounds to me like you have restricted/clogged exhaust.

transmission pan is not bad, small dent in the pan wont hurt anything.
I have seen and used pans in much worse shape.

if you do replace the transmission pan, spend the $44 and get the chrome FRPP/B&M pan with a drain plug. it makes transmission service much easier.

[monterey1962]

did they use new motor mounts?

No.

sounds to me like you have restricted/clogged exhaust.

My original plan was to put the cat-back duals w/glass packs from my CV on the '90. Mom likes the sound and it's an improvement over the single exhaust. I have a full 2.5" exhaust system laying around waiting to be installed on the CV ... if I ever get the time. Maybe that 2.5" system needs to go on the '90, instead?

I'm at my wits end with this car and the shop. How much more money am I going to have to sink into this car to get it to run the way it should have in the first place? My thinking, at this point, is it will be cheaper and less hassle to just figure it out and fix it myself, rather than run the car 120 miles back to the shop and let them hold it for over a week, only to tell me it's mechanically sound, again.

[gadget73]

While I'd consider the pump, normally fuel pump problems will show up more under load / at speed than at idle. A pressure check certainly wouldn't hurt though.

[monterey1962]

I'm going crazy over this.

New fuel pump and filter went in today. Car acts like it's actually getting fuel now and, upon hard acceleration, seems to go a bit better. However, the engine shudder was still there. The local shop that did the pump (super guys, but they don't do engine rebuilds) looked the motor over top to bottom (even scanned for codes), and couldn't find anything that would cause an issue. They gave me some ideas, though.

Tonight, I changed the distributor cap and rotor, and adjusted the TPS voltage. I moved it from .90 to 1.00. The good news, the shudder appears to have faded some. It doesn't shake the car so much now. However, the engine still shakes like the 144K mile engine in my '91.

While driving down the highway, the car has a slight bucking feel during light throttle. When I backed the car in the garage, put it in gear, and pressed lightly on the throttle, it sounds like the car is having air flow issues. Almost sounds like an exhaust leak, but more like the car can't exhale. Could this be an EGR valve issue? EGR valve is about the last thing on my list that I can possibly come up with.

On top of all of this, the car has a coolant leak. Looks like the coolant is seeping through the water pump gasket at the bottom of the pump. "New" motor my ass.

[gadget73]

try plugging the vac line for the egr valve. i had similar part throttle problems, and it ended up being the egr regulator sticking, and giving me 100% EGR at any throttle position above idle and below about 80%. It would buck and carry on like crazy at cruise speed. No idle problems though. If the egr valve is sticking open, that might be an issue. The leak sound could be a sticking egr valve, or maybe a bad gasket at the egr valve, egr spacer. What spacer and throttle body are you using? HO upper with a ported lopo spacer, or is it the stock intake ? Are those gaskets between the intake and spacer, and spacer and TB new?

[monterey1962]

Still the stock intake. Gaskets were not replaced.

[monterey1962]

Good f'n grief. Salvage yard sold me the wrong trans pan, today. Had mom pick it up since I was stuck at work. If I can't get a hold of a straight pan by the weekend, I'll just work the dent out of this pan, as much as possible.

Coolant leak is definitely coming from the water pump gasket.

[LTDMan83]

Hey, good luck with it mang, small things like that will aggravate me to no end as well. The rebuilt motor in my Blue '87 does the same thing, and it has no EGR at all. I'm at a loss as to the cause thus far.

[gadget73]

Might want to replace the throttle body gaskets. Not saying thats the problem, but they're cheap enough

[Pirate]

I think it's time to pop the driver's side valve cover off, and see just how 'new' this engine is. I find it absolutely bizarre that a supposedly rebuilt engine runs almost exactly like the engine that came out. The only other thought I might have would be the injector harnesses, as they might somehow have the two sides backwards, nevermind how impossible it seems at this point.

At this point, the car doesn't need to leave the shop until it's running like it is supposed to, unless you have a bad injector somewhere (which may explain why it runs the same even with the new engine), you are rapidly running out of reasons for it to run like that.