Power Lost. But where????

[Nuttin' But Trouble]

Ok guys heres the problem of the week for ya.

I have (and love) my '87 B2 5 speed 4x4. But there is a problem.

I purchased her back in the beginning of the summer, and have been restoring parts as I can afford to do so. I had a suspicion that she was running on 5 cylinders, but couldn't confirm a reason for the thought. Every time I pulled plug #6 it was wet with fuel and had plenty of spark, but wet meant it wasn't burning. I thought maybe that injector was shot and just flooding out that piston, but it proved not to be the case.

After 'bout 3 months of driving her I had the thought to check the wiring to that plug, and discovered that the previous owner had messed up the firing order coming off the cap. Once I got the 3 (!!??) mis-wired plugs back in order, and adjusted the timing accordingly, she immediately leveled off and began to purr like she should.

The only thing is that now she's running on perhaps a third of the power that she had, and the passenger side floorboards are screaming hot over the exhaust. The exhaust is so hot that it buckled my new muffler. I cant for the life of me figure out why.

Where'd all her power go? and how in the **** do I get it back???

I'm wondering if 3 months of unburned fuel out of cylinder #6 has plugged her cats, and thats all it is. I'd love to just hollow 'em out.. but I live in MA and would never pass our emissions inspection...

So I'm stumped. Any thoughts on this will be a great help to me, she almost quits every time I try to get going from a stoplight, especially up a hill.

 

[Yardape]

Maybe the guy who messed up the plug wires set the timing to run like that, its possible maybe you need you re-adjust timing to run with the correct firing order.

 

[Nuttin' But Trouble]

Maybe the guy who messed up the plug wires set the timing to run like that, its possible maybe you need you re-adjust timing to run with the correct firing order.

I have an old timing strobe, and did ajust the timing back to origin, so unless the distributor is shot, I dont think thats the trouble. Could be worth upgrading..

 

[Seabronc]

I'd say you have found the problem. A plugged cat will cause the heat problem as well as severe power loss. You will probably see it glowing red if you look under the truck when the floor is getting hot. Fix it before it sets your rug on fire.

Good luck,

 

[yusuebronko2_86]

If you can pay the shipping and such, I'll GIVE you my old cats. I chopped them off long ago, and they're still lying in my dad's back yard, still good. ****, they're still clean as a whistle. All you gotta do is clean 'em up, and weld 'em on. If you want 'em, they're waiting for you here in southwest TX. Drop me a line if you're interested.

 

[Tony]

Ok guys heres the problem of the week for ya.
I have (and love) my '87 B2 5 speed 4x4. But there is a problem.

I purchased her back in the beginning of the summer, and have been restoring parts as I can afford to do so. I had a suspicion that she was running on 5 cylinders, but couldn't confirm a reason for the thought. Every time I pulled plug #6 it was wet with fuel and had plenty of spark, but wet meant it wasn't burning. I thought maybe that injector was shot and just flooding out that piston, but it proved not to be the case.

After 'bout 3 months of driving her I had the thought to check the wiring to that plug, and discovered that the previous owner had messed up the firing order coming off the cap. Once I got the 3 (!!??) mis-wired plugs back in order, and adjusted the timing accordingly, she immediately leveled off and began to purr like she should.

The only thing is that now she's running on perhaps a third of the power that she had, and the passenger side floorboards are screaming hot over the exhaust. The exhaust is so hot that it buckled my new muffler. I cant for the life of me figure out why.

Where'd all her power go? and how in the **** do I get it back???

I'm wondering if 3 months of unburned fuel out of cylinder #6 has plugged her cats, and thats all it is. I'd love to just hollow 'em out.. but I live in MA and would never pass our emissions inspection...

So I'm stumped. Any thoughts on this will be a great help to me, she almost quits every time I try to get going from a stoplight, especially up a hill.

 

[Tony]

Are you sure that you did set the timing right? I have an 86 BII and under my hood it says 10deg BTDC. But When I got my code reader, in the book there is a formula that you have to do. Well anyways my truck is supposed to be between I think 25 and 27 deg. So When I hook up a timing light it will show 27deg. Something you might want to check on. Reply to this and I'll send to the formula from the book. I had a problem with that for a while before I aquired that book.

 

[pinson27]

Ok guys heres the problem of the week for ya.
I have (and love) my '87 B2 5 speed 4x4. But there is a problem.

I purchased her back in the beginning of the summer, and have been restoring parts as I can afford to do so. I had a suspicion that she was running on 5 cylinders, but couldn't confirm a reason for the thought. Every time I pulled plug #6 it was wet with fuel and had plenty of spark, but wet meant it wasn't burning. I thought maybe that injector was shot and just flooding out that piston, but it proved not to be the case.

After 'bout 3 months of driving her I had the thought to check the wiring to that plug, and discovered that the previous owner had messed up the firing order coming off the cap. Once I got the 3 (!!??) mis-wired plugs back in order, and adjusted the timing accordingly, she immediately leveled off and began to purr like she should.

The only thing is that now she's running on perhaps a third of the power that she had, and the passenger side floorboards are screaming hot over the exhaust. The exhaust is so hot that it buckled my new muffler. I cant for the life of me figure out why.

Where'd all her power go? and how in the **** do I get it back???

I'm wondering if 3 months of unburned fuel out of cylinder #6 has plugged her cats, and thats all it is. I'd love to just hollow 'em out.. but I live in MA and would never pass our emissions inspection...

So I'm stumped. Any thoughts on this will be a great help to me, she almost quits every time I try to get going from a stoplight, especially up a hill.

3 months of unburned fuel could have also "washed out" the rings in that cylinder.Also if the problems not your cat(s), you may want to do a compression check for a stuck or improperly seated valve,which can also cause a loss of power and a red hot exhaust.