shaker

[eastcoastchaos]

sorry for so many posts. but something is still screwed. my car shakes like crazy and stalls if i don't stay on the gas now. i know there is an exhaust leak thats pretty bad but i don't think thats the only problem. in neutral while rolling it doesn't shake in gear it shakes bad. at a stand still it shakes and the idle is pretty rough. maybe something with the drive shaft? but why doesn't it idle now. i just finished a clutch and flywheel swap so the problem should be related to that. any help is greatly appreciated. thanks~ben

[benemorius]

You say it never happens with the transmission in neutral? Sounds like the clutch is not fully disengaging if that's the case.

[eastcoastchaos]

no, it can be in gear and i have the clutch down and it doesn't shake so it does disengage fully. the clutch and transmission seem to be working perfectly.

[sdtouge]

hmmm, i dont know, did you unplug anything from the engine? replug all the conectors?refill it with fluid (wouldnt doo that but just want to check...)

crap, i have no clue....um, maybe you pinched something with your transmission, did you put the starter back on properly?

[Red coupe]

was this happening before the clutch/flywheel swap?you say that it shakes when rolling in gear and is fine rolling in nuetral?does it shake uder acceleration? in all gears?

[eastcoastchaos]

yes it shakes in all gears while under power. it didn't do it before the flywheel/clutch replacement and i've checked every plug multiple times. i just don't know.

could an exhaust leak make it shake that bad. i'm going to put in a test pipe hopefully today to fix the leak.

in neutral while sitting still it shakes pretty bad but consistantly with the sound of the leak. i mean every little pop the leaks making seems to be when it shakes. i'm lost

[boost_creep]

sounds like the shaking is whats causing your exhuast to leak...and continually get worse..so dont worry about that just yet...but the shaking,only thing i could think of is the installation of clutch...maybe the wrong alignment tool?..something behind the flywhell,when it was torqued.(peice of rust)..or wrong torque?..same thing with the pressure plate

[benemorius]

What kind of shaking is it? Is it the engine shaking? Any chance you've got a dead cylinder? Pull and replace the spark plug wires one by one. If one doesn't make the engine worse, you know that cylinder was dead.

[eastcoastchaos]

thats what i came up with, one cylender is maybe screwed and i'm pretty sure thats where the problem is. the exhaust really did just have a leak i broke off one of the bolts when i took off the exhaust hanger from the cat.

well i got new plugs and now i'm just confused. i took off the wires one at a time while the car was running (after the new plugs) and the car maintained it's shake pretty much the same with each one. only when i take off the 3rd one the idle increases and it smooths out a tiny bit.

i pulled the distributer cab and scraped everything thinking maybe it was just corroded but i'm still in the same spot.any ideas?

[eastcoastchaos]

and yes it is the whole engine shaking

[eastcoastchaos]

allright i have a crazy theory, lemme know if this sounds reasonable.

to begin with the car runs moderately smooth when the 3rd spark plug is not in which leads me to believe that the problem lies in that cylinder. so i'm thinking maybe it's not getting adequit fuel, or not making compression. running 3 good and one bad cylinder would maybe make it shake the way it does where as just the 3 good cylinders w/o the bad one keeps it smooth, of coarse the car makes absolutely no power with just the 3 but f. i'm confused. anybody?

[eastcoastchaos]

allright i did a compression test on it today and it came out all screwed. 1,3 and 4 are all about 170 psi. but the second is about 30 unless i rev it up, it gets a little better pressure all the way up till about 140-150 when it stops and i run out of rpm. it seems to get a little better when i put some oil down the spark plug hole. but not much and not for long.

[hbrown]

Get out the FSM and verify the right wires are going to the right plugs-sometimes friends think its "funny" to switch things when your not looking-Just a thought- has happened to me before.

If you got the transmission in at all then the clutch ought to be lined up ok- the alignment tool is only to get it close so you can get it in. Then the clutch disc floats on the input shaft.

By any chance di you have a hard time getting it back on and maybe let the weight of the transmission bear on the clutch disc? It could have gotten warped or something. The exhaust leak should not cause this.

[eastcoastchaos]

nope, i really think the transmission is perfect. no noise, the clutch grabs like it should.

[sdtouge]

thats kinda extreme to mes with your friends wires.... i would punch my friend in the head if he did that to me.

[eastcoastchaos]

good call dude. the kid that helped me is too stupid to know what a spark plug wire is so i dought he would have messed with anything.

anyhow i think i've got the problem solved, i just did the compression test again in the second cylender and it came up about 30psi, i poured a little oil in the spark plug hole and did the test again and it was just under 30. so i think i need some new valves

[hbrown]

Heh Heh- yeah once I figured it out and who did it to me I got way more even with him than I intended to- he had a kick-*** jet ski- all modded out- he had it hooked up behind his truck at work one day to go to the lake later- I unlatched the seat and just unplugged the spark plug wires. He goes to the lake and tries to crank it and it has a CD ignition of some sort but to make a long story short- cranking it over with the wires unplugged is a no- no- fried his ignition module- about $400 worth. I had no idea it would do that. He never said a word about it.

[benemorius]

To properly check compression:

Pull the fuse for the fuel pump and run the engine until it dies from lack of fuel to relieve fuel pressure.

Remove all spark plugs.

Rig the throttle to stay wide open.

Connect compression tester to cylinder one and crank engine with starter (via remote starter or key) for several compression strokes, then check the gauge.

Repeat for remaining cylinders.

Don't forget to replace the fuel pump fuse and un-rig the throttle before attempting to start the engine again.

If adding oil to a cylinder does not significantly improve compression, valve or head gasket damage is to be suspected. It could be as simple as carbon deposits on the valve seat, or as major as a blown head gasket.

Do you also have a leakdown tester? If so, I highly recommend a leakdown test to explain the results of a compression test. You can usually narrow down compression loss to piston rings (or cylinder damage), head gasket, intake valves, or exhaust valves.

[eastcoastchaos]

is there anyway to spray something in the bad cylender to clean the carbon deposits, possibly make my bad valve seat better? carb cleaner? i want to see if this can be fixed w/o pulling the head

[benemorius]

You can try running seafoam through the intake. Do a search on the forum for "seafoam".

Did you do a proper compression test? You've already determined that you have a cylinder getting very little compression, but a proper test will give you a better idea of the general condition of your engine.

And if the seafoam doesn't help, I'd stress the leakdown test. You may be able to get a shop or friend to do it for free. It may tell you with great certainty what is causing the loss of compression. Head gasket is sometimes tricky to diagnose, but it will tell you for certan if the problem lies in the head (valves) or block (bad rings; cylinder wall damage)

[boke_as_hell]

sometimes it's better to leave the carbon where it is. A friend of mine killed his motor trying to get the carbon build up out by getting some in his oil pump some how. What about the rings in that cylinder?

[eastcoastchaos]

i did the seafoam and it didn't do anything. i'm starting to think it's the head gasket, when i tested it after the seafoam i heard a bubbling sound from the radiator. i think i will do a leakdown test in a few days