Broken Piston Rod

[FestYboy]

make sure your ignition wires are going to the correct plug and in the right order. if you have spark and you smell gas but you have no fire, i'll bet that 1-4 and 2-3 are backward.

[Oren09]

What order do they go on the distributor?
Haynes just shows 1 and counter clockwise.
I have them 1, 3, 4, 2

[fastivaca]

^^^ with number one being on the opposite end of the engine from the distrubutor.


Don't ask how I learned that....

[leapin]

^^^ with number one being on the opposite end of the engine from the distrubutor.


Don't ask how I learned that....

From me? lol.

[Oren09]

Yeah, I know the order of cylinders.
I'm going to move the wires and rotor around.
Switch the VAF. Anything else I can think of.

[Oren09]

I have it running. I moved the dizzy rotor and it runs. I think the timing is still off, but I'm not that sure. It seems to need tuning but it's idling alright.

Thank y'all for your help so far!

[crazyrog17]

Congrats! Just keep plugging away and it'll be on the road in no time.

[Oren09]

I drove it around for awhile tonight.
The engine ran worse the more I went and it burns A LOT of oil. There was a smoke screen behind me when I accelerated onto the highway.
It started out with very little power and had no power by the time I got home. It would barely accelerate.

[nitrofarm]

Man that sucks- Soundslike this motor might be junk as well? Did you hear it run b4 you pulled it out?

[crazyrog17]

Blue smoke, grey smoke or black smoke?

[Oren09]

Compression tested at yard. Over 200PSI on cylinders 1, 2, 4. 150PSI on 3.

Here is a video of idle:


Here's the exhaust at idle, kinda warmed up. No smoke when exhaust is cold.


I'm going to find a tachometer and timing light to check that stuff and eliminate it as a problem.
Where is the timing mark on the pulley? Haynes mentioned something about one.

[nitrofarm]

Tis actually a small yellow dash on the very bottom pulley thats attcahed to the crank shaft. Once you have your timing light hooked up you'll point the light at the pulley while the engine is running (after a full warm-up) And make sure you ground the black 1 pin STI (self test connector) near the brake master cylinder. Now you can check the timing and move the distributor. But only after a full warm-up & grouinding the STI plug.The vid dont look that bad. Pull all your spark plugs and look at them. You might have a simple bad plug wire. Before you go messing with the timing. You need to make sure the rest of the ignition is in good shape first? Does your exhaust reak like raw fuel when its in the garage like that? Does it burn your eyes (the smoke) If these are true your blowing fuel out the exhaust.
ps the wire clamp on test light must go arounf the # 1 spark plug wire (anywhere) just make sure its # 1 Cyl.

[Oren09]

Ok. I changed the wires for the ones on the old engine. Ran the same, so I started pulling wires. It died when I pulled one. No change on two or three so I changed those plugs for ones from the old engine. Plug 2 had no gap- it appears to be filled in with gunk.

The engine seems to have power now, but it smokes BAD. It does on idle and even more when you accelerate. Also, it makes a loud noise under load. Hard to describe, like a loud, higher pitched knock/rattle.

[FestYboy]

i'll bet it's lifter tap for that noise, run some seafoam in the crankcase. you also may have washed rings on cyl 2 because it wasn't firing.

run the seafoam, then give it an oil change. run that for 500mi with some more seafoam, then change it again. use an HD oil (high detregent) with the seafoam and then use castrol GTX highmilage once you're done.

[Oren09]

I put Seafoam in the crankcase, gas tank, and intake through a vacuum port today. Smoked REALLY bad after doing it through the intake. The engine was sputtering from lack of oxygen. My "garage" is walled in on three sides with no door.

I drove it again tonight and it did great. I moved the dizzy earlier to where it normally is- the marks where there's no oil. My tach/timing light I bought at Harbor Freight were junk. Going back soon. Timing seems good for now, but I will get it checked. Now the car really only smokes when I take off or if I hit the pedal after cruising a bit.
The car even has some pull in 5th gear now.
I replaced the plugs with Motorcraft plugs. The guy at Autozone said something was wrong with my car >.< This was when it was still smoking pretty bad from the Seafoam. He said it might be valve seals. I've been thinking about it and researching and I think it might also be valve seals/seats. Is there a difference? I read a few threads on here about valve seals but I didn't find any specific info about replacing them. My oil doesn't appear to have coolant in it or vice versa. (doubt its head gasket) The smoke from my car does have a strong gas smell to it sometimes, though.
The car seems to be perfectly driveable aside from the smoke cloud- that WILL NOT pass Texas inspection and this car is two years out of date.

I'm going to some yards tomorrow to search for Festiva/Tracer/Escort/323s, but I will pull the plugs to see how the new ones look and do another compression test.