2.9L no power

[cushion101990]

Bought a 1989 Bronco II with 172k on her. Wasnt running for about 5 months. Bought it off a friend who said it died and was gutless out of no where and now wont start. Did a full tune up and got it running. Cut the cat off because it was clogged. Still was super gutless. Put on new muffler and exhaust and ran alot better but was still slow. Checked the timing and it was at 27 degrees BTDC. Adjusted it as close to 10 degrees BTDC but now it is even more gutless then before. It does however idle much smoother. Just complete power loose. Any help would be great. Thanks

 

[Psychopete]

Did you set the base timing with the SPOUT connector removed?

 

[Big Jim M]

About 6 inches in front of the distributor is a small plug in the distributor wire. When setting the timing that MUST be unplugged. You have set the timing waaay too retarded and that is the problem now. There may be other problems after you set the timing correctly. After setting it then put the spout back in there and see if it goes to the same place it was the first time you set it.
Big JIm

 

[TheMoon]

Another problem may be too much fuel. A symptom of that condition would be a clogged cat.

-TM

 

[cushion101990]

Yes i pulled the spout. still runs ok but no power. the cat is removed as stated previously

 

[TheMoon]

Sorry, I didn't clarify. I understand that you removed the cat, but my suggestion was to take a look at your fuel system. In other words, your engine may be getting too much fuel. The clogged cat would be an indicator that raw fuel is getting inside of it.

-TM

 

[cushion101990]

cat isnt saturated. the truck wont rev over 4 grand....

 

[88Bronco2EB]

Did you re-place the fuel filter? It may be clogged, restricting your fuel flow.

 

[Chris102371]

Timing chain could have stretched and it jumped time.

 

[cushion101990]

yes we changed the fuel filter.
and have checked timing a few times since we got it in time and its still correct

 

[Psychopete]

Just had a thought when I read through this - timing was set to 27btdc.. you set it back to 10, it idles better, but worse power - is the computer advancing the timing when the SPOUT is in place? Static timing @ 10btdc would make it slow as an old dog, my thought was that someone put the timing up that high to compensate for the computer not advancing the timing.

 

[cushion101990]

I will have to check into that