Christopher continuing his story

[Christopher]

I yanked off my completely clogged honeycomb catalytic converters and replaced the destroyed 02 sensor and my 2.9 no longer superheats the combustion chamber and you can actually touch the plenum after it is fully warmed and running. I put some dual exhaust with the cheap cherry bombs and I am impressed with 1st and 2nd gear. It will crawl up my super steep driveway in 4wd at idle speed. The engine runs better while it is cold and I get mild accelleration in 3rd, 4th ,and 5th. After it warms up however acceleration is absolutely horrible in these remaining gears. I cannot retrieve an accurate code and I have tried various combinations with ALL my spare truck SENSORS except for the coolant temp sensor with no results. It has had the full tune up gig. It does not skip and no ticking of lifters yet. I plan to give it some more air but I dont want to spend money on this poor 2.9. I will give it a proper burial someday but I will try to prolong its life within a reasonable amount of money. I wish it had been born with cast iron heads but Ford did not bless us with this and it was designed for the crusher on purpose to keep us coming back to the dealer.

 

[Psychopete]

You can test the ECT:

http://fordfuelinjection.com/?p=28

Get the engine to operating temperature (~190, granted you have a stock thermostat), and check the output of the sensor. Other interesting stuff on that site as well.

86-87 did not have a MIL from the factory, so it cannot report when and if it sees an issue. Check out ECC-IV diagnotics in the technical library for more info. on pulling codes as a sanity check. This will help identify the issue.

What was the condition of the o2 sensor wiring? It runs right by the engine/trans bell and the exhaust. It can get burnt, mangled, etc.

FWIW, 2.9L heads are cast iron. The castings are just thin.

I would recommend putting some of the other questions in the topic that pertains to them, like the suspension question in the suspension forum. Being the engine that the 2.9L is, not everyone in the suspension section may frequent this particular forum (but who knows ).

Pete

 

[Boggin]

hey christopher how about making a build thread and keep posting in that rather than making several threads over and over here, thanks

 

[almostclueless]