2.3L ('83-'97) Rough idle/engine shake/stalling

[scotts90ranger]

Very interesting... my '97 is showing signs, and the valve cover is gross... that sounds just dumb enough to work! Not even the end of the world, can shim them back up if used in a different location...

 

[PlumCrazy]

Very interesting... my '97 is showing signs, and the valve cover is gross... that sounds just dumb enough to work! Not even the end of the world, can shim them back up if used in a different location...

I'm definitely going to do a compression test and measure valve stem heights and do the rest when I have time to mess with it again

 

[scotts90ranger]

I don't think a compression test is going to show you anything, you'll need a leakdown test to tell you anything about valve sealing... They're like $30 at harbor freight or amazon... I'm not the biggest fan of those as they only put like 15psi in the cylinders, the Snap On and MAC versions put 100psi in the cylinders which represents reality better but hey, I'm not that invested... I'll use my low dollar version for my uses and if I get too worried I can borrow the $$ ones from work...

 

[PlumCrazy]

I don't think a compression test is going to show you anything, you'll need a leakdown test to tell you anything about valve sealing... They're like $30 at harbor freight or amazon... I'm not the biggest fan of those as they only put like 15psi in the cylinders, the Snap On and MAC versions put 100psi in the cylinders which represents reality better but hey, I'm not that invested... I'll use my low dollar version for my uses and if I get too worried I can borrow the $$ ones from work...

If a valve is not closing it's gonna show as a dead hole probably sub 20psi. That's all I'm looking for. Bottom end has 320,000 miles on it, so I'm sure it's already low lol

 

[scotts90ranger]

If a valve is not closing it's gonna show as a dead hole probably sub 20psi. That's all I'm looking for. Bottom end has 320,000 miles on it, so I'm sure it's already low lol

You'd think so but not really, I just ran into that 2 weeks ago on my brothers Escape, solid tappet Duratec engine with worn valve or recessed seat and misfire code on one cylinder and compression was only like 20psi low on that cylinder but it got misfire codes and the leakdown showed like 30% on that cylinder. When we pulled the valve cover the "barrel" was riding on the cam lobe of that exhaust valve all the way around which it shouldn't on the base circle... put a .15mm shorter barrel on and misfire is gone...