ooh thank you so much for the advice on cleaning the fuel injector! I took your advice and read up on TBI (and EFI in general) and I have a better understanding of it now. I'm going to do the 'drip test' there that you showed me (I think it's called?) ASAP. I also saw your page about "snake oil" so what I did, since I don't have time this week, is put some of the Lucas Fuel Injector Cleaner in with my gas just until I can get in there.
I DID pour the contents of the fuel filter out actually and it was the #2 option that you wrote: and it only had gas and a little rust, surprisingly, no chunks! I was very happy at that. With this fix, it stopped losing RPM's while going uphill but I still feel just a tiny bit of a bogging down.. I'll get to that in a minute.
I also changed out the thermostat and WOW the difference that it's making! Instead of JUST getting up to the "C" at its warmest- it's sitting just short of halfway up (where it should be, in operating range!). I didn't flush it all of the way but I drained the radiator all of the way and filled it back up with more of the green anti freeze since I didn't know when the last time someone put antifreeze in PLUS I know that the silicates in particular can 'wear out' after about a year, or 10k miles. The O'Reilly guy actually tried to sell me the yellow Universal stuff- and I just didn't feel comfortable mixing them because I knew I wouldn't be flushing it entirely. I know that green+orange (conventional phosphate/silicate vs organic acid OAT stuff) can actually cause gelling of the liquid and god knows what problems down the road from that- and I know that a lot of the universal stuff is actually hybrid-OAT so I didn't risk it and stayed with the green stuff that it calls for. Once I saw that it is for sure getting up to temperature, I checked the ECT and it is sitting right at 300ohms when at 180* as it should :-). Also, JUST FOR THE RECORD FOR ANYONE READING THIS: IT TOOK THE 5MM RUBBER O-RING (1993 2dr 1.6L 8v TBI w/ 3sp auto and on-demand 4x4).
Also.. I am not smelling fuel in exhaust anymore (which tells me that because I fixed 'stat : it is NOT staying in WARM UP mode like it probably was before and therefore not running rich) BUT I am still smelling a little bit of exhaust when I let off of the gas and coast to a stop sign, ESPECIALLY if after a hill. I am really suspecting that the different things like running rich from being too cool, plus it looked like the PO just recently changed the O2 sensor AND muffler- and just the number of little things that I've fixed that were wrong- I am REALLY thinking that the catalytic converter may be clogged. I hear the little bit of a rattle when I first start up and when I'm backing out. Also, it is the only piece on my entire exhaust system that is rusty... the shield for the Cat looks fine but the pipes attached to it are rusty so I am going to take the CAT off and inspect it visually. I'll also hit it gently with a rubber mallet. I'm also going to test the temperature going in and the temperature going out. If I go to fix it, I am thinking that I'll just buy the pre-fabricated CAT that includes the piping that is rusty on mine. Otherwise I'll have to buy just the CAT and pay someone to cut the old one off and weld the new one on... and even then the old pipe may have a hole that I haven't spotted yet and it's rusty. So, while "ouch" on the price- it's the right thing to do provided that it IS clogged up a bit like I suspect. That exhaust when I let off of the gas- it just feels like excessive back pressure from a progressively more clogged cat (from running rich while it was cold).
Other problem I noticed- when inspecting the PRNDL spindle because I'm going to fix my back up lights sometime soon- I noticed that I indeed DO have oil seeping down slowly from the back of my engine onto my bell housing for the transmission. I inspected the Valve Cover Gasket a few weeks back and it's DEFINITELY not good BUT your warnings about the Distributor O-Ring going bad got me to look and it's bad for sure back there. I noticed that I will be able to get to the O-Ring relatively easy with the valve cover, in-take and air filter housing pulled off... but do you have any advice on when I change my valve cover gasket and distributor o-ring? I know that if I don't put the distributor back in EXACTLY as it was that it can cause my ignition timing to go out of whack. I have a shade tree friend with a little experience BUT is this something that I can do myself with the reasonable expectation of not messing things up too badly? If I need to get a pro to handle this then it wouldn't hurt my feelings too awful badly.I'm also thinking that while I have everything pulled out- I will hand-clean my throttle body. Is there anything else that I should fix or replace while I've got the valve cover off and I'm fixing that gasket plus the distributor o-ring ?
Other than that- which will essentially fix EVERYTHING that I had wrong.. I only have to worry about the ball joints, lower control arm bushings and then of course some new tires. I'm going to do that one myself as well (I'm getting a 2nd, back up set of jack stands for extra safety). Any advice on that job as well?
I DID pour the contents of the fuel filter out actually and it was the #2 option that you wrote: and it only had gas and a little rust, surprisingly, no chunks! I was very happy at that. With this fix, it stopped losing RPM's while going uphill but I still feel just a tiny bit of a bogging down.. I'll get to that in a minute.
I also changed out the thermostat and WOW the difference that it's making! Instead of JUST getting up to the "C" at its warmest- it's sitting just short of halfway up (where it should be, in operating range!). I didn't flush it all of the way but I drained the radiator all of the way and filled it back up with more of the green anti freeze since I didn't know when the last time someone put antifreeze in PLUS I know that the silicates in particular can 'wear out' after about a year, or 10k miles. The O'Reilly guy actually tried to sell me the yellow Universal stuff- and I just didn't feel comfortable mixing them because I knew I wouldn't be flushing it entirely. I know that green+orange (conventional phosphate/silicate vs organic acid OAT stuff) can actually cause gelling of the liquid and god knows what problems down the road from that- and I know that a lot of the universal stuff is actually hybrid-OAT so I didn't risk it and stayed with the green stuff that it calls for. Once I saw that it is for sure getting up to temperature, I checked the ECT and it is sitting right at 300ohms when at 180* as it should :-). Also, JUST FOR THE RECORD FOR ANYONE READING THIS: IT TOOK THE 5MM RUBBER O-RING (1993 2dr 1.6L 8v TBI w/ 3sp auto and on-demand 4x4).
Also.. I am not smelling fuel in exhaust anymore (which tells me that because I fixed 'stat : it is NOT staying in WARM UP mode like it probably was before and therefore not running rich) BUT I am still smelling a little bit of exhaust when I let off of the gas and coast to a stop sign, ESPECIALLY if after a hill. I am really suspecting that the different things like running rich from being too cool, plus it looked like the PO just recently changed the O2 sensor AND muffler- and just the number of little things that I've fixed that were wrong- I am REALLY thinking that the catalytic converter may be clogged. I hear the little bit of a rattle when I first start up and when I'm backing out. Also, it is the only piece on my entire exhaust system that is rusty... the shield for the Cat looks fine but the pipes attached to it are rusty so I am going to take the CAT off and inspect it visually. I'll also hit it gently with a rubber mallet. I'm also going to test the temperature going in and the temperature going out. If I go to fix it, I am thinking that I'll just buy the pre-fabricated CAT that includes the piping that is rusty on mine. Otherwise I'll have to buy just the CAT and pay someone to cut the old one off and weld the new one on... and even then the old pipe may have a hole that I haven't spotted yet and it's rusty. So, while "ouch" on the price- it's the right thing to do provided that it IS clogged up a bit like I suspect. That exhaust when I let off of the gas- it just feels like excessive back pressure from a progressively more clogged cat (from running rich while it was cold).
Other problem I noticed- when inspecting the PRNDL spindle because I'm going to fix my back up lights sometime soon- I noticed that I indeed DO have oil seeping down slowly from the back of my engine onto my bell housing for the transmission. I inspected the Valve Cover Gasket a few weeks back and it's DEFINITELY not good BUT your warnings about the Distributor O-Ring going bad got me to look and it's bad for sure back there. I noticed that I will be able to get to the O-Ring relatively easy with the valve cover, in-take and air filter housing pulled off... but do you have any advice on when I change my valve cover gasket and distributor o-ring? I know that if I don't put the distributor back in EXACTLY as it was that it can cause my ignition timing to go out of whack. I have a shade tree friend with a little experience BUT is this something that I can do myself with the reasonable expectation of not messing things up too badly? If I need to get a pro to handle this then it wouldn't hurt my feelings too awful badly.I'm also thinking that while I have everything pulled out- I will hand-clean my throttle body. Is there anything else that I should fix or replace while I've got the valve cover off and I'm fixing that gasket plus the distributor o-ring ?
Other than that- which will essentially fix EVERYTHING that I had wrong.. I only have to worry about the ball joints, lower control arm bushings and then of course some new tires. I'm going to do that one myself as well (I'm getting a 2nd, back up set of jack stands for extra safety). Any advice on that job as well?