k9sar

level is perfect and fluid is clean and red.

yes. carbon. self defeating situation. Carbon buildup is one thing that fouls the O2 sensor which causes the ECU to adjust the mixture etc which makes it run inefficient which produces more crap in the exhause to foul the O2 sensor. fun, huh?

The wire for the O2 sensor lays over your tranny on it's way up to the passenger side connection point. Perhaps a hott tranny is affecting it. When I read "secondary roads", I was thinking bumpier than normal, thus bouncing/flexing of the wire, especially if you have a broken exhaust mount or something. My o2 was from advanceauto, it was a Bosch, universal fit with a snazzy universal connector to splice the new sensor to your old connector. It was a bit cheaper than the Bosch one with the OEM conenctor.

some people say to put a screwdriver throught he holes in the cam sprocket to keep everything from turning. Problem there is that you rely on the timing belt to hold everything and that is why you are in there in the first place. If you are going to rely on impact to remove teh crank bolt, make sure your plugs are in because the cylinder compression will help provide resistance from turning when you smack it. Inertia and load -vs- breaker-bar and big hammer. It should come loose. It's only about 95 ft-lbs. I use the screwdriver trick only to remove my cam sprocket bolts

just got back from lunch and paid attention to the following... Reverse - jumps backward like a champ. no "slippage" at all First ( 1 - selector) accellerates fine and the engine retards the speed when I let off the gas Second (2 - selector) accellerates in first then shifts into second without issue. May be a little sloppy if I cruise at speed then hard accellerate First and second (D selector) accellerates fine in first, shifts to second but if I hold that speed and then hit the gas hard, there is no downshift (as expected) and the engine races with little change to forward speed Third and above, Shifts fine up into gear, downshifts if I stomp on it and grabs moderately (I think) but if I strongly accellerate while in 3 or 4, the engine revs without much forward change. I also looked at the work order from last Jan when the tranny was rebuilt. It says they did replace the TC. hmmm... If the TC is bad, wouldn't it slip in all gears? The more I look into this, the more pissed I am that the rebuild only lasted 16 months.

diagnostic procedure 30 in the 95 FSM suppliment will walk you through the check of the O2 circuit and sensor if you want a quick check... disconnect the O2 sensor and check the resistance between the outermost terminals. It should be between 1 and 1000 ohms. The rest of the procedure checks the circuit from the ECU etc. From your description however, it sounds like a bad connection. While checking the resistance on the O2 sensor, have someone reach under and fiddle with the wire to see if you have a break in it. If so, teh resistance will not hold constant and will temporarily 'open'. The ECU used the O2 sensor to determine the mixture (and other things) and will adjust it when not needed and your truck will get crappy mileage and run like sh!t.

My auto tranny has been doing something strange starting today. While driving down the highway at normal speeds, everything seems fine. If I sttep on the gas, I can see the tach and hear the engine speed up but the truck doesn't seem to lurch forward. I can easily fluctuate the rpms between 3500 and 5000 without any significant change in speed. Trying to diagnose it, The tranny seems to shift through all the gears and the OD engages and disengages when I play with the switch. Accellerating from a stop seems ok. going into second happens but there is some slop in the accelleration. Same with third etc. Before I break out the FSM and crawl through the AT section, I was wondering if this sounded like a torque converter issue or something like that. I know auto trannys are designed to slip to cushion the shift but it seems to not lockup. Thoughts? oh yea... I had lost second and third a little over a year ago and had the tranny rebuilt (12 month warrenty). They said they replaced the guts (clutches etc) but I am almost positive they didn't replace the torque converter. I also have an aux cooler installed, bypassing the radiator.

the relationship between the O2 and the knock sensor is simple..... If a sensor goes bad (lots of different ones may cause this), the ECU gets misinformation and makes adjustments based on the information it thinks is correct. In many cases, this will screw with the way it's running ans could cause rough runnign which could be detected by the knock sensor. In these cases, there are typically other codes thrown, followed by the knock sensor. Fix what's thrown first, reset and run again. In many cases, the knock sensor isn't bad, just detecting issues caused from other failures. But... sounds like you are on the path to solving this.

congrats on the revival

if it's th2 O2 sensor, I'm surprised you don't read a code 33.

mark things as you take them apart. paint.. sharpie pens... etc. The cams are marked L and R and only fit on one way. You need to make sure you know where the marks are. Counting teeth only works if you have your marks located. Before pulling the timing belt, paint things for alignment purposes then, you can line things up when you put things together. Once it's all lined up, toss the old belt and put the new one on (counting teeth of course).

you have to loosen the bolt that it pivots on, the bolt that holds the adjustment in place and then turn the adjustment bolt. Note... one of these you have to access thorugh the hole in the pulley. Either cut the PS belt off (if you are replacing it) or turn the engine by hand until you can get at that bolt

yea... cv's never go bad.

if it's the valve seals, you do not need to pull the heads, just the rocker assembly. It is MUCH easier than pulling the heads. Why tear into it more than you need to unless you are looking to do it yourself and are going to regrind the valves, etc while you are in there

If you are burning oil, the O2 sensor is probably having a cow. The ECU is having a fit due to the O2 sensor and is probably adjusting your mixture which will make it run like crap. From your description (fouled plug, dark tailpipe, etc), I have no doubt that you are burning oil. The only question is where it is coming from. Check the easy first. If compression is good, it's valve seals (probably the intake one). in a 4 stroke engine... 1. compression: valves closed, piston coming up, any leak would be out of the cylinder 2. power: valves closed, piston driven down by ignition of mixture. again, any leakage would be out 3. exhaust: intake closed, exhaust open, piston coming up driving gasses out. 4. intake: intake open, exhaust closed, piston moving down SUCKING in air and whatever else from the intake valve The intake stroke is the only one where the cylinder is not pressurized. Step one... pull all plugs, look at them to determine which cylinder is having issues and do a compression test.

I'll check tonight unless someone else chimes in. I had to buy one when I did mine. and a quick trick to help loosen it.... make sure your coil is disconnected, put the socket and a breaker bar on the bolt, put a pipe on the end so it braces against the ground or frame member (make sure it's braced to prevent spinning clockwise) and hit the key to start for a moment. Lots of torque in that starter motor... let it do the work.

and pickup a boot. Fix the old one at your leisure thn you have a spare on hand.

seriously? that's lunacy

easy to replace if you use a split-boot application. But I have never seen one hold up for very long

I have a set of heads sitting on my bench that I am rebuilding in prep for a summer project where I'll finally get around to installing my headers. I have some bad lifters and broken exhaust studs so it will be easier just to prep some heads (grind the valves, replace seals, fix/replace lifters,etc) and have them ready to swap in. In answer to your question about seals.... the valve seals keep oil out of the cylinder. If you have bad seals or blow one open, you will blow blue smoke like a crop duster.

yes. 15 degrees

agreed. the symptom of bad rings is loss of power. Excess of oil in the cylinder is due to valve seals. The lubrication to the cylinder walls is done from the main bearings squirting oil against the walls through an opening in the conencting rods. Most of it runs back down the inner wall and drips back into the pan. There is NO PRESSURE to force oil into the cylinder past the rings. They are not designed to seal the oil, they are designed to seal the compression. There is also no way to SUCK oil into the cylinder past the rings as the area below the piston is not oil filled. If you are blowing blue smoke, you have lost your valce seals. Pull your plugs to determine which one(s) are bad. The plug will most likely be wet with oil. You can get at the seals from the top without pulling the heads. Just make sure you get each piston in the up position (use a feeler through the spark plug hole) before you remove the springs on the corresponding valves. Alternatively, you can pressurize each cylinder that youa re working on with a compressor and a spark plug hole adapter. (I found that removign the rocker arm assemblies and the spark plugs makes it easy to turn by hand (disconnect your coil) and keep your valves from falling into the block when you pull the keeps. If you do the seals, post. There are lots of helpful hints that we can all share to keep you from running into terrible problems (like stuff rags ir similar into your oil drain holes before moving the valve keepers. you don't want to drop them down the hole)

now... if we take this reply and place it out of the context of an offroad board discussing skids... hehehehe

although it won't fit my 95 (and I'm already sporting steel plates), they look great. I used a jack to install my skids but being able to toss these around sounds very appealing. I am curious to see if they aluminum will standup to a woman driver. Simon... slap one on Pezzy's green monster and let her give it a durability test.

just a guess but may be something to think about... if it's an auto (which it is), could the ATCM be bad or perhaps have bad shift solenoids? dunno