A
Anonymous
Guest
Ahoy fellows. I've a 60 Falcon with the 144 ci engine therein. It is the only car I own and so is a daily driver and as far as I know all stock. My problem is extremely rough running. This problem developed with no warning in the middle of a 3 hour drive. At highway speed it seemed to run normal and fine but as soon as I would slow down at all I noticed a shuddering and a distinct loss in power as though a cylinder had fouled. I even pulled over and checked all spark plugs but the problem was not there. I have ruled out ignition as the problem.
I performed a compression check on the engine and performed it incorrectly, but even incorrectly it became obvious that the number 5 cylinder is the culprit as it had notably lower reading than the others, but it also seemed to affect the cylinders on either side of it, though not too much.
This is the second forum I have asked advice on. I have been told that these 144 engines typically blow the headgasket between cylinders rather than into the coolant passage. This would make sense as it exhibits none of the typical blown headgasket coolant problems. I have no white smoke, I have no coolant in the oil, no oil in coolant, no exhaust blowing through radiator, and the car does not and never did overheat. I am still able to drive the car, technically, but it is running extremely rough and with zero power and it shakes quite a bit.
Now I wish to state that I am an only intermediate mechanic. I have always been able to fix what problems my vehicles throw at me but I have never torn deep into an engine before. Also I am merely a guy living in an apartment and driving a 47 year old car; I do not have a full shop of tools and torches and compressors and gauges at my disposal. Also presently I am very broke and cannot, even if necessary, afford to take this into a shop. I mention this only because on other boards I routinely get advice which is wholly impractical for me to attempt to implement either because it is beyond the scope of the tools I have ("you need to pull the engine and take your acetylene torch and impact wrench and...."), or beyond the scope of the money I have at my disposal ("if I was you I'd just pull the head off and take it to a machine shop, and while you're there you might as well have them do a complete valve job and mill the heads as well...").
Essentially I feel confident I could fix a headgasket, and afford one; but I could not fix a blown exhaust valve myself. I wonder if anyone on this board might be able to give me advice on whittling down which, or what, this problem sounds like? I can run the car, it runs like crap and once in a while get a little backfire from the carb. I do get the chuff-chuffing sound from the exhaust and I also get a sort of hissing sound from under the hood, almost like a vacuum leak but I have checked everywhere for a vacuum leak and found nothing. My money is on either a burnt exhaust valve or the headgasket blown between cylinders. But I am no professional.
I realize this post is erratic and tough to decipher, am sorry for that. I have been fiddling with this car for around 2 weeks now and can't get anywhere with it. Is there any way, aside from a leakdown test, to discern for sure if it's a valve problem? If I try pulling the head off to check the headgasket, and the gasket turns out fine, have I just ruined that gasket by breaking the seal? I don't know what to do and am frustrated to point now where I may rather simply roll the car into the lake and take up the bicycle. Well thanks for anyone who tries to respond, and sorry so long.
I performed a compression check on the engine and performed it incorrectly, but even incorrectly it became obvious that the number 5 cylinder is the culprit as it had notably lower reading than the others, but it also seemed to affect the cylinders on either side of it, though not too much.
This is the second forum I have asked advice on. I have been told that these 144 engines typically blow the headgasket between cylinders rather than into the coolant passage. This would make sense as it exhibits none of the typical blown headgasket coolant problems. I have no white smoke, I have no coolant in the oil, no oil in coolant, no exhaust blowing through radiator, and the car does not and never did overheat. I am still able to drive the car, technically, but it is running extremely rough and with zero power and it shakes quite a bit.
Now I wish to state that I am an only intermediate mechanic. I have always been able to fix what problems my vehicles throw at me but I have never torn deep into an engine before. Also I am merely a guy living in an apartment and driving a 47 year old car; I do not have a full shop of tools and torches and compressors and gauges at my disposal. Also presently I am very broke and cannot, even if necessary, afford to take this into a shop. I mention this only because on other boards I routinely get advice which is wholly impractical for me to attempt to implement either because it is beyond the scope of the tools I have ("you need to pull the engine and take your acetylene torch and impact wrench and...."), or beyond the scope of the money I have at my disposal ("if I was you I'd just pull the head off and take it to a machine shop, and while you're there you might as well have them do a complete valve job and mill the heads as well...").
Essentially I feel confident I could fix a headgasket, and afford one; but I could not fix a blown exhaust valve myself. I wonder if anyone on this board might be able to give me advice on whittling down which, or what, this problem sounds like? I can run the car, it runs like crap and once in a while get a little backfire from the carb. I do get the chuff-chuffing sound from the exhaust and I also get a sort of hissing sound from under the hood, almost like a vacuum leak but I have checked everywhere for a vacuum leak and found nothing. My money is on either a burnt exhaust valve or the headgasket blown between cylinders. But I am no professional.
I realize this post is erratic and tough to decipher, am sorry for that. I have been fiddling with this car for around 2 weeks now and can't get anywhere with it. Is there any way, aside from a leakdown test, to discern for sure if it's a valve problem? If I try pulling the head off to check the headgasket, and the gasket turns out fine, have I just ruined that gasket by breaking the seal? I don't know what to do and am frustrated to point now where I may rather simply roll the car into the lake and take up the bicycle. Well thanks for anyone who tries to respond, and sorry so long.
