spark knocking??
 

I just bought a 95 stang gt off an old girl which was well looked after. anyways it is very lazy, slow reving (during load), we thought maybe the cats were clogged up so I removed the two rear cats and gutted the top two as well as put two flo-pro v-forces on, didn't help (sounds better though) it spark knocks sometimes too . more so when its warn out but not always the case.
when I turn the key on the check engine light does not come on (bulb blow or pulled perhaps) my mechanics snap-on code reader won't work without the engine light working so I have to pull the cluster out this weekend and replace bulb I guess. anyone have a clue as to why my stang is sooo lazy? I know its got crappy 2.73 gear but its ridiculous. and out on the highway wide open throttle through all the gears max speed is like 180km/h and if I just use roughly 1/4 throttle it seems to accelerate quicker and can get about 190-195 lol. . . could mass air flow sensor do this?
thanks guys

Yes could be you mass air meter, pull it off and clean it. I usually use brake clean.

well I pulled the gauge cluster out today and sure enough someone has pulled the bulb for the check engine light, I didn't have a bulb handy so I put the seat belt light in its place, we hooked up a snap-on "ODB I" & "ODB II" code reader but it just said waiting for response and nothing would happen, it wouldn't connect. so the mechanic thinks there could be a broken wire somewhere or the computer could be fried. does this sound right to anyone?

needs the bulb for the scanner to work? lmfao........you cannot go any further in checking it out until you get a scanner up and running, reading live data to see what is up.....by what you are telling us, there is a problem if someone umbass went through the trouble of pulling the MIL bulb out....

srt,
yeah I thought that sounded like BS to me too. but if the scanner is getting no response what do ya do. . .

and I didn't buy the car around home either. I live around moncton, nb. and bought the car in hamilton, on.

do yourself a favour and take it a well known shop that does alot of high-end diag/drvieablilty work or take it to the dealer.....belive me when I say this you WILL save yourself money and time.........as a tech of many years(7 for Ford) I have seen it one to many times poeple changing parts on a DTC code only and not reading the data that goes with it...............my .02

well. . . made a little progress today anyways, when they were hookin the scanner up on friday and got no response i remember the screen saying "plug into harness on right side of engine bay" and they were hooking up to the left side. . . anyways today a buddy and i were messin around and i told him that, we found the right harness the "ECU Test" not the ANTI-LOCK Unit lol, and made a jumper wire and got some codes off the dash, didnt really help becuase we didnt have a scanner to check the diagnostics, but its a start. . . so then i took the maf off and took the brake cleaner to it, WHOA what a difference that made, like night and day. still not 100% but it made me feel a lot better. the engine light came on a couple times, but tonight it didnt come on at all. . . so this week im gonna get it scanned and the timing checked, i just wanna get it running good, "normal" before i put it up for the winter, and start buying parts. . .
if anyone has any goodies for sale lemme know ;)
thanks guys

well it was good for a day. . . next morning went for a drive and its back to being a piece of crap again. tried spraying the maf meter with brake clean again but didn't help this time. . .

For one, you cant just use ANY brake clean....Some break cleans leave a residue, I use Red Stallion Brake clean cause it does not leave any residue. You can use other brake cleans but I recommend using a electrical spray afterwards to remove any residue left on the MAF.

Now if the car feels like a dog with broken legs, maybe the previous owner had a hard time getting it to pass an E-Test and they turned the timing down....? Who knows, I mean if the CEL/MIL was removed there is probly more things about the car that you don't know about....
When you go and check the timing on the car make sure you pull out the "SPOUT CONNECTOR", it looks like a little square pill in a plug connector and it is located on the passengers side, right beside the air intake tube above a small aluminum block called the TFI Module mounted on the inner fender.

Your base timing should be 10* Advance If it way out then your balancer might be spun, because they are a 2 piece "Hopefully its not spun"
You can bump your timing up to about 14*ADV but you may need to run a higher Octane fuel if you hear "Ping"

Under drive pulley's will give you a quick 15HP....

Hope this helps ;)

stangillusions,

they showed me the e-test results and it passed with flying colors. . . it was said to be driven by the wife only. she may have not noticed the car working poorly maybe the original owner pulled the bulb. but thanks hopefully I'll get a chance to get it in the shop this week

well I had the car timed today, 10° right on the money. I advanced it to 13* and got a ping. checked the fuel pressure and maxed at 35psi but at idle mainly only 30 psi. what should they have for pressure at idle? also got the scanner on it and everything came out lookin good except it said intake air temp sensor reading high. but engine light still comes on and still works like

The fuel pressure should read 39.5 with the vacuum OFF. You can bump the timing up to 14* but you might wanna run 94 Octane from Sunoco and that will solve your Ping.
Do you have a good clean air filter on the car? If not just replace it with a OEM or even a motormaster/ fram air filter, don't use a K&N due to the oil substance witch can screw with your MAF.

When you were playing with the timing did you remove the SPOUT connector? and did you remember to re-install it LOL I always forget to re-install it.

i put a cai on the car, the fuel pressure is at 39psi and i still get a PING once in a while. . . i dunno, i just got my upper+ lower typhoon intake, ford racing 70mm Throttle Body, and elbow in the mail, (all polished) but ive been hearing the typhoon is junk. . . i think im gonna try it anyway, got 3.73's should wake it up alot from the 2.73's and i bought a set of BBK shorty's, UPR Cat-less X-Pipe and Underdrives. gotta buy adjustable fuel pressure regulator. heads over the winter. . .

i need a bigger maf meter.
#19 injectors should be fine eh or should i go with #24's?

in 87-93 the 5.0L had forged pistons and rods correct? is this the case with the 94-95 as well?

87-93 Yes they are Forged.
94-95 No they are those hyperneumatic pistons or what ever there called.

So your still getting a ping? Try running a higher Octane fuel.....Go to Sunoco and fill up on 91 or even 94 and go smash on it. That should solve the ping, or your timing is way to far advanced.
You might think your timing is perfect but if your junk factory harmonic balancer is spun like mine did you might have a ticking time bomb ready to happen.
Not sure if you read my last post about pulling out the SPOUT connector to check your timing.
Base timing is 10*Adv. if you already didn't know :tup

Replace the injectors or have them cleaned. They rarely ever get cleaned and eventually gum up and cause a lean ping. I sold a 'dog' to a friend and the car was almost just as slow after he installed ported heads and intakes, full exhaust and a gear. It turned out to be the stock injectors, we installed a set of freshly cleaned units and the car roared to life. Try cleaning the stock units, you do not need an upgraded set as your car is nowhere near the max power limit on the stockers. You may also have a dead/dying fuel pump. You should replace it with a high flow 255lph in tank unit anyway since you're modding the car.
SS

85-92 had forged pistons, and 93-95 had hypereutectic.
SS

thanks guys,
ill try cleaning them, i think the local shop does it for around 80, i guess they hook a machine up to the car, fuel rails maybe? is that the typical way of cleaning the injectors?

The harmonic balancer'. . . big job to change? and how much for the part?

the timing was right at +10. i would love to drive to a sunoco and fill up with some 94 octane but i would have to drive to ontario to get some lol. . . there is no sunocos in New Brunswick, unfortunatley. . . . VP Racing fuel is my next alternative lol and it is toooo much money, i dunno if those fuel additive/octane boost bottles work. . . . .

thanks for the input guys

There is no sense in throwing parts at it, do not replace the balancer until it is confirmed that it is indeed off. The method for doing this would be to bring number 1 cylinder up to top dead center and checking the pointer to see if it lines up at 0* at the balancer.

The only way to clean injectors is by hooking up a machine which injects a potent solvent right before the injectors. Do not run an in tank cleaner. Think about it, if it can clean your injectors... won't it clean out your gas tank and flush that crap right up?

You should be able to run 14* BTDC of timing without any pinging with premium 91+ octane in the tank. Getting ping tells me several things, the first of which is that your car is not running properly. It is either fuel, ignition, or temperature related. It is also possible that you have carbon buildup in the cylinders which does not allow your car to ignite the mixture properly. Your first step should be to go through all the tune up pieces and replace anything that you have not done. After this you should clean the injectors professionally.

The fact about octane is that you make more power with less octane. Higher octane numbers equal more detonation resistance and burn slower than lower octane ratings. The ideal set up is to run as much timing with lower octane as possible without ping. I run higher octane in all my cars regardless, because it allows the engine to burn cleaner and I actually get more KM per tank with supreme than regular in all my cars.
SS

thanks stang seller,

its possible that there could be carbon build up, cause an older girl did own it, i know that when i first got it it was spark knocking a lot, since then i've added 1 bottle of sea foam to the tank and some in the throttle body, and i bought a can of CLEENS from GM and sprayed into the Throttle body. . . a lot if came out. i think before i put it up for the winter or first thing in the spring i will get the injectors cleaned. . . what do you mean about the tune up pieces? like plugs, wires, dist. cap and button?? I am going to do the plugs n wires in the next couple of weeks. . . . it is at a friends shop right now for a few weeks gettin my new parts put on so ill prolly get him to put plugs in it too.