Safari troubles
March 13th, 2006, 2:51 PM
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Safari troubles
Vehicle: 1993 GMC Safari w/ 4.3L V6 TBI with 183,000 miles on it.
History: No major work aside from freeze plugs, motor mounts, starter, and suspension work. Very meticulously cared for, usually by a shop, but mostly by my dad, brother, and me. Regular tune ups, oil changes, and lube. Runs strong (except for the following story), glides like a dream, and is quiet as any passenger car of the same age. It has never passed emissions inspection since it was new, but not a problem, since I live in WV now with no emissions.
here's the story, maybe someone can find clues to help me out, because I'm puzzled!!
A while ago (maybe five to six moths) I got into my van and it started making intersting grinding noises from under the engine cover. The went away withing a couple of minutes, so I didn't investigate further (it was dark too). The noise didn't come back for another four days. When it came back, it would stay for a little bit longer each time, and only when the engine was stone cold. Once it warmed up, the sound went away and engine rane fine.
One day, the noise showed up full force accompanied by its friends, the miss fire and the back fire. I decided I'd had enough, so I pulled the cover, pulled the cap and rotor, found that the rotor had been arcing, was cracked, and had been actually contacting the points. I replaced the cap and rotor and went merrily on my way. Problem solved.
Fast forward to a month ago. Sound started back up again, the same way, only this time at a litte warmer temp[erature. I try to warm up my engine in the morning about 15 to 20minutes before I drive it, but the problems were occuring when the engine was not hot, but not cold anymore either. It would merrily putt down the road, then start coughing, sputtering, and trying to stall, not letting me get above 30 until I pulled off, shut down, waited about a minute, and started back up. Runs fine all day after that.
I started warming her up for at least a half an hour every day before I drive it-no problem, wake up 5:30- start the van, take dog for a walk, have some breakfast-easy. Then it started stalling during the warm up. This morning, I tried to warm it up several times, and eventually had to sit out there and hold its hand while it warmed up. Took about 5 minutes of careful finagling with the gas pedal to get it to idle smoothly and not stall out. It has run fine all day since.
I knowit probably needs new plugs, there's about 80K on these (platinum, 100K set), the wires are new, I'm not getting any check engine light, so no error code, and I just can't keep replacing the cap and rotor every two months. A friend of mine told me that it could be the timing weights? I've never heard of timing weights. Perhaps I just need a good old fashion tune up. Please someone out there help. Not only can I not afford to put this thing in the shop, I can't afford to be out of a vehicle for even a couple days -this is my work van.
History: No major work aside from freeze plugs, motor mounts, starter, and suspension work. Very meticulously cared for, usually by a shop, but mostly by my dad, brother, and me. Regular tune ups, oil changes, and lube. Runs strong (except for the following story), glides like a dream, and is quiet as any passenger car of the same age. It has never passed emissions inspection since it was new, but not a problem, since I live in WV now with no emissions.
here's the story, maybe someone can find clues to help me out, because I'm puzzled!!
A while ago (maybe five to six moths) I got into my van and it started making intersting grinding noises from under the engine cover. The went away withing a couple of minutes, so I didn't investigate further (it was dark too). The noise didn't come back for another four days. When it came back, it would stay for a little bit longer each time, and only when the engine was stone cold. Once it warmed up, the sound went away and engine rane fine.
One day, the noise showed up full force accompanied by its friends, the miss fire and the back fire. I decided I'd had enough, so I pulled the cover, pulled the cap and rotor, found that the rotor had been arcing, was cracked, and had been actually contacting the points. I replaced the cap and rotor and went merrily on my way. Problem solved.
Fast forward to a month ago. Sound started back up again, the same way, only this time at a litte warmer temp[erature. I try to warm up my engine in the morning about 15 to 20minutes before I drive it, but the problems were occuring when the engine was not hot, but not cold anymore either. It would merrily putt down the road, then start coughing, sputtering, and trying to stall, not letting me get above 30 until I pulled off, shut down, waited about a minute, and started back up. Runs fine all day after that.
I started warming her up for at least a half an hour every day before I drive it-no problem, wake up 5:30- start the van, take dog for a walk, have some breakfast-easy. Then it started stalling during the warm up. This morning, I tried to warm it up several times, and eventually had to sit out there and hold its hand while it warmed up. Took about 5 minutes of careful finagling with the gas pedal to get it to idle smoothly and not stall out. It has run fine all day since.
I knowit probably needs new plugs, there's about 80K on these (platinum, 100K set), the wires are new, I'm not getting any check engine light, so no error code, and I just can't keep replacing the cap and rotor every two months. A friend of mine told me that it could be the timing weights? I've never heard of timing weights. Perhaps I just need a good old fashion tune up. Please someone out there help. Not only can I not afford to put this thing in the shop, I can't afford to be out of a vehicle for even a couple days -this is my work van.
