92 Lincoln Towncar

4.6l

OBD-I (I know, weird huh?)

Was driving fine until the bottom alt bolts broke. Bolts broke, so no belt driven accessories.

Drove about 3 or 4 miles anyway. No water pump, no alt, no pwr steering, no A/C, etc

Car got hot. (No idea HOW hot cuz stock gauge only...But got to the "L" on "Normal")

Car started missing real bad, and loosing pwr.

Replaced alt bolts, and fabricated a new alt bracket. Replaced battery, because battery died.

Car sat with no battery in it for about 2 weeks or so.

Started it up the other day, and it's only running on 4 cyls.

The drivers side coil pack is not firing.

Replaced the drivers side coil pack with two used ones. One of them should be good...Tomorrow I'll switch out the pass side one to the drivers side to eliminate the possibility of all three coil packs being no good.

Assuming the coil packs are good.....Anyone have any idea what's wrong with it?

No way for me to pull codes on it currently. It's OBD-I anyway, so pretty archaic.

I remember hearing a rumor years ago that some cars will go into "limp mode" or something like that in which the car basically only runs on half the motor....just enough to get the car home....Well, it's running on HALD the motor....Anyone got any other ideas? Or know how to switch it BACK to full on mode, if thats the issue?

 

Them things dont like heat....Thats why we got this 97 so cheap, ran hot and needed a motor. I'd do a compression check and leak down

 

Limp mode doesnt shut off cylinders. Limp mode is a default set of fuel and ignition tables that allows the car to run with nothing more than a TPS signal. It knows how much air 'should' be coming in at say 2400 RPM,.. read the TPS and cross checks the RPM to determine if there is a load on the engine,.. adjusts fuel and adv accordingly. Its limp mode because its supposed to allow you to limp the car home with out damage. Its usually down on power because its usually running pig rich.

If you verified for sure that the engine is indeed running off 4 cylinders,.. is it one bank or scattered? Or is that just a term to say the engine is running like crap? Have you determined that it didnt blow a head gasket? The L in 'Normal' could be as hot as 260f. You may have cooked the motor. Have you checked for fluid in the oil? Pulled any plugs to see what they look like?

If the belt popped and the water pump stopped,.. you can over heat and cook the motor in less than 60 seconds. May as well have driven it dry,.. pretty much same effect.

Cast iron block and aluminum heads dont expand and contract at the same rate. If the motor ran that hot, my guess is you popped a head gasket.

Hurst

 

Hurst, No spark out of the drivers side coil pack. I don't think the motor's shot.....I verified that no spark out of that side by pulling wires while it was running. Only the ones on that coil pack are not firing. I checked the connections to that coil pack, and they are good. I replaced that coil pack with two other coil packs which were working when they were removed....a few years ago. Today, I'll be taking the pass side coil pack and switching it to the other side to see if the problem is the coil pack...or wiring somewhere. If it's wiring somewhere, I'm fuxored cuz I SUCK at troubleshooting wiring issues.

 

Wiring is not my strong area either. But I know how to follow instruction,..






Hope that helps.

Hurst

 

If i may just thow in this thought...

The car was running fine then the bolt snaps and the car overheats. You replace everything and go to start the car and 1 of your packs is not working. When you switch the coil packs so the one you know is working 100% is on the side that is not working that will really clear this whole mess up. If it works then you know you just need to buy a new coil pack but if it doesnt work then you know you have a wiring problem.

So it just seems odd that after your car most likely got pretty close to 300 degrees your coil pack is not working. That got me thinking about my buddys cobra we changed the radiator in it to a bigboy and it was getting late and we were just gonna fill it up in the morning. That night the car got stolen and to make a long story short these idiot robbers broke down a few miles away. Now what happened is the motor got so damn hot that it melted 2 of wires for the coil pack that run along the valve cover i think. We just cut the wires right there put new wire in and that was that.

If i was betting man i would put my money on that the coil pack from the other side wont work. If it does then thats just one big coinsadence. So i would follow the wiring inspect it very close and maybe try just taking a test light and checking for power in the wire. If you have power at the plug keep moving back and following the wire untill there is no power.

I hope any of that helped hurst play by play tips on how to check your coil. lol love it hurst!!

 

make sure you didnt break the electrical plug on the coil while you were messing with the alt.

might want to pull the plugs and look at them...that will tell you a lot as to whats going on

 

Ok, figured it out....I replaced the driv side coil pack with the one from the pass side. (as that was the one I KNEW was working) Nada happened differently really....The car started and still ran on 4 cyls....although it suddenly had an intermittent blast of power. Like all 8 were firing just one time, then poof, back to 4 again. So I unplugged one of the wires on the drivers side coil pack....and I heard the tell tale sound of spark firing intermittently. Sooooo....I plugged it back on to the plug, and started messing with the wires that power the coil pack....That plug was the key. It seems the plug to the coil pack is messed up inside, and when you position the wires in one way, it will work perfectly, when positioned in another way, it no workie. Problem solved. Thanks for the help guys.

 

sweet better then a blown head gasket !!!!

 

Awsome man!!! Yeah i figured it had to be a faulty wire bad plug or something along those lines! lol and yes wayyy better than a blown headgasket!