70,000 mile 94 Tracker 4WD - is a dog accelerating on an on ramp or from a stop. Seems to idle pretty smooth now though. Today changed out the Bosch +4 plugs for NGK plugs. Funny thing I think the haynes manual is wrong. It says something like BKR6 plugs for 91 and newer but all the auto places say bpr5es and that is what was in it when I bought it so that is what I put in it. The sticker under hood says .28 gap but everywhere else says .32 gap. They came gapped at .32 so I left them there. Also changed the fuel filter-seems to start quicker now with about 1 good bump insted of several rotations. Already installed new autozone wires, new cap and rotor, cap from autozone rotor from oreilly. Last week pulled egr valve which was full of carbon and cleaned the best I could-what a pain, I will buy a new one later. Tried to clean the intake with wire but it didn't seem to want to travel good-holes were real clean though. If I start the car cold and pull the large tube from the egr to modulator it is blowing exhaust unless I rev and then it creates a vacuum. If I pull the small hose on the right side of modulator and apply vacuum the engine stubles bad as egr opens. None of this gave it any more power on on ramps or from 55-70 on highway. Uphill on highway it is hard to stay at 70. Never made it much past 80 on straight. If going over 35 and floor it it is a real dog but builds speed-doesn't downshift over 35(3 speed auto).
New Thorley header ,cat,round muffler and 2 inch exhaust all the way back. Made it louder and pull harder around 65 but I think it lost any downlow power. Set valves a month ago. Put crank pulley at zero and rotor points to the right of #1 with the last of the three points on rotor barely hitting #1. I tried to restab disty today to line up better but ended up right where I started. I set timing to 8 and it was pretty much already there. Mark jumps around when looking at it with light.
When I first start after sitting cold and rev a few times moisture stains/splatters driveway. I smelled it and seems like plain old water. New tailpipe is dark black coated at lip. No smoke really ever-maybe just barley if I rap it to 5 grand while sitting still.
I am thinking maybe this is it for power but I swear my 86 Samurai I bought new(5 speed) had more power up to 70 MPH on straightaways.
Also took compression readings today on cold motor. To test I pulled all plugs and fuel relay. Fisrt crank it jumped to around 90-100 then built fast to the following on each cylinder. #1-165 #2 155 #3-165 #4-175 . I assume these would be better on warm engine as manual said I should check at operating temp. .
When I bought it the oil stunk like gas. I also have changed pcv valve and temp. sensor and thermostat.
Runs better than when i got it but not much. Oil doesn't seem to be so gas stinky and stays very clean. I also changed valve cover gasket and disty o-rings which solved all oil leaks.
Is it the auto tranny that makes this a dog? Is this as much as I can expect? I am about through blowing money trying to get more?