I've got my 92 tracker on the road again, but i'm loosing power fast!

It's hard to start, and dies 2 or 3 times before it will stay running, then idles at 500-550 rpm for 5 min, then the Idle comes up to 1200 rpm, but if I let the clutch out in neutral before it is fully warm, idle drops to 400 rpm or dies.

once it is warmed up it will Idle fine, but as no power below 2800 rpm, in fact in neutal, It could take 15-20 seconds to free rev the engine up to were it runs happy, and goin down the road it will loose rpm at constant speed and i will have to down shift to get the rpm up again! This started almot a year ago as a mild loss of power at the bottom end, but it has become un drive able!!!!!

No check engine light, I have replaced o2censor, plugs, cap, rotor, adjusted the valves, checked cam timing, and igition timming, nothing helps! even ran a compression test! and checked for vacume leaks.

could it be a weak fuel pump? what would be the syptoms? how would I test it?

Please spit ball me some Ideas as I'm out!
Thanks

sounds like a vacuum leak

Don't waste your money haphazardly replacing things. Get your hands on a good manual (FSM is downloadable on the internet), and start inspecting & troubleshooting. It could be a vacuume leak, bad ECU, bad fuel pump... all of these tests are covered in the manual. FSM is best, but chilton will work for 80%+ of your repairs.

When you are trying to free rev the engine does it blow black smoke out the tailpipe! It could be running rich and when it is in the lower rpm range it's flooding. The coolant temp sensor to the ecu could br reading too cold and causing it to add more fuel! The best thing would be hook up a scanner that allows you to see sensor info!

I agree with the comment about using an FSM.  My only suggestion is have you replaced the fuel filter?  I don't know if that would cause this sort of problem on these vehicles, but I had something similar in other vehicles I have owned when the fuel filter is getting plugged up.  Not exactly the same, but similar.

Okay think I got it figured out! Yes I did change the fuel filter, may have made things worse!, A friend of mine came over to help me, he had his snap-on compression tester, My Auto-zone said 150-160 psi
his test or said 95-102, so I ran to napa and got a new compression tester and it said 100-110 psi. The book I have says 170 psi min.

New question will the 2.0L  bolt up to my 5spd bellhousing, and what do I need to do the swap other than engine, harness, ecu, and fly wheel? Is a GV V6 an option?

Never mind on the v6, did a search and got enough info to talk me out of that. so either rebuild the 8v or swap to the 2.0L, or VW TD but have been looking for one for a long time with no luck!

New question will the 2.0L  bolt up to my 5spd bellhousing, and what do I need to do the swap other than engine, harness, ecu, and fly wheel?

If you do a search on this forum you will find a thread by Sean at Aftermarket4x4. He detailed this swap reasonably well. Alternatively Google Agftermarket4x4.

Bummer 

Sean DeVinney |removethispart|@ Aftermarket4x4 has a lot of swap experience, and has a kit for the Tracker to 2.0L swap. He did a write up of his first Tracker -> 2.0L here: http://members.cox.net/aftermarket4x4/current_proj.html

22r / 22re swaps have been done too - VW is nice, but expensive & hard to find the engines. I would look into the 2.0L swap, or a more fresh 1.6L

I'm still doing my reading on the 2.0L, but has any one done a torqer/performance 1.6 8v build artical?

also try a compression test i had a bent valve in my sammy it did the same stuff

I'm still doing my reading on the 2.0L, but has any one done a torqer/performance 1.6 8v build artical?

Zaggy did one a couple of years ago for a light aircraft. It should come up on a search.

I know its been a while but.......I rebuilt the 1.6L 8v.......here's what the problems were!

1  4 bad exaughst valves
2  the crank/timing belt sprocket key was almost sheared, and the key way was wallered out(bad crank)
3 the rings had lost there tention
4 rear main seal was bad,,,way bad
5 I had the head shaved 0.025" for good measure
It's all fixed now, I can do a 2wd high rage smoke show with my 35x12.50's and 5.71 gears thank's for all the input!!!!!:BIG:

Congrats on rebuild!

Was it difficult?  How much money did you spend?  What parts did you buy?  Any performance upgrades?

I want to rebuild an engine just for kicks someday...I need to learn somehow.

I want to rebuild an engine just for kicks someday...I need to learn somehow.

Unless you've got money to burn, these might not be the best to do a full rebuild on. The $$$ can add up quickly, and you've still got a sub 100HP motor at the end of it all. For not much more $$$, you can upgrade to an engine in the 130-150 HP range. I'm seeing 22r motors pop up in the $500 range every couple weeks now. http://www.car-part.com/ is a good search engine if you're having problems locating an engine on the traditionally cheaper web sites (here, craigslist, pirate, toyota forums etc):