Hello FEP Forum. I’m very excited to join the community, I love looking at my 1984 crimson SVO everytime I walk in the garage. However I’d really like to take my kids for a drive in it.
Background:About a year ago I got a 1984 SVO with 140k miles(assumed) that ran pretty good. It would stall when warm at idle sometimes. The idle was a little erratic it would slowly go up to 1500 and back down to 800. Gray/whitish smoke would come out of the single exhaust. One day I took it for a spin around the block as I started going up a steep street the car started violently shaking, not like anything I’ve ever experienced before. I let off of the throttle and it stopped, I gave it throttle again and it shook again. I rolled it backwards into a driveway and coasted down the hill as long as possible. I got limped it back to my house in 2nd gear until it stalled in the driveway. It wouldn’t start. I checked to see if the timing belt was still one piece and it looked to be in good shape.
Having plenty of projects to work on at the house and other cars I didn’t mess it too much. At a certain point I fired her up again and she started! The idle was erratic again, slowly going up to 1500 and back down and back up. Again there was gray/whitish smoke.
I figured it was a head gasket even though I couldn’t find oil in the coolant or coolant in the oil. I did a compression test and got 170, 165, 155,155. The test was done repeatedly but it was done cold. At some point I read that you are supposed give it full throttle to save the coil during the test. Which I did eventually. I also read that it was supposed to be done warm.
I called it good and decided to do a tuneup. I replaced the sparkplugs, plug wires, cap, rotor with Motorcraft stock pieces. The rotor that I received was a “sombrero” type so I kept the old circular rotor.
Now I can’t get it to start at all. It sounds like it’s fighting itself. I connected it to my timing light and it would flash like it was getting spark. I still wasn’t confident so I bought a spark light tester and it shows spark. The coil terminals were a little corroded and the coil was replaced. I can smell fuel but it just doesn’t want to start.
Any help would truly appreciated,
Ryan
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