Sc Are Lemons Or Am I Stupped

R

Randy N Connie

Registered User
Is it a Lemon Or Am I Stupid?

I HAVE A 90 AUTO SC. I HAVE SPENT OVER $8000.00 ON THIS CAR IN THE
LAST FEW MONTHS. IT IDLES ROUGH. I HAVE CHECKED FOR VACUUM LEAK,CHANGED
ALL THE SENSORS, PUT NEW PLUG, WIRES, RUN CODES, YOU NAME IT. I HAVE ALL
MY LIFE BEEN ABLE TO FIX JUST ABOUT ANY THING. I HAVE BEEN TO TWO FORD DEALER
WHEN I GOT IT BACK. I HAD TO FIX WHAT THEY **** AND IT RAN WORST. BEEN TO FOUR
OTHER MECHANICS THEY COULD NOT FIND THE PROBLEM. THE ONLY PERSON I HAVE
DEALT WITH THAT WAS ALRIGHT WAS BILL EVANOFF. HE HAS BEEN A GREAT HELP,
BUT THERE IS ONLY SO MUCH YOU CAN DO ON LINE OR THE PHONE. I WOULD SELL THE
CAR BUT I DON'T THINK I WOULD WANT TO SHOVE AN ENGINEERING MISTAKE AS
I HAVE COME TO THE CONCLUSION THESE CARS ARE. I LIVE ABOUT 75 MILES EAST OF
ST-LOUIS IN IL. IF ANYONE WOULD KNOW OF A PLACE WERE I COULD GET THIS THING
TO IDLE, THAT WOULD BE GREAT. A I KNOW IT IS MINOR PROBLEM.
SINCE I WOULDN'T WISH A CAR LIKE THIS ON MY WORST ENEMY. I THINK I
MAY BRING IT TO THE NEXT SC GATHERING, AND LET EVERYONE THAT HAS HAD
TROUBLE WITH THEIR SC HIT IT A FEW TIMES WITH A SLEDGE HAMMER.
BUT IT WOULD PROBABLY BREAK THE HAMMER. I WOULD FEEL TOO BAD TO
SELL THIS THING TO ANYONE. I AM AT MY WITS END, HELP.
 
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Randy,

First of all PLEASE STOP YELLING and undo the caps lock. If you provided a list of your mods and what it has been to the Ford dealer for, it would be much easier to help figure out the problem.

Rough idle can be caused by many things, ranging from a vacuum leak to broken motor mounts. More info please.

David
 
Ive had a 90 for a while now and all i can tell you is dont waste your time taking it to a mechanic or dealership cause 90% dont know a thing about these cars. I wouldnt call them lemons but they do seem to break more often that most cars
 
i agree totatly with this guy.
i bought my 95 pearl white sc off bob chandler here in st louis
had the car two months. transmission burnt up with fluid level fine and absolutly no warning. 2000$ was that. two **** months later while NOT under hard acceleration the dam car died the **** crankshaft broke completely in half at the first journal and that was the second motor ford dealer put in with 15k miles on it. ford told me screw you chris. took all summer to locate a 3.8sc short block, because i aint buying **** from ford.
short block , gaskets, hoses, belts, you name it short block cost me around 1600$. now my car idles like **** in gear while at a light idles fine in park in gear the idle drops at a complete stop. put msd wires, new autolite plugs
tps checks out battery, altnator fine iac valve fine, new fuel filter air filter injectors firing fine fuel pressure good vacumm steady as a rock , no ic tubes leaking.
i know what you mean, these cars are so damnnnnnn touchy im geting sick of the ****
every dam day i probibly got receipts showing 12-13k dollars
ill take 6000k
 
The mods that I have are standard bolt on. Mass air,c&l 76mm maf calibration, yellow,kn air filter removed stock air silencer cut hole 6in by 4in in inter fender under round k&n filter cut open air box bottom ,3in.cold air tube
injectors stock 30lb,BBK throttle bodies 75mm,ported blower intake.stock blower,ported ic tubes,S.C.P.3/4in
sc top ported,10%od blower pulley,S.C.P. exhaust 3in to21/2 in 2in down tubes with cats,Magnecor wires,
motorcraft pp spark plugs.ported stock header.
I did these mod it ran just fine. I drove it maybe 25 miles. then that evening I got on the throttle to see what it would do.It burnt the od in the tranny. I drove it about 10 miles after that, ran ok.then it started a slight miss the next day after another 20 mile trip to the coffee shop. I tried to find the missing problem.And found that the upper ic tube had a crack in the collar where it connects to the intercooler. I bought another one from s.c.p. did not fix the problem of missing. I beleive I have checked every thing but the coils. I took the car to two Ford dealers and 4 mechanic to find the miss.
 
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The SC is a great car with an outstanding engine. BUT I dont think ford did there homework when designing this car years ago. I bet you 70-80% of us have had to change our HG's in stock applications i know HG go bad in other cars but these go way to often. Im getting rid of my SC and getting a 90-95 5.0 Stang bout the same power but stang more reliable and easier to work on, SC cost to much to upkeep IMO
 
Lets not forget that it is a 13 year old car. As soon as you start modifying cars from their stock form you are substatially increasing your probability for problems. My 90 doesn't idle 100% smooth all of the time either but I haven't started trying to diagnose why. I will save that for this spring.

Have you put back on the stock TB and stock MAF and ran it? I have seen the larger TB cause irratic idle as well as the larger MAF. Even on my 5.0 Mustang I had an irratic idle when I started modifying it. The MAF was to blame and when I replaced it everything was fine.

Anyhow, the people on this board have a collective knowledge far better than any single mechanic on these cars. We can all help you start eliminating things without throwing parts at it.

Bob
 
I bought the car to work on; that is my hobby. I am disabled; broke my back in 8 places
and mashed 5 disc. I have brokien or fractured 29 bones but I thought I could do most of the work
myself for relaxation. If I could not do some of the jobs on the car I could rely on the internet or just take
it to Ford and have fixed what I was unable to do. When I went to the Ford dealer I had to supply the spanner
wrench because they did not have all the tools. I am at a lost that two Ford dealers cannot
fix what they sell. It's not that I don't have the money. I cannot find anyone to hire that knows
how to work on this car. I have searched the states of IL, IN, MO, KY. No one will work on the car.
Most comment that they will not work on a SC because they are too difficult to work on. I have called
people that make parts for SC. They say they don't know any one either.I think i will give it two more
weeks to find the missing problem.If i cant fix it by then its hammer time.
 
How many miles on the car?

If all this started right after doing a bunch of mod's at one time, I think I'd put all the stock equipment back on there, to begin with. If it runs okay, slowly start adding the aftermarket pieces back, one a week. Something happened along the line there. The best mechanic I found to help me out is the owner of a good local shop. The dealership didn't even know it was supercharged. Can't blame the guy I was talking to, he was about 8 yrs old when the car was built.:rolleyes:
Not to add insult to injury, but just because your car (both of you) is having trouble it doesn't mean our cars are "engineering mistakes", especially when yours isn't stock anymore. I know your pretty frustrated though, hang in there.
 
No CE Light then???

If no CE light then I would have to say that you could have an IC leak, vacum leak, or the PCV valve is disconected or bad...Just a few ideas w/o a CE light...

If you do have a CE light it could be a few things....Even if you did change all of your sensors that don't mean $h!t, since you never know when a sensor is gonna go bad...

BTW, it is hit and miss with these cars...I have a 90SC with 99K and some change on it and it is running like a scolded dog...I also have the 70MM T-body and the 76MM C&L on it with the CAI...It idles fine, but I have to admit that when I changed it over to the bigger TB it $h!t a TPS...Changed that out and it worked GREAT...So keep on troublshootin'....

Cheers
 
Is the only thing wrong that it idles rough? How does it drive otherwise? If it drives fine otherwise, then it almost always is a vaccum leak.

Have you checked your PCV for proper operation? How did you seal your IC tubes? What about the rubber bypass tube? I've seen them get pinched and cut. Also seen 'em loose.

Have you done a cylinder balance test? This can be done with a code reader. Have you checked for codes?

What about a compression test? I know this one is a PITA, but if you've eliminated everything else....

Don't forget the possibility of a leaking or dirty injector. Does the fuel system hold pressure after shutdown?
 
I have just about given up.I own 5 blown cars.1985 turbo coupe,1988turbo coupe.a sc tmc,
and sc harley davidson,a hilborn injected v-8 powered bike,and a1990 SC T-BIRD.IT looks like the last
one will be shoved off in the weeds.even if i got it running right, i dont think it will have the power to keep me happy.
 
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O. K. right off the top Ford sucks. But for the same, so does every other car maker that made a car that wasn't 100% what you wanted. I have never owned a good Ford until I got my Coupe.
Now, the reason I responded is this, I went through the wires, plugs, this, and that. All trying to get rid of a miss at idle. I couldn't find it. It comes and goes, but noticed that it was worse after I cleaned and oiled my K&N. "This is where the ton of bricks fall from the sky and knock something into you" You ready? Oil on the little wires on the bottom of the MAS. The deal is... maybe there isn't oil on the wires in you MAS, but there is on mine. You got to give a little to get a little. When mine isn't clean, it doesn't idle great. To keep the K&N, I deal with it. Besides it's funny as H3LL when two guys in a ricer think they are going to get you after they hear the idle at a light, but end up rocking in the car (trying to give it those two extra "row, row, row" horse power) and then have deal with defeat from a car with a bad idle.
Good Luck, Biggin':D
 
1. I'm pretty sure that you have some plugged injectors. Plugged injectors will give you a rough idle and will greatly affect usable power.
2. Just to be on the safe side, check the compression in each cylinder to make sure you don't have a dead cylinder,
3. and check or replace the distributer cap.
4. If your check engine light comes on I would check the mass airflow sensor and your air temp sensor.
5. Some old plug wires could also be the problem.

Good Luck!
 
Power

I agree with your statement that the sc won't have enough power for you. With the other vehicles you have, the sc won't stand up. However if you want a comfortable car (I'm 6'2" 295) that goes 0-60 in under 7 seconds looks good, in my opinion (I have three), and is fairly cheap to buy now, then the sc is a great car. I used to own a '34 ford 3 window coupe with a 427 chevy in it. I went 0-60 in under 3 seconds, but wasn't comfortable in it. I also am disabled (Arthritis) so I needed something else to drive. After my first one I liked it so much I bought my 17 year old daughter one and my 16 year old son one. If you understand what you have, don't expect a 34/with a 427 performance, you have a nice car that will surprize some people. And oh, by the way, I get 28 miles per gallon on the highway. I hope you get it taken care of, but I doubt you will.
good luck,
Ed
 
Thanks everyone.
I beleive that I have done everything mentioned but I have not done a compression check,
or a check on the injectors. I do not put oil on my air filter because of air flow. I do not care
about the clean air or the longevity of this motor. Just so I can get max air flow. I have never seen a check engine light come on. The codes that it throws at me
lean toward a lean fuel condition.I have not check the coil yet.
R.B.
 
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i know someone mentioned this already, but, my 89 had a miss for a real long time. i went through hell trying to figure it out. all new sensors, plugs, and wires. i eventually gave up and just kept driving it and eventually it blew up on me. turns out i had a blown head gasket. since you say this thing is a project car, take some time and pull the heads off and change the gaskets. its a fun little project and if you want a little more performance, port the heads while you got them off.
 
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