Al_C
09-14-2020, 05:08 PM
Time for some comic relief: i.e. my issue/question. We all have strengths and weaknesses; mine is diagnostics. With repair being a close second. Doing it from scratch is one thing, fixing it quite another!
As you may recall, I was more or less stuck in my driveway thanks to the highway department's decision to grind down our street and re-pave it. Well, the good news is that they finally put down the first layer on Friday. Then it started raining. It finally quit raining on Sunday, so out we went. The car hadn't run in a week or 10 days, so when it started making noises I figured it was just in need of cleaning itself out. We went out again today and I decided something was not quite right - snap, crackle, pop. And a few backfires mixed in for good measure. I usually expect (and tend to enjoy), the noises the car makes when the rpms come down, but this was in another league. And, all the noises seem to be emanating from the passenger side.
On to the diagnostic part. I can't see anything looking down through the engine bay, in through the side vent, or looking under the car. My suspicion is one of these: j-pipe cracked, j-pipe loose from the header, or a bad gasket somewhere between the header-j-pipe connection and the side pipe. Knowing that others have had issues with j-pipes cracking, I installed turnbuckle braces on both sides with the intention of preventing those cracks. Who knows...
So what is your experience? What would cause excessive popping and some backfires on one side of a slowing engine?
I'd like to get the car up in the air, so to speak, so I can better see what's going on. (your input will help in that regard, too!) To that end, my friend Greg told me that he just installed a four post lift and he wanted somebody to use it! He lives 5 minutes away. That was Sunday's trip. The goal was to get it up in the air and deal with the bell housing issue. You've heard about best-laid plans? Greg's driveway is uphill to his garage just enough that the rear end of the car is too low to get over the lift's cross-member. (The top of the cross member is 5 inches off the floor). As you'd expect, the side pipes scraped along the ramps and the bell housing hit the cross member. The solution, we believe, is to make some 8 or 10 foot ramps out of lumber so the grade is less. Now I have two things to deal with when I go back over there...
As you may recall, I was more or less stuck in my driveway thanks to the highway department's decision to grind down our street and re-pave it. Well, the good news is that they finally put down the first layer on Friday. Then it started raining. It finally quit raining on Sunday, so out we went. The car hadn't run in a week or 10 days, so when it started making noises I figured it was just in need of cleaning itself out. We went out again today and I decided something was not quite right - snap, crackle, pop. And a few backfires mixed in for good measure. I usually expect (and tend to enjoy), the noises the car makes when the rpms come down, but this was in another league. And, all the noises seem to be emanating from the passenger side.
On to the diagnostic part. I can't see anything looking down through the engine bay, in through the side vent, or looking under the car. My suspicion is one of these: j-pipe cracked, j-pipe loose from the header, or a bad gasket somewhere between the header-j-pipe connection and the side pipe. Knowing that others have had issues with j-pipes cracking, I installed turnbuckle braces on both sides with the intention of preventing those cracks. Who knows...
So what is your experience? What would cause excessive popping and some backfires on one side of a slowing engine?
I'd like to get the car up in the air, so to speak, so I can better see what's going on. (your input will help in that regard, too!) To that end, my friend Greg told me that he just installed a four post lift and he wanted somebody to use it! He lives 5 minutes away. That was Sunday's trip. The goal was to get it up in the air and deal with the bell housing issue. You've heard about best-laid plans? Greg's driveway is uphill to his garage just enough that the rear end of the car is too low to get over the lift's cross-member. (The top of the cross member is 5 inches off the floor). As you'd expect, the side pipes scraped along the ramps and the bell housing hit the cross member. The solution, we believe, is to make some 8 or 10 foot ramps out of lumber so the grade is less. Now I have two things to deal with when I go back over there...