problem with a truck

[wonderboy24]

just need to pic some brains. my son has a 1990 ford f150. the prob he is having is the thing runs good till it warms up then he can only get it to about 35. the funny thing is he smells something like fluid burning when it does warm up. i notice about a week ago it was making a hollow noise. kinda sounded like the torque converter to me,i am thinking the converter could be the prob. the engine runs fine. any ideas if i am on the right track

 

[dream on mcss]

Tell him he wouldn't have that problem if he didn't buy a ford 😀 .

Lol, I had to say it. But in all seriousness though what does it do when it gets to 35? Does it just rev up or does it chug like its under a heavy load? Does it misfire at all, any lights on? Check the trans fluid. Is it all brown and nasty? First thing I'd try if I thought it was trans related would be a flush n' fill with new fluid and a filter. It might very well be the torque converter. If they are abused the fins will bend on it and once they get severely bent they don't work very good if not at all. Think of it like a turbo when the fins blow out. It just doesn't work.

 

[wonderboy24]

hey now i got a ford f 350 lol.well when he gets to 35 the truck and feels like he is going up a steep hill. just wont go any faster unless it is cold then it will go just fine. there are no lites such as engine at all. we did a flush and filter change this past spring. it just started last month.seems to be getting worse.

 

[dream on mcss]

Hmm thats odd it sounds like its just losing power. Maybe the cat is clogged?? I cant think of what else it could be. Maybe one of the injectors are sticky id try something simple first before dropping 250+ on a new cat. Try giving it a bottle of seafoam and see if it gets its power back then. Or you could just do what i did with my blazer and cut the cat off 🙂

 

[wonderboy24]

so if it is cold with the cat plugged it would run fine? then loose power when it is hot?

 

[dream on mcss]

I don't know man but thats what im thinking even though it doesnt really make sense, hopefully someone else can chime in on this one. Does it rev up fine in park?

 

[wonderboy24]

yah i does. thats why i put this out there to get some ideas before winter gets here,dont want to be down a plow truck.

 

[dream on mcss]

Yeah thats definitely a weird problem. It could have something to do with timing advance though, if its too advanced its not gonna have any power at all. Check your cap n rotor n stuff like that. Maybe your temp sensor is off and its telling the distributor to run on a cold setting at all times or something. Hopefully someone else can give some input here because I cant think of anything else.

 

[wonderboy24]

yah it is. we did complete tune up on it last spring,wires,plugs ect....... thanks for your input.

 

[dream on mcss]

Yeah no problem man anything i can do to help. But like i said its probably either something in the trans or maybe the converter is clogged like i said. If your converter unbolts, try taking it off and running it without the cat or something, see if that fixes the problem. If not, id say something is up with your trans, but like i said it could be anything...