Just for a heads up: I have a 95 3.8L V6. Everything on it is original except for the transmission which came from a 96 Thunderbird.

Alright so I posted on the forums a while back about some idling issues and power loss when changing gears and I ran through the list of how to go about fixing it including redoing heads, gaskets, intake, and the catalytic converter.

So far I've had the heads redone, and put it back together and it was still doing the same thing. I forgot to replace the radiator, so I did that and well everything was running smooth for a week and then back to the same old sputtering and vibrating while idling and a new problem reared its ugly head, I started leaking a lot of antifreeze once I had gotten back from a ride. So, I figured I'd try some better gaskets on the intake instead of felpro and it stopped vibrating so bad while idling and leaking antifreeze.

I've taken apart the damn intake so many times now I can do everything in about 2-3 hours. Yet, I still have the problem of sputtering while idling and power loss during gear transition (by power loss I mean it drops more RPMs than it is supposed to). I can't figure out the problem at all. My dad seems to think the problem is either the EGR or the oxygen sensor, but i'm tired of throwing money at this car so I really want to be sure about what the problem is exactly. Any suggestions?

 

I wouldn't be asking if I had the money to take it to ford and get it diagnosed, but right now I have two maxed credit cards and no cash flow. The economy blows and i'm having a terrible time finding a job. A little help in fixing my car would help me a lot in finding a job so any input would be great.

 

I think your dad might be right. Did you clean the EGR, TB, MAF, ect? Thats cheap and easy to do. If you are leaking coolent then its non of those things but if not then I would check all of those. Also, did you do a compression test on the cylinders? That will tell you if its a problem with the heads or not.

Matthew

 

Your problem lies with an intermitent sensor issues.Very likely the IAC or idle air control sensor. If not that then it could be the MAF or even the ECU that's faulty.

 

Well I already replaced the AIC sensor, so it wasn't that. It's not the heads, compression test passed, though it was slightly off but seeing as it was slightly off on all the cylinders I chalked that up to high altitude in the area I live at. I cleaned the TB when I replaced the AIC sensor and it's working fine. I don't believe the MAF is off, my dad checked that and he said it seemed fine. I guess my next task is to check the EGR, how would I go about doing that?