ok, I have a 97 Mercury Cougar with a 4.6 v8 in it, when you crank the engine the thing backfires through the throttle body. Which leads me to believe that the timeing chain has slipped and its jumped time. I called a local shop to see if they would fix it, the asked if it was Over head cam and I said yes they said they wouldnt fix it. Is this car worth the time and money of fixing it?
These engines have two timing chains and are what is known as "interference cycle".... meaning the valves and the pistons occupy the same space at different times. If timing has jumped, you are looking at some bent valves and, possibly, damaged pistons.
YMMV..
FWIW, I'd likely perform at least a compression test and code scan before I jumped to too many conclusions.
we cant perform a code check, the battery has been out of the car since it stopped running last march.
so is this a deffinate thing? Does this ALWAYS happen when the timing jumps? So if what your saying is true than this car isnt worth an entire engine.
Where is the car? I can take it off your hands.
CJB
As it stands right now, you only THINK that the timing has jumped.. more common would be a broken valve spring or a cam follower problem.
I was told also the computer could be bad, what about that?
Without performing some tests, it will only ever be a guess. Many have found that guessing gets to be very, very expensive.
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