460 Ford engine stalls when put in gear
Hi all y’all,
Wouldn’t you know it, I’m ready to start out on a 900 mile journey and my previously good running 1994 Ford 460 V8 engine decides to act up. Here’s what I know:
When I purchased the RV last April it ran fine, I parked it at a friends for a few weeks and whenever I had to move it, it started and ran fine. In June I drove it 1/2 mile to a nearby RV park where I’ve lived in it since. Once in July I started it up and drove it a short distance to take on propane, it ran fine. Since then I’ve started it up periodically maybe every other month. I’d let it warm up and then turn it off, it’s always run fine (of course all I did was idle it).
Yesterday I started it up to drive it the 1/2 mile back to my friends place and it started up after a prolonged cranking. After it started it seemed to idle okay but it had a miss when I’d feed it gas and the exhaust smelled like it was running rich, though it was not blowing any soot or anything like that, just a tell-tale odor. I let it warm up and the minute I put it in gear it died. Tried again several times until finally I put my left foot on the brake, raised the RPMs slightly (no tach, so I don’t know how much). With the higher RPM I was able to get it to stay running in gear, whereupon I carefully drove it to my friends, never letting the RPM’s drop to idle when I’d stop.
I haven’t torn into the engine yet, I’m hoping for some useful input before I do that. At this point I’m thinking it might need a new O2 sensor or some plugs and/or plug wires or the coil has gone bad.
I hate to ask for help with this, I’ve worked on gasoline engines all my life, even professionally while I was in college, but I just don’t have the time to do a lot of guessing at this point and I really don’t have the money to take it to a mechanic.
Steve
Wouldn’t you know it, I’m ready to start out on a 900 mile journey and my previously good running 1994 Ford 460 V8 engine decides to act up. Here’s what I know:
When I purchased the RV last April it ran fine, I parked it at a friends for a few weeks and whenever I had to move it, it started and ran fine. In June I drove it 1/2 mile to a nearby RV park where I’ve lived in it since. Once in July I started it up and drove it a short distance to take on propane, it ran fine. Since then I’ve started it up periodically maybe every other month. I’d let it warm up and then turn it off, it’s always run fine (of course all I did was idle it).
Yesterday I started it up to drive it the 1/2 mile back to my friends place and it started up after a prolonged cranking. After it started it seemed to idle okay but it had a miss when I’d feed it gas and the exhaust smelled like it was running rich, though it was not blowing any soot or anything like that, just a tell-tale odor. I let it warm up and the minute I put it in gear it died. Tried again several times until finally I put my left foot on the brake, raised the RPMs slightly (no tach, so I don’t know how much). With the higher RPM I was able to get it to stay running in gear, whereupon I carefully drove it to my friends, never letting the RPM’s drop to idle when I’d stop.
I haven’t torn into the engine yet, I’m hoping for some useful input before I do that. At this point I’m thinking it might need a new O2 sensor or some plugs and/or plug wires or the coil has gone bad.
I hate to ask for help with this, I’ve worked on gasoline engines all my life, even professionally while I was in college, but I just don’t have the time to do a lot of guessing at this point and I really don’t have the money to take it to a mechanic.
Steve
