Posted by rickyracer (172.149.238.232) on April 30, 2001 at 15:55:02:
In Reply to: Murphy's Law... (rickyracer, Charlie T.L. and others: input appreciated..) posted by Brian on April 30, 2001 at 08:45:18:
yes you can pull the pan with the engine in the car. Take off the crossbar and unbolt the idler arm, and the pitman arm from the linkage, should give you enough room to drop it. And PS cylinder if you have it.
I'd first check the intake valve guide on that cylinder, it's possible it could be screwed up allowing oil to be sucked down the guide into the engine. Do a compression test also first. Then pull the head if neccesary. Piston has to come out the top, Might be just a broken oil ring. If so hopefully it didn't score the cylinder.
: Everybody has heard the saying about if anything can go wrong it usually will, so here's another page of that book.
: After about 1500 miles on my new engine, she atarted running rough at low RPM's. This proceeded to get worse to the point it had a dead miss over the entire powerband. So, I went through and checked all of the plug wires by removing them one at a time while running. When I got to the number 8 cylinder, it made no difference if the plug was on or not. So after pulling the no. 8 plug and seeing that it was oil fouled all to hell, I'm pretty sure I know where the problem is.
: To find the cause I now need to pull the D.S. head and (probably) remove the no. 8 piston to see the condition of the rings. Is this easily accomplished with the engine still in the car? I really don't want to remove the engine (don't wish to fight the headers again),but, if I have to, I guess I have to.