recently i towed a small 14ft boat about 300 miles north to go camping and partway up i started having issues with sputtering. The engine would begin to sputter/misfire around 2k rpm and then immediately loose power until i let of the gas. Long story short I found that by letting the engine cool down i could continue going until it got hot again. The next day it wouldn't start and we found the wires to the crank pos. sensor were melted. Replaced that and started right up. Got part way home and the same thing occurred w/ the sputtering.
Seems on the freeway or any highway driving for more than 20 minutes or so the engine gets too hot. I'm not sure if this is causing some funky electrical problem or if its mechanical.

I'm going to replace the thermostat today, and put a 180 in even though I don't think this is the problem. The radiator also has about a 5x5" area where its corded and rusted through the fins and stuff. I'm going to replace the radiator soon but I would also like to solve the sputtering problem right away as well.

Any ideas on what could be causing this? I've gone down the list. I pulled the Cat (replaced with a glass pack hehe) cuz I thought it might be getting gummy when its hot and causing too much back pressure but that didn't work either. The only thing I haven't touched is the coil. Crank pos. sensor was installed before the wires went. New distributor cap. I know the wires and plugs are do for a change but I don't think they cause this.

Sorry for the long post just wanted to get everything in

 

Ya deffintly replace that raid. Most stocks are one row. Get a 2row it will help while towing. get a new cap. thermo. flush out the engine and heater with a good raid flush.
as for your sputtering are you pininging? this could be a sign that you need better plugs and wires. get autolight 3923 they are one step colder than stock so they will help with pinging.(they wont be on any autoparts stores list) get good wires to go with those plugs along with a new cap and rotor. how hot is it getting? is there steem or the reservar boiling?

 

not steam, temp gauge goes to about 3/4 though. What exactly do you mean by pinging? Like a pinging sound? cuz im not getting anything like that.

 

had the same overheating problem, just before it died it would sputter. let it cool down and i could run for a few more miles, eventually melted the plastic that holds the ring for the hall effect in the distributor at the back of the engine (close to your crank position sensor wires). my problem was the timing was retarded by 10 degrees. on my 89 the timing is adjustable, on yours i'm sure it's not (you have a crank position sensor, i do not, your timing is computer controlled) but if a new thermostat and rad don't work i would look at a timing problem from the computer or your chain skipped a tooth (loose timing chains are not uncommon on a dak). retarded timing will cause an engine to overheat bigtime under load.

 

Well I added the 180 deg. t-stat and thus far haven't had nearly the problems I used to. Rather than sputtering and loss of power, after first test driving it it would wind oddly and not shift up correctly (into third i assume) I never had to pull over to let it cool down and have found that the gauge still goes over halfway, and I have now figured it's probably normal operating temp.

Just today I took it out for a drive, on the freeway, and let it warm up. To my surprise Over Drive never engaged. I was running around at about 70 on the freeway at about 3000 rpm, this didn't concern me as if i were towing this would be about the same if i had turned it off (or at least in my experience... could this be wrong?) It seems to downshift a little awkward as when I slowed from about 80 as I passed a cop it backfired.

Obviously something in the tranny isn't right here but could this have been partly causing the same issues all along?

I checked the button and OD was still on... and actually this tranny only has about 2000 mi on since rebuild, but I wonder if its just a lemmon or the guys who serviced it are idiots.


according to the last owner: it was serviced 2 or 3 times with a(n unspecified) problem, last time he told them just to rebuild the thing. they did and it still hadn't fixed the problem. Right then and there the torque converter dropped out and apparently that had been the problem.

Another question... how can identify what model tranny i have (auto 4x4 w/ a 5.2l) Or is this an issue considering the differences in the a-500 the 42re and the 42rh?

additionally.. Anybody had any experience with the Transgo "reprogramming" (shift) kit?
wouldn't mind being able to grind some gears seeing as my tranny can't figure out how to do it itself.