I am about to give up on this van! This is my second 3.0 in a Voyager, the first one was great and so was this one until a few months ago. The van has been losing power for some time now. It has slowly gotten worse until now where it's not even drivable. It will idle and run smooth as new but acts as someone left the brake on a bit. Lately it has started popping(bacfiring thru the carb) a little when you get the rpm's up a bit. As soon as it pops the Check Engine light comes on, showing a code for an Intermitten cam/crank sensor. Understand it ran for months with a lack of power before this popping and light happening. Now here's the catch, twice now it has all the sudden ran fine, tons of power. The first time was during starting and lasted a week. The second time it was during acceleration and lasted a day. Both times it instantly went back to no power. Here's what i've done so far...
fresh new heads
timing belt
crank sensor
Cam sensor in the distributor
MAP sensor
checked fuel pressure, upper 40's psi
new fuel filter
changed the ECM with another used one
plugs wires cap rotor
cleaned the injectors with BG44K
checked the exhaust for restriction
checked engine wiring and all connectors
Thru all this none has helped. Has anybody ever seen a thing like this?

 

Maybe you have a plugged exhuast system.

 

Thanks, but as stated above it's been checked. Actually twice i have unbolted the exhaust flange and took her for a ride with no difference other than noise. Has anyone ever heard of a transmission causing a drag like this? I was thinking of unbolting the converter just to see how it revs up. You know the reaction i get from the van is as if i was pulling a 7000 boat behind it. Smooth yet slow.

 

Sounds to me like the timing belt. Have you checked the condition of that? My recollection is that the 3.0 is a rubber-band motor and not a chain like the 3.3 n 3.8. THe sputtering and lack of power if you've checked for exhaust would be my next check... good luck

 

The timing belt was changed along with the water pump(which is a must when doing the belt). I've even gone as far as rechecking the timing marks on the belt just to be sure.

!!!!!!UPDATE!!!!!

Ok, today i disconnected the flywheel from the converter just to se what happens. To my surprise the motor revs right up! If i reconnect the converter, it's back to no power. It's easily noticable just by hitting the gas pedal. Now i wonder, how mush drag should a converter cause to begin with? I have NEVER heard of a transmission causing drag like this and you would think it would burn up just because it's holding back so much power from the motor, but it has been this way a long time. Can this really be a problem in the transmission???

 

Someone with a good diagnostic tool should be able to test the lock-up converter. Sounds like that is holding the motor back maybe. If the t-converter is having problems, it should show when doing a drive-mode scan of the tranny. A standard DRB tool wll not typically diagnose transmission computer stuff. Good Luck

 

we had the same problem in our 3.0 I changed the EGR valve and had the tranny filter changed and the tranny flushed it quit doing after that not sure which fixed the problem

 

"Ok, today i disconnected the flywheel from the converter just to se what happens. To my surprise the motor revs right up! If i reconnect the converter, it's back to no power. It's easily noticable just by hitting the gas pedal. Now i wonder, how mush drag should a converter cause to begin with? I have NEVER heard of a transmission causing drag like this and you would think it would burn up just because it's holding back so much power from the motor, but it has been this way a long time. Can this really be a problem in the transmission??? "

The torque converter acts as a big flywheel for the engine, so blipping the throttle with the converter disconnected will make the engine much more responsive to speed changes. If the trans is in neutral the converter clutch has no effect. I suppose there could be some internal drag in the trans, but I suspect it would have fried quickly due to heat if it was that bad.