1994 gt no power, help please!

[91CoupeMike]

I have a customer that just traded his truck for a 94 GT automatic and it is at a severe loss of power, its almost like the transmission isnt kicking down or something. Its gutless, it has off road exhaust and a k&n filter but otherwise stock.

any suggestions?

timing is set at 13* and it idles smooth.


thanks guys !

[Mach1]

that's how the 94 GT's came off the showroom floor

[Txstang1]

that's how the 94 GT's came off the showroom floor

you mean 96

[91CoupeMike]

that's how the 94 GT's came off the showroom floor

no way, lol this thing feels like its pulling a trailer or something, from a dead stop if you punch it, it feels like youre in final drive, NO POWER.

[Baron Von Crowder]

is it shifting or stuck in limp mode and in 2nd or 3rd?

[Scott Mc]

In my 95 the ignition module on the passenger inner fender went bad and ate up all my mid and top end power. Try that, cheap part to start with.

[VaderTT]

Check to see if it still has a CEL bulb in the cluster. I had someone pull the bulb on a car when I went to check it out, lucky I brought one of my scanners. Asshole played dumb about it too, yet the add kept being refreshed on CL. I bet he didn't change a thing, lol.

[Baron Von Crowder]

Check to see if it still has a CEL bulb in the cluster. I had someone pull the bulb on a car when I went to check it out, lucky I brought one of my scanners. Asshole played dumb about it too, yet the add kept being refreshed on CL. I bet he didn't change a thing, lol.

turning the key on (without starting) should illuminate the CEL for a moment.

[VaderTT]

turning the key on (without starting) should illuminate the CEL for a moment.

Yup, that's why I scanned it.

[Baron Von Crowder]

Yup, that's why I scanned it.

That's on my list of things to look at when I'm looking over cars at the auction. Another trick is pulling the air bag light bulb, but it will ding if they do it. It DOESNT ding until you close the door, oddly enough. Either way, when I turn on the key, I look for brake, cel, airbag, traction control, and any other lights to come on and then go back off when the engine is started.

[VaderTT]

Tricks to not getting tricked.

[JC316]

That's on my list of things to look at when I'm looking over cars at the auction. Another trick is pulling the air bag light bulb, but it will ding if they do it. It DOESNT ding until you close the door, oddly enough. Either way, when I turn on the key, I look for brake, cel, airbag, traction control, and any other lights to come on and then go back off when the engine is started.

I got caught by a couple of those when I first started going to auction. My personal favorite was the smokeless oil phase. Fuckers were buying this crap and putting it in. You change out the oil and it suddenly starts smoking like a chimney.

As for the OP, there are any number of things that could be pissing it off. Timing might not be getting advanced, fuel filter might be clogged, air filter, MAF could be dirty, low compression, plugs and wires, etc. Best advice is to go through it with a tuneup first, see where it gets you.

[91CoupeMike]

is it shifting or stuck in limp mode and in 2nd or 3rd?

Maybe limp mode.

[shumpertdavid]

Limp in mode for the trans is easy, drive it and count the shifts. Some will manually make first when pulled into low range as well. Other than that, pull the Maf and see if it has huge amounts of buildup on the sensors. I've seen that many times. If you have a scanner, hook it up and look at the baro sensor reading, should be around 28" or 157-158hz ( I believe that's the correct hz reading, been a while since I had to look at it that way). If it's 26" or lower suspect a dirty or faulty airflow meter. Try cleaning the meter and pull a battery cable for 10 minutes to reset the keep alive memory and the fuel adaptives.

[Broncojohnny]

A check engine light won't necessarily kill performance like it will in a OBD car. You said the timing is at 13, i would verify that with a light and make sure it advances to 30 degrees or more at higher rpm. The balancer on those cars are shit and the outer ring is notorious for spinning and throwing the timing marks off.