I've had a 92 Trooper, automatic, V6, 4x4, with 155k miles for almost 2 years now. I haven't been able to take it on out of town trips. Before I bought it, I took it to a mechanic that is a friend of the family so I trusted him. He said the only issue was a cracked valve cover gasket.

It seems to run fine except for the engine sometimes knocking. And a lot of the times when I come to a stop and am slowing down to a stop light or something, it won't idle smooth, it will kind of do a tiny rev a few times until I'm stopped. If I drive for awhile the check engine light usually comes on, then will turn off if I brake and come almost to a stop. The time I did try to take it on the highway, I made it no more than 20 miles out before there were poofs of black smoke coming out of the exhaust, and all the sudden I couldn't maintain speed even with gas pedal down, and I stopped and it was knocking like crazy, doing the little rev thing, and barely run. So of course I turned around and went home. I've never had a problem with it otherwise as far as stalling out or dying or anything. I think it stalled out once at an intersection within a couple months of buying it, but that's it. Never had an issue with in-town driving.

Does this sound like nothing but what that guy told me when I got it, a cracked valve gasket cover? Something else? If you may be able to diagnose it based on what I've set, what sort of cost we talking about for repair? Thanks!

 

3.2l the o2 sensor underneath would go bad cauing rough idle black smoke hestitaion.if the valve cover gaskets were leaking bad enough oil would get on it an foul them out.or even clogg the external vent holes of it.look underneath by the drivers door close to the ft an you will see it,if theres oil all over it replace it,if you can get the code read at a local auto parts store the check engine light may read EXCESSIVE LEAN also this problem would occur mostlyafter the engine had warmed up.an can also damage converters if the converter is clogged the vehicle would run very bad.with no acceleration keep that in mind,good luck

 

I pulled the check engine codes and got

24 vehicle speed sensor

32 EGR valve

Reading up on a site about the EGR valve, some people take it out and soak it in carburator cleaner and that does the trick. What say you folks?

Sounds like that could be causing the engine ticking. Where would I find it on a 92 Trooper, and is it easy to remove/put back on?