I recently purchased a 1990 trooper w/ a 2.8 L v-6 engine. It is a 4x4 w/ an automatic transmission. The trooper has a major lack of power. I live in the Rocky Mountains at 9k feet. the trooper does now like to maintain highway speeds (45) and go up hill. It loses a lot of power when it shifts gears. I notice it most b/w 2nd and 3rd gear. If it is running in 3rd gear under 3k rpms, it will quickly lose power going up hill. therefore I am forced to put the shifter in the "2" position to climb most hills. The engine will generally have to be revved above 4k rpms to maintain enough power to make it up the mountain. I can allow the automatic transmission to shift into 3rd gear at around 40 mph and 3k rpms and the engine will lose power and I will lose speed until I am forced to have the transmission shifted back into 2nd? The engine seems to run fine other than that. I know that these engines aren't powerful, but i was hoping I could get a little better use out of the Trooper that this. I am sure it is pretty hard on the engine to maintain 4000 rpms for a duration. Any suggestions?


PS. the trooper has 128k miles on it. I bout it from a one time owner (86 yr old man) and it had been maticulously maintained by an auto shop. I have the service records for the last 10 years or so.

Thanks,
Nick

 

A cracked manifold will make a popping, cracking sound, more under load. Normally it's just loud. They're not that hard to change on a 2.3 (Ford never made a 3.3 that I know of) As long as the studs don't start breaking then it can get to be a big job.