Ok, im just going to try to give the facts I have and any input would be appreciated. First off, the problem is with a 97 4.6l bone stock with 176,xxx miles. Its been running a little sluggish lately and the idle wonders around sometimes so my plan was to change the fuel filter, plugs, wires, coil packs, and pcv along with a thottle body removal and clean and a IAC clean. I've been waiting on time and money, seems like they are always in short supply.

The problem specific to today was, going down the interstate at approx. 70mph my truck starts jumping and bucking like crazy! I pull over and as im slowing down it just goes ahead and shuts down. I get out and look/smell around and I smell the strong odor of fuel but see no leaks. Try starting it and when it does its shaking like crazy and is missing on what is surley several cylinders. (stop calling me Shirley) A little thottle and I decide that it is not driveable. I call my dad and after he arrives and mills around he decides that he need to see what it is doing for himself, throws me his keys and drives off in my truck. Even at 34 I guess im still just a kid to him as he ignored my protests. He goes maybe a half mile at 30 mph which is all it will do I find out from him, and I see orange chunks of something shooting several feet out of the exhaust. All together it shot out maybe 5 or 6 good size orange chunks of something before I could get him to stop. The truck starts and has actually smoothed out a lot, but its still missing badly. Almost sucked a dollar bill up the tail pipe completly. Through all of this I havent had any idiot lights come on and all gauges have been within normal. I'll be driving my wifes explorer for the rest of this week and then hopefully I can jump on that truck. Thanks in advance for any sugesstions.

 

only orange chunks i can think of is the cat convertors, or maybe your muffler.

sounds weird tho, why was the exaust sucking in?

 

I have always been told that a sure sign an engine is missing is that the exhaust will suck in at some point. Odd thing is, i have never tried it one an engine running right to make sure it doesnt do it all the time.:o

So do you guyss think it just needs a good tune up or maybe is there something else at play?

 

Well, it might be as simple as a cat trying to clog up. The truck is no longer missing and engine wise it sounds fine and isnt shaking. Its is making a really loud rattle in the exhaust, so I went under it and it sounds like a rock rolling around in my cat. I am figuring on just getting a new exhaust system as this one is the original anyway and is looking pretty sad.

Question, if I can manage to have a new exhaust thats "cat free" put on, what's the fix for the rear o2's? Possibly a resistor to give it the optimum reading all the time?? Let me know how you fixed this problem if you've done the same. Thanks!