So this ongoing problem is still making me mad, and someone told me that it might be caused from the timing being off.....

engine feels like it stalls, you know how it shakes ur butt in the seat.....then I get an awful hallow rattling sound from my cat.

Is the timing an easy thing for a mechanic to check?/fix? is it costly?

 

bump!, no ideas on the timing issue?

 

to put a timing light on it is easy, but it sounds like a vaccume leak, have you checked all the vaccumehoses for cracks or leaks? You can do this by spraying some carb cleaner on the vaccume lines and seeing if the idle smooths out or picks up, or simply squirt some water from a windex type bottle on teh vaccume lines and see if it sucks in some water and the idle gets worse or even stalls the motor. Id say a majority of rough idle problems are a cracked PCV line or something of that nature.

 

it idles fine, nothing that leads me to think a vaccum leak.......and I had a new PCV valve put on about 3 months ago....

 

My cougar has been doing that as of late. Ive got a new PCV valve for it, just a real pain in the butt to install. Have to unbolt the whole intake assembly to get to it.

 

oh, you didnt specify weather the shake was at idle or under a load, i just assumed idle, timing will not make an engine mis fire, timing advanced too far will make your motor ping, retarded will make it lose power, a misfire will make it run uneven and shake, misfire could be a bad plug, a bad plug wire, bad rotor or cap, its usualy a wire laying up on the exaust manafold, how old are the wires, are they touching the motor any where?

 

EGR? Mine did the exact same stuff, spent 5 bucks on vacuum line, replaced em all and it runs like its brand new now. I cleaned my EGR at the same time so im sure that might have had something to do with it.

 

Mine is surging a bit as well when in motion. Its not bad enough to make me not be able to stop at a red light or anything, but its not good I'm sure.

 

it gives s shake when i cut the ignition, otherwise it drives fine.

It feels like an old carb'd engine that stalls when i shut it off.......almost like a motor mount is loose.......possibly......?

 

My Tracker did the shake thing when I cut it off. The timing was fubar, as I recall. That was a few months before the engine lean-burned itself to death and the cylinder head melted.

I just investigated further into my engine shakes.. All of the rubber thingys on the vacuums are frayed and cracked. Looks like I'll be having some more fun.