2.3 L ford tempo problem

[ford1967]

ok guys. My brother just bought a 1990 ford tempo 2.3L motor auto tranny 133K miles. so heres the problem. at idle in park motor has no miss at all you can rev it up in park and sounds perfect, when go and drive the car at about 2000 to 2500 rpms the car will fall on its face horribly. it does it in all 3 gears. sometimes when just shifting to drive the motor will start shuddering. i checked the tps, iac motor, plugs, wires, cap and rotor, firing order. i did check the tranny fluid and it smelt a little burnt. i was kinda thinkin it was the tranny but not for sure. thanks in advance for the help.
ask me with any questions

[TigerDan]

First thing is to pull the codes. Always start there with an EFI engine. I suppose transaxle problems are a possibilty, maybe the tq. convertor. Burnt fluid isn't a good sign.

The Tempo 2.3 is a different critter from the 2.3 used in Rangers/BIIs that we cover here.

[ford1967]

yea i knew that it was a different critter. tigerdan thanks for your help i tinkered with it a while to night and notice that the previous owner had left the distributor loose, very loose. that caused it to run good until the motor had stress on the cam and move the distributor off timed. thanks for your help

[srod]

Have you tried a new fuel filter? My son drives a 94 tempo and unless we change the fuel filter annually he has similar problems..
otherwise the Tempo 2.3 has been a great little car...

[newbyyhead03]

just do NOT let that motor get hot. ford didnt put large enuff waterways in that head so thay are extremly prone to cracking. they are good cars if they dont get hot. i drive a 87 and just had to put a new head on mine after searching for 3 mnths. if it does crack good luck finding another i had to order mine 4 states away and it had internal cracks. week later ai stumbled across one in a field(tempo)

[rikard]

Sounds like it might be a clogged exhaust system. When my cat got plugged it acted the same.
regards
rikard