QuestionI have a 1987 Suzuki Samurai. That apparently the previous owner beat pretty badly. The car did not run at all due to a clogged cat converter. I removed that and replaced the whole exhaust. I replaced the plugs, cap, rotor and wires. Now, it instantly starts even better than my good condition samurai.
The problem is that the whole body and engine vibrates. Its almost as if the engine is out of balance. Its vibrate rate varies depending on the rpm of the engine. If you put your hand on the body you can feel the vibration. I have checked all the body mounts, replaced the transmission mount, checked the engine mounts and checked the exhaust to make sure it does not touch. For the life of me I cant find any answer other than the engine is out of balance due to the last owner beating up the car so much. The engine has horrible valve noise which im sure has nothing to do with it. Oh and it does it wether its in gear or in neutral.
Finally, the engine works great at low rpm but as soon as it gets to about 2500+ the power stays the same no matter how hard you mash the pedal. I can smell fuel from the carb leaking but im not sure the problem is from the carb or the supposedly out of balance engine. How do you balance a samurai engine? Is it a shaft, balancer or all internals? Thanks, sorry its so long.
AnswerIf the valves clatter badly, you need to adjust them. If the valves are badly out of adjustment, it can very seriously affect how the engine "breathes", and can easily cause a severe miss or imbalance in power from cylinder to cylinder and cause the engine to vibrate badly. The fuel smell could be from a gross miss. When I bought mine, it had a broken piston, and bad rings on one cylinder and symptoms much like you describe. An overhaul solved the problem. It's one of the easiest and least expensive to overhaul. Try adjusting the valves, and doing a compression and leak test. Go to www.izook.com, and look through the links, although I personally prefer Hawk Suzuki for engine parts.
Scotty
