Hello,

I'm in the midst of reviving a 1995 SC400 with 195K on the odometer. According to the prior owner, the car sat for about 2 years. We put some fresh gas in it and it seemed to help. I need to change the fuel filter. More details about this car can be found here. The car is progressing nicely, but I'm fighting a few remaining issues. At this point I have a rumble in the exhaust on the driver side. Please check out this video;


I also feel this rumble/hesitation in the engine, especially when the car is drive and is moving from 0 to 20mph. The car seems to smooth out as speed increases.

Has anyone else experienced this issue? Really need help with diagnosing the problem.

 

Here is how the engine sounds. I've never heard an SC400 up close before. Does my car sound healthy? It seems a bit loud, but it's also a big engine. I had a leaking power steering pump that I swapped out. The car seems a bit quieter now. Please excuse the wind noise at certain points of the video.

 

If it's just on the drivers side, maybe the PO gutted that single cat?

Moved to maint

 

Yep, just on the driver side. I'm doubting it's a gutted cat. It feels like it's a miss n the car is running on 6 cylinders. I'm going to check the timing. Maybe the timing belt was put on incorrectly. The car is stumbling from take off to about 20mph.

 

(((BUMP))) This turned out to be related to the spark plugs. I had about 6 of them that were barely finger tight. I assume the previous owner pulled them n forgot to tighten them or something. There were a few plugs that were only a few turns into the block. I started by cleaning n torquing the existing plugs (some cheapy Autolite plugs). The car improved quite a bit. I then replaced all the plugs with some NGK Iridiums. Man, the car is running MUCH better. No more gurgle in the exhaust. I'm going to swap the distributor caps n rotors next. I still have an engine code 25 though. Also, a couple plugs had quite a bit of oil on them (electrode side). I'm praying there's no issues with the piston rings.