hi
i just bought a 97 disco and it has a problem. it seems that something gets heat soaked and it will start to stumble. and if it sits in a hot parking lot it will not start. today i put a bag of ice on top of the coil area and on the intake and it started in a few min. when it stumbles you can here it back fire through the intake.
any ideas?
also it has a check eng light and i assumed it is obd II being 1997. but i don't know where the connector is.
thanks Greg

 

The OBDII connector is at the bottom of the dash below the steering. Really simple to find. HOw many miles on the truck?

 

it has right at 127k or so
any preventative maintenance that i should know about aslo

 

found the obd connector it was shoved under every thing

 

take it somewhere and get the codes read to start (I know autozone and I believe pep boys read them for free) let us know what they are and we can go from there.

 

got all the codes read. it was giving all the missfire codes. i checked the fuel and it is giving good pressure. plus when it's crapping out you can smell fuel in the exhaust.
is there a ignition module any where on these things? i see the 4 coils but there seems like there should be a module some where.
i had a car some time ago that did the same thing. the ignition module would get heat soaked and quit running

 

The engine ECU is located on the side firewall (under the hood) on the passenger's side. It is a small black module with a large wire bundle going into it.

 

If it is backfiring you probably have a sticky valve or two.
You MUST use premium gas and if the previous owner did not use premium gas then the oil will bake inside the heads and valley and sludge everything up.
Open the oil filler neck and look inside with a flashlight.
How does it look?

The raw gas you are smelling is unburnt gas coming out the tail pipe.
If a exhaust valve or two are sticking open that can cause mis fires as well as send unburnt gas down the exhaust.
Also a sticky intake valve will cause back fires.

Change the oil and use diesel oil, Shell Rotella 15w-40 to start cleaning things out.
Use a cheap oil filter because you are going to change it again in 500 miles.
The day you change it pour in a can of Marvel Mystery Oil into the crankcase and idle the engine for 30 min and then change it.

If it were not for the back firing then I would say you needed a tune up really bad.

 

Hey Phil while we are on the subject I have noticed on occasion the smell of fuel after driving, not very often just every once in a while. truck runs pretty good but could use a tune up, got an ignition code a few months back and added a bottle of the Lucas fuel additive stuff with a full tank of gas and about a quarter of the tank later the light was off. have to do things one at a time due to heavy financial restraint so what order do you suggest doing things?

150K on the truck

 

bring us the exact 4 digit codes you are getting so we can help properly.