Expert: Roland Finston - 5/23/2009

Question
My son bought his first car a 1986 Town and Country station wagon. It is making a noise when we put the car in gear and take off. the noise in in the engine, not the transmission. The car loses power when this happens. We removed the valve cover and inspected and it looks in great shape. It sound like the sound is coming from the bottom of the engine.

Answer
Hi Charles,
Engine noise is very difficult to describe and communicate at a distance. The first thing would be to distinguish between a fuel injection/spark control issue and an engine mechanical condition. There is self-diagnostic capability in the engine computer control system that apparently in '86 and earlier can only be found with a readout box such as the Chrysler DRB-I (C-4805). A dealer would have that possibly and if you can get any 2-digit fault codes that would be of great help in remediation of that sort of problem. If none, then the engine noise is probably mechanical, maybe involving main or rod bearings. An engine shop would be the best in position to tell based on the noise. I presume this has nothing to do with the turbo if you are not hitting the pedal aggressively, otherwise that is another possible cause for loss of power/noise if it were malfunctioning. I don't have any experience with those. If you can be more specific about the sound and how it behaves as you drive it, you might try asking the question at the Yahoo.com group that is called The Chrysler LeBaron Club as that same engine was used in some of those models and so a few members are familiar with their fables and foibles.
Sorry to say I can't offer you much direct advice but I hope this will move you in the right direction.
Roland