Weird noise/overheats and knocking 93 Plymouth Gd voyager

A few months ago my brother put a new engine in my 1993 Plymouth Grand Voyager. The old engine had a bad head gasket and even after several attempts to repair it it still kept overheating. The new engine has had a tap right from the start but it was really quiet and he told me it was a lifter. I took it to another mechanic and he agreed.

In the past 7-10 days the tap has suddenly got louder. It almost sounded like a miss so we changed the spark plugs and wires. It had been starting hard when it rained and we had just replaced the distributor cap so we knew it was not the problem. Now it starts fine when wet but in the last 2 days it's got even weirder. Today while driving all of the lights on the dash/radio went of and came back on 2 times almost like it was gonna stall but it didn't. When I press the gas it sputters a little bit and it doesn't want to go. If it matters it is raining today. Then suddenly the temperature gauge went all of the way up to the red line. It did this right as I was taking off from a red light but the gauge never moved while I sat at the light. It also made a strange almost growling sound as I gave it gas. As soon as I let off the gas the temp went back down and the sound went away and it did not try to overheat again. I came straight home and haven't left since. My brother is up north on a fishing trip all week so I have no way to contact him. I checked my fluids and everything is full. There is no coolant in the oil and the coolant is full so I don't think it's the head gasket although I am NOT a mechanic so I could be wrong.This was the very first time this happened.

Any ideas??

If you can trust your temp gauge it sounds like you have exhaust leaking into the coolant. A competant shop can perform a simple test to detect gases in the coolant. Look far a rainbow sheen in the coolant. Unforunately, sometimes head gaskets can check good one minute and bad the next.

Not to sure about 93s but, look for a large electrical connector at the firewall. Try wiggling it and see if the lights flicker or anything strange happens. Disconnect it and clean it with contact cleaner. Reseal it with dielectric grease. This is the main wire harness leading form the engine compartment to the cabin. Good chance water has gotten into it and is giving you fits. One simple thing you can do is make sure the battery post connections are shiny clean and tight. Computers are sensitive to voltage fluctuations.

I took it in this morning and it's the water pump. While it's a pain to change I'd rather have that than a blown head gasket. There is also a hole in the reserve tank so I need to replace that.:rolleyes:

Glad ya got her going ,sometimes ya gotta take it in. You changed the wires and plugs. That should help the rainy day problem I would think. sounds a lot like my 2.6 in my 86. Has an electric fan and if the switch goes bad will create the same symtoms. Fight the battles you can win and leave the tricky stuff to the experts. Good luck