haromaster87

Okay guys,


You may have read my thread about my car not runnin too well, and i'm almost convinced it's a timing issue from reading around here. So heres some questions, what are some common signs of bad timing? My car has- Surging idle, sometimes it'll idle okay, but not always. It's usually idling high or surging. Poor throttle response sometimes, If I go to rev it'll kinda hesitate, sputter, and then rev. Leaving an intersection i'll let out the clutch like normal and it'll spit, sputter, and try to stall. I gotta put the clutch in a little and give it more throttle to prevent stalling. Once in the higher rpm's it'll hesitate, attempt to stall, choke, and just not run right. And the biggest one, major loss of torque. I used to be able to give it 3/4 throttle rolling along a dry road in 1st and get some good tire spin. Now I can punch it in 1st on a wet road and it kinda hesitates and then just accelerates kinda like it was at half throttle instead of wot. Do these issues sound like they could be caused by a timing issue? And can a timing issue come about on its own? Cause a couple weeks ago, I took the car out on a friday, it was runnin great. Noticed it runnin weird later that day, It needed an oil change so I gave it that, I clamped my air intake hose back together since it had broke, and thats about it. All over the weekend, by monday or tuesday, it was runnin bad.

I have a rattling cat on the car right now and someone said it could be clogged, how can I check this?

And finally, if it is a timing issue, what do I do? I have a really good mechanic buddy with a shop and if I know a good timing to set it too I could just have him do it. It's a stock 86 motor with a 5spd and I run it on 93 octane.

5.0stanger

Un hook your H pipe and see if it runs better...it could be a clogged cat. When you are running it, the cat will get really hot if it is plugged. You got good exhaust comming out the tail pipes...is it even?

nitrous_bob

90% sure it is iac, or vac
99% sure it is NOT timing
you can also gap your plugs down to about .040" and see if that fixes it, if yes, it's spark related

haromaster87

Alright, just went and fired the car up. Exhaust is even and good, so I don't think the cat is clogged. I'm hoping it's not vaccum, but maybe? How do I test vaccum? And i've tried cleaning the IAC, but maybe I just need a new one. Could that little thing goin bad really cause all those problems? Also what signs make it seem like it's not timing? Not doubting you, just curious.

9 Sec 93 LX

Right before the ignition module (in distributor) goes completely bad you can have all sorts of weird symptoms.My buddys stang used to speed up all by itself.
That was kinda hairy.
Also theres a great article on using a vacumn gauge at this site.
secondchancegarage.com/public/186.cfm

haromaster87

The ignition module, is that the thing that plugs into the side of the dizy? If so I have a new one, sitting in the garage, right now. lol I'm just tryin to ge the tool to get it out. And yeah, while I was walkin around the car, well, fromthe beginning...

I started it up, and it fired right up, and nearly stalled right back down. It got down to about 300rpm or so. Then it sat around 500-400. So I gave it some juice, it revved up, and got into its normal, pissy, 1000-700 idle. And kinda settled to 900-800. Never a steady idle though. So as i'm walkin around look at stuff, it goes up to about 1500 all on its own, lol then it settled back down. But could that little ignition module account for my loss in tq?

haromaster87

ttt

9 Sec 93 LX

I couldn't say for sure about the torque loss.
But your car sounds a lot like my buddys when hismodule went haywire.
It makes sense though, if the dist. is sending the wrong signal to the control box.
Only one way to be sure is to change it out and retest it.

haromaster87

Thanks man, ima hit up some auto part stores and find that socket. Also, I drove the car, and i'm even more curious, get this. At a few intersections, if I got on it just right, it still kinda spun the tires like it should, but if I just punched it, it would just accelerate like it had lost alot of torque. Timing issue, tuning issue? idk, it also still has the **** poor cold start idle. I have a new TFI igniton module to plug into the dizy and i'm wondering if a new IAC could do me some good.

mjr46

personally I'd run a koer test but that's just me