I have a 97 Cobra with 144k miles on the clock. I have no clue how the previous owner took care of the car but I baby her like I would my own child. I have noticed for a while now that the car tends to sputter or misfire (various RPMs but dissipating after about 3200) when im cruising down the road and decide I want to give it a little gas or play around with the local ricers. In the 99 GT i had it did this too but it went away. But in my 97 its been hanging around for almost a month and a half now.


I read that I can be a fuel issue or a vacuum leak. I checked all the vacuum lines and they seem fine. No leaks, no funny noises, no CEL. I havent been able to check fuel pressures but I feel like this is a Injector issue. I want to know if anyone else had an issue similar to this or nows a direction I should take other than buying parts until its fixed.

 

Have you ever had the IRMC's cleaned? Even with seafoam or anything? I was having kind of the same issue and running two cans of seafoam produced major smoke screens from my car and it has cleared up the hesitation and the top end sounds/feels a little more smooth. A $10 can of seafoam is cheaper than replacing injectors. And clean/check the throttle body.

 

I cleaned the IMRCs the first week I owned the car because the cables from the controller snapped on me while going to work. So those are good. I also cleaned the entire intake and replaced the gaskets while I was in there. Installed my Steeda Air/Oil can too.

I feel really skeptical about running seafoam through the car. It just doesnt seem like it would work and I dont like putting some outside chemical through my baby.

Its getting frustrating because it wont just throw a code so I can track it down. I surely dont want to just throw money at the car in hopes of curing the issue.

 

Seafoam is an additive yes, but it works trust me. Run a can or two of seafoam through the gas tank and the PCV valve aswell. It can help unclog or un-seize injectors. Also clear out a lot with the catalytic converts. I would try it considering they are only 5-10 a can. Sometimes a sparkplug or coil can mess with the RPM's or how the car runs at WOT. So you can also check your spark plugs or get a tune up done (if not done already.) Have you also checked your fuel filter?

 

Ill look into the Seafoam. Ill probably run a can through this week. Im going to get new plugs tomorrow and hopefully she wakes back up.

 

I'm not a fan of mechanic in a can, but I try to be open minded. How did the Seafoam work out for you? Did the plugs make a difference? I'm about to put plugs in my '97....I think they might be original equipment.