peacewize Posted January 1, 2013 Share Posted January 1, 2013 Couple days ago my dl started acting up while driving it would hiccup or sputter randomly. It's been in the 20' s so I thought maybe the gas so I added a bottle of ISO heat on my last fill up but it's gotten worse. Now it's idleing bad, looping. I'm thinking either a sensor or vac line. Checked all vac lines they looked good. Also I think I'm loosing oil through the valve seals. Don't think it's related but Idk. Here's a vid. Any help appreciated thank you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rK1mje4w-XU&feature=youtube_gdata_player Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
superpoo93 Posted January 2, 2013 Share Posted January 2, 2013 This sounds familiar... Think this happened to me once. Sounds like a vacuum leak, try to spray water or some non-flamable liquid at the base of the intake on both sides where it connects to the heads. I had leak there once, you will notice a big change in engine speed if it is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old sub freak Posted January 2, 2013 Share Posted January 2, 2013 (edited) Cold weather can do weird stuff to all cars...Is the 2 1/2"? tube from the exaust to the air cleaner hooked up and in good shape?I know that bringing warm/hot air to the carb helps alot in the cold...the fuel filter can have frozen water in it. You could have got some bumm gas in it and it just needs to be burned out.. Can you still drive it down the road or is it worse than that? Checking for leaks is good advice.and a safer way to do it too..I have been taught to use starting fluid or carb or break cleaner to check for leaks.Always worrying about a fire..Superpoo has a safer plan...Check the butterfly valve where it goes through the carb.I have seen them get worn out till air can get through into the carb...Grab it and juggle it up and down. any play? That is a sign the carb is worn out.. I know this is a lot of ifs but you just have to try "stuff" till you get it figured out..Hang on,You'll figure it out..Happy New Year.Todd,OSF Edited January 2, 2013 by old sub freak old man Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AKghandi Posted January 2, 2013 Share Posted January 2, 2013 well lets run through the list. get wd-40 or what ever and spray every hose, and the intake gaskets. if the idle rasies you found your leak Any CEL? and if so whats the code? short blink=1, long blink=10, long pause=next code. triple check the codes Take off the Pcv hose and spray a little wd-40 into the pcv valve when its running. fuel filter, get a new one. not much you can do to test it if you don't have a fuel pressure tester. And they are only about $10 And just for shiggles, unplug the MAF, they do some weird things when they go bad,and they dont always throw a code. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old sub freak Posted January 2, 2013 Share Posted January 2, 2013 Well I guess I should have watched the video before i talked..I thought we were talking about a carb set up...But what I wanted to say is you younger fellows have it made.When I was first workin on cars 45 years ago,you didn't get anywhere near plug wires or the coil wire without being KNOCKED ON YOUR DUFF !!!The newer wires don't leak any spark at all i guess.Even new ones "Bit ya" if you got close..The way we would check for "leaks"was to open the hood in the dark.You could see 'em jumpin all over the place..Anyway be careful around those wires!! and hang in there,hey at least its still runnin.OSF Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peacewize Posted January 2, 2013 Author Share Posted January 2, 2013 It's spfi not a carb. Fuel filter is fairly new but that doesn't mean there couldn't be water freezing up in there. I unplugged the maf and nothing happened. Maybe dirty/ frozen?. I don'tknow how to check the codes I'll do a little search real quick. As for the intake gaskets I replaced those when I pulled the motor but anythings possible, it's a car after all. Early I went out to start it and I had to pump the gas like my old Chevy or it would just turn over and not fire. All symptoms lead me to wonder if it could be the fuel pump but from my experience when a fuel pump fails it goes all at once. Anyone ever had a fuel pump act like this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peacewize Posted January 2, 2013 Author Share Posted January 2, 2013 Just went out and farted with it some more. Don't see any arcing from the plug wires. Seemed to idle ok until it kicked down. Sprayed everything couldn't find any vac leaks. Exhaust smells rich so it's definitely getting fuel. I just remembered I read these things have problems with the dizzy cap or rotor. I'm gonna investigate that next. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AKghandi Posted January 2, 2013 Share Posted January 2, 2013 (edited) I got it! pull the vac line off the Fuel pressure regulator. if gas comes out theres your problem. i had this problem on the last spfi i had, wouldn't start easy and would idle like crap then stall out it slowly got worse and worse. till had to unplug the fuel pump to get it to start. Edited January 2, 2013 by AKghandi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peacewize Posted January 2, 2013 Author Share Posted January 2, 2013 No gas came out but the motor didn't do anything different. Fuel pressure regulator would make sense, if I'm accelerating hard the car acts fine but I can't always be accelerating lol. Is there any definitive ways to check the reg or is the fact it didn't do anything when unplugged sign enough? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AKghandi Posted January 2, 2013 Share Posted January 2, 2013 well you can always suck on the vac line to see if it holds vacuum. and you'll need a fuel pressure tester to really check it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peacewize Posted January 3, 2013 Author Share Posted January 3, 2013 I got it! pull the vac line off the Fuel pressure regulator. if gas comes out theres your problem. i had this problem on the last spfi i had, wouldn't start easy and would idle like crap then stall out it slowly got worse and worse. till had to unplug the fuel pump to get it to start. That's not a green t shaped connection on the drivers firewall by chance is it? I plugged it together and I could hear my pump prime and then a squirt in the engine and then a couple seconds later it would do it again until I started it. I thought it was wierd so I unplugged it and left it how I found it. If so it looks about 99% it's my fpr unfortunately I looked them up and its around $100 for one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AKghandi Posted January 3, 2013 Share Posted January 3, 2013 green connector on the firewall is the check connector. if its plugged together, it does alot of things, it removes timing advance and will keep the fuel pump cycling among other things. it is meant for checking timing. It should not be plugged together on a normal basis. Hopefully someone will chime in and inform us what the other purpose's of the check connector is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peacewize Posted January 5, 2013 Author Share Posted January 5, 2013 So on my way to schmucks yesterday to rent a fuel pressure tester I mashed the gas in a last effort to try and have it do something while accelerating that would give me more insight to my problem but it didn't. It accelerated perfectly, and when I down shifted it was cruising perfectly. No hesitations or hiccups. I pulled over and let it idle for a bit and it ran fine in fact almost better like smoother. Drove all day without a hint of a problem. Randomly I would start it up and let it idle in disbelief as it ran flawlessly. The only logical conclusion I can come up with is something was in the fuel line that finally sucked through. If only I could fix everything like this anyways my real hope is that it won't give me any trouble until I can ej swap it later this year. Don't want to do it in haste because my cars dead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AKghandi Posted January 5, 2013 Share Posted January 5, 2013 haha it seems that these cars fix themselves sometimes, you just gotta show them who's boss. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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