Hey. I just bought a 1987 gl sedan a few days ago, with all intentions of lifting it and such. I am trying to get it running first off, and i bought it knowing it had this problem. The car hesitates. You can get it going, but when giving it anymore than about 1/4-1/2 throttle, it will rev up to about 3000 and then hesitate, sounds like it might be missing even, but at this mark it runs pretty rough and cuts out. If you feather the throttle it will eventually rev up past 4000, where it seems to run fine. Idle isnt perfect but vould be better. The guy I bought it from put a brand new carb on it, new fuel filter, fuel pump and ignition wires. We took it and redid the timing, thinking that was the issue, and it didnt help. We also changed the distributor with no effect either. We've checked all of the vacuum hoses we could think of as well as bellows in the vacuum system. Nothing has made it run like it should. What else could it possibly be? We are stumped.

Change the spark plugs.

 

Make sure the accl. pump in the carb squirts.

make sure the timing belts are not out of phase. the cams should be opposing eachother

Thanks for the quick replies!

We took the air filter off and could see the fuel being sprayed into the carb in the primary. I did wonder if it was the secondary fuel jet that may not be spraying any fuel, but since the guy i bought it from put 2 brand new carbs (he thought the carb was the problem) i dont think something is wrong with the carb, however something could be wring and I just dont know what. Also we checked the spark plugs and they looked new. We also ran a compression check and got 130 across all 4. any other ideas?

Yea I would re-check the Cam timing/timing belts, since you could be a tooth off. Also possibly run some Seafoam thru the air intake, whichever way you want, Down the carb, Thru the brake booster, thru a PCV hose, your choice. I ran 1/2 can Seafoam thru the booster and let the engine stall on it and then let it sit for 15-20min then re-fire it (It will blow alot of white smoke, due to the Seafoam being in the air system, but will all blow out in a few min of run time) And then see if this fixes your issue, if not - its still a good idea to clean out any carbon build up in the engine.

 

-Tom

maybe the carb is running on the choke circuit. make sure the anti-diesel solenoid is working. it shuts off fuel to the bowl when the car is not running.

 

if you had no electrical going to the carb, it will run off the choke circuit and idle like crap, run very rich

 

I had an 86 3door with carb issues. no amount of cleaning the carb helped, until i replaced the INTAKE GASKETS. now the car runs 99% correctly on old varnished gas

. Also we checked the spark plugs and they looked new.

 

Doesn`t mean a thing.

Doesn`t mean a thing.

 

Man,change the Sparks Plugs First thing. They short out sometimes. The bad one May look brand new. Meanwhile,your spending money replacing everything else.

Ok so its been awhile what with school and everything. We finally got it running. it was a vacuum hose on a little green switch looking unit on the left front side of the air cleaner. It can go all the way through the rpm's now, however it hesitates, or lurches forward under light acceleration and when trying to maintain a constant speed. Also it seems as if there is no power there ( i know these motors are no race motors) but its pretty sluggish. New spark plugs and disty cap and timing were all done. compression was 130 across the board (which is ok?). Any suggestions would be great on what to do next. And again thanks for all the replies to the first problem. sooner I can get this thing running right the sooner i can lift it

-Jeff

Just install a Weber - you'll want it with the lift anyway. The EA82 Hitachi's are really boring - very sluggish - dangerously so with a lift. A Weber will make it a whole different car.

 

GD

your compression looks good. if you continue to have trouble, spray some carb cleaner around the intake gaskets. it wouldn't hurt to do them anyway, as was in my case.

Thats what we have been doing.. going through while its idling rough, spraying carb cleaner around to see if it would smooth out. nothing yet, but there are still a few various emissions things to check too. Would it be worth it to put a weber on when in the long run I plan on an ej22 swap?

Thanks again, Jeff