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EA82 bogs down, interesting find . . . help!


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Own: '87 EA82 auto, carbed, w OHC and denso ignition. . .

 

as part of my "i just bought a 110k used car tear down" i purchased new ngk's and ngk wires. prior to this i'd gone from top to bottom, replaced all gaskets except for head gaskets (no need to), all fluids, all filters, the accessory belts (timing belts were new when i got the car, but the water pump and "cam belts" were fubar'd- weird) water pump, thermosensor, new coil and battery, and full exhaust system, and the car was running pretty well except for at startup, which i assumed was normal.

 

yesterday i finally got around to what i figured as the "last step" replacing plugs and wires. i have the denso snap on type disty and the cap looked fairly new anyway, so i thought it was fine (oops).

 

**here's the point** :clap:

after checking for proper gap and torquing plugs in correctly, i modified those stupid ngk wires a bit (the boots on the plug end are sooo long the pushed the metal connection back off the plug! so i trimmed 1/4" off ea boot) and plugged those in, making sure that i plugged #1 into #1 and so on.

 

finished last project (yay!), lets take 'er out and drive . . . crank crank crank crank crank crank- nada! Sh*@! ok, recheck everything, try again . . . crank crank crank crank- nada! replace wires with old ones (because they worked) . . . nada. double check that i didn't disconnect any of the stupid vacuum hoses . . .nada. you get the point.

2 hours later, i notice after pulling that almost new disty cap that it's the wrong one (only had tab slot on one side, needed tab slot on both otherwise it would rotate slightly on the disty and wouldn't line up with the rotor correctly to generate spark . . . must've rotated when plugging and unplugging ngk wires i suppose) moron who worked on it before me put the wrong cap on it. firing order was even different :mad:

ran to napa, got correct cap and rotor, got home and slapped them on, and viola! we have life!! the car idled perfectly, couldn't wait to close the hood and go for that drive i was wanting to do 3 hrs ago . . .

get on the road and NOW its got a giant dead spot (lag, puke, whatever) in acceleration. it idles well, but from gently pushing on accelerator till almost flooring it (about 1500-2700 rpm) it stumbles and struggles and almost dies, once it finally reaches 2700 - 3000 rpm (we're talking a lag of about 5-6 seconds when floored) it runs stronger and smoother to almost redline than it ever had before, pulls like a mofo, feels like i could actually reach the speed limit on the freeway :rolleyes:

 

W.T.F!!!??? i'm officially lost. could the moron mechanic who put on the wrong disty cap/rotor have had to mis-adjust the car just to get it to run that way and now its way off? did i do something wrong i'm not thinking of?

HHHHEEEEELLLLLPPPPP!

thanks

chris

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double check firing order, timing, vacuum leaks/hose routing, if any advancce machanism(vacuum and centrifical). Don't go looking for exotic stuff until the simple stuff has been double checked-get a second set of eyes if needed and let us know how it comes out.

 

Good luck!

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I've been battling the same type issue for awhile. Everything I did seemed to make it a bit better, but it never goes away. I have a few other theories, but you experience helps. Mine's a Loyale SPFI 5 spd. I'm currently leaning towards a spark issue - possibly a bad cap or rotor (both are new, BTW). I've yet to try a replacement, though.

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sounds like a vac. leak

 

Bingo!! Had one hose connected to the wrong place, i fixed it and now its good as new!

While i was busy disconnecting hoses, i got carried away and removed a whole bunch of these black plastic boxes :grin: , installed some quarters:clap: , pretty much followed the directions i found here by searching . . . amazing how much simpler "one line to the dash, one to the vaacum thingey on the firewall and brake booster, and re-plug the fuel breather line" was to follow when compared to that diagram on the hood, must've been some issue in translating the sticker into english :rolleyes:

 

chris

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