I know that I've already posted this, but I really need some help on this. When I crank the engine, it trys to start but when I let off the starter, it just sputters and dies. Sometimes it will run very weakly until I give it gas, then it will die. I'm thinking its either one of the vacuum lines, carb not giving engine enough gas to keep it running, or i need to do an ATF treatment. I bought the car recently. Had a bad igniter, replaced it and hoped it was all that was wrong, nope. When it went out, the previous owner said he was driving to work, it was very wet and raining, the engine started running weak, and then just sputtered and died. After replacing the igniter and trying to start a couple times, I pulled the plugs and checked them, the top two had a lot of gas/oil in them. Could the plugs just be fouled and need replaced? Any help would be appreciated.

-Matt

 

pull the air can and have someone watch the carb to see if its spraying fuel. vacuum line isn't real expensive so you could replace those while you're in there, spice the engine up with some color. judging from your plugs its running rich and ruining the plugs.

 

The carb is giving fuel fine. Vaccum lines seem fine, didn't see any cracks at all. I put new plugs in, and it REALLY wanted to start, but still didnt. I think I just need to do a MMO treatment, picked up a bottle of it today. I'm gonna start the MMO treatment tomorrow. Hopefully this will fix it.

 

hehe maybe its your compression have it checked....mine did that and i found out the engine was dead

 

have you checked the starter? i just thought of that.....or maybe the solenoid?when teh solenoid is dead it usuallyjust makes a clicking noise when you try to turn it over.....at least thats what it did in the seven...but in the mustang when the solenoid died it gave the same symptoms yours did...

 

starter is fine, i mean, it REALLY wants to start, the engine cranks, it fires, and will stay on for a couple secs after you let off the ignition, but it just wont start up completely. My guess is, when it stopped running, the igniter went bad, and the previous owner tried to crank it and give it gas, which flooded the engine. It sat flooded for 4 months until i bought it, now the engine needs cleaned out with MMO to get it running again. Does that sound right?

 

I would try mmo as it sounds like it might be flooded.
It won't hurt anything to try it.

 

or you could always do what felix had me do when my engine was flooded.....before i figured out it was too far gone anyway he had me unplug the fuel line *take out console behind front seat and there will be a big whie connector* then remove spark plugs and just kinda turn it over i should say and the extra junk will come flying out of it....hehe when i did it gas went everywhere so be careful!

 

It it was flooded four months ago, and no one has tried starting it since, it is not still flooded.
Start with a basic tune up, you really can't narrow it down until you do that...
Replace:
Distributor cap
Distributor rotor
All of the plug/coil wires
Sparkplugs
Air Cleaner element
Fuel filter
and you should probably replace the vacuum hoses anyway, even though they look good doesn't mean they are good.

Do all this, see if it starts, if not post again, we will figure it out.
hanman