TheAbsence

iTrader: (19)

I'll give you background information just in case it helps diagnose the problem. My car, an 87 FC N/A ran fine until about two weeks ago when the alternator died, so I swapped it over to an s5 alternator and it worked great. I took it out for a drive, was at a stoplight, and got rear ended by of course - an uninsured motorist. It was a minor hit but it messed up my rear bumper pretty bad and bent a couple flanges in the exhaust system, which I got fixed yesterday.

The Problem:
Ever since the crash, I'll be cruising and the car will get major hesitations and stop accelerating. It sounds like someone is spitting very rapidly out my exhaust because theres lots of pops coming from it. This hesitation has happened anywhere from cruising at 2k rpm to WOT at 6k rpm. Originally I thought it was maybe my injector wiring clips that I hadn't put back on after I tinkered with the intake manifolds a couple months ago and that maybe the crash made one of them loose, but I found the loose one and put my last remaining clip on it and the car is still hesitating. [I'm looking to buy a few more of those clips by the way, PM me.] I checked out my car at school this morning because I put the injector clip on last night and thought that would solve the problem but no. I popped my hood, and reattached the two rubber hoses that connect to the pipe that runs to the catalytic converter that evidently the exhaust shop didn't put back on yesterday. I drove it home and the car only hesitated once, whereas it has done it 20+ times each trip to school since the accident. I don't know if this is related, but those are pretty significant results, but it still hesitated.

Thanks guys!

RotaryRocket88

iTrader: (7)

Well, the gas tank and fuel pump are in the affected area. Check out the fuel pump assembly, fuel lines, etc... to be sure nothing was tweaked in the accident.

TheAbsence

iTrader: (19)

Well I took my dad out to drive my car to show him, and before we pulled out of the neighborhood he smelled gasoline so we drove it back to the house to check it out first. I can't smell gasoline after driving my car over the years between the fuel and exhaust leaks so I'm glad he smelled it. I popped the hood and found the leaking fuel line. It was right underneath the upper intake manifold and I think it connected to the secondary fuel rail. I replaced it and then ran out of time that day so I couldn't rip into the gas tank to check out the fuel pump. Well I test drove my car a couple times to see if the fuel leak was indeed fixed and that it wasn't leaking again. I couldn't get the car to replicate the problem and I've been driving it for a few days now and it hasn't done it since I replaced that fuel line. I didn't think that would fix it, even after discovering the leak. It must have been pretty darn bad, but still - bizarre. I guess the accident that correlated perfectly with the engine shuttering was just an odd coincidence.

RotaryRocket88, thanks for your assistance!