motor not running right, low idle, sounds sputtery 87 n/a
 

ok i need some help my car all of the sudden last night started acting up. its an 87 n/a wioth 199,000 mi on it (i know thats a lot but it ran perfect until yesterday) the idle has dropped from 800 to like 500 and the car has NO power when starting off and going up hills i need to rev the shit out it to start moving with out stalling like 3-4k. it sounds like it is barely running even by increasing the rpm it still sounds sputtery almost like its missing a spark or somthing. i also have a jacobs pro pack and i noticed the output light kinda flickering slightly, i got the engin to sound normal for a second by pressing on the gas and reving it a couple of times. but only lasted a sec or two, also during that sec or 2 the output light on the ign. pack stayed on steady.
is the ign pack bad?
is it somthing to do with the plugs??
please help me out and give me some ideas to check.

Check the compression

Re: motor not running right, low idle, sounds sputtery 87 n/a
 

Probably a bad motor....

Sounds like an ignition problem. Do you a have a timing light (inductive)? You can use a timing light to test for consistent spark at low rpm. If you can put your car on a scope that would be ideal. My 1st gen used to run this way when I got water on the distrubuter cap.

check your coils.

What about the injectors?? Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't the secondaries start firing around 3800 RPM? If you start to get power up that high, maybe you're not getting a good spray of fuel from the primaries??

well here is a new thing i was ruinning the car to like the store and it got worse very noticably, i live on a hill and the only way i could get up it was to be in first gear with the pedal to the floor and that got me to about 10-15 mph :( with the motor back firing when i let up on the gas or pressed it further.
on the highway on the way home i was in 3rd gear and with the pedal to the floor only got up to about 60-70 mph but as the road went up a hill (not very steep) the care slowed at about 1-2 mph per second down to 40 mph.

any new thoughts??
i am getting a timing light to check that.
but how would i check the coils?
i pulled the plug wires off the primary coil and got a nice spark show :)
but as i pulled them off one by one they didn't really seem to make DIFFERENCE IN MOTOR IDLE.
thanks for the help so far :)

Just buy a 29.95 compression tester.
When the compression is low, you can pull your plug wires off that rotor and it wont make a difference.

you too?
 

hey man, im having the exact same problem with my 86. It looks to me as if I blew the seal in the rear rotor. if you haven't already checked your AFM, try that it might be stuck. does you car like to stall often now?

ok well i say this advice and took it:
Pull the EGI fuse. Pull the plug wires off all plugs. Now ,remove one of the FRONT ROTOR's plugs.. just one...so you have 3 left in. Get your buddy to crank the engine.. Have him floor it while he cranks it to allow more air in. you should hear (real fast), "psst psst psst psst psst psst" over and over.. if you hear this, the apex seals are likely still intact.

What you do NOT want to hear is "psst pfff pfff pssst pff pffff".. Note the difference. The "psst" is a sharper sound, and the "pfff" will sound weaker. That likely means that an apex seal is gone.. If you hear "psst psst pfff psst psst pfff", it could be a side seal, but that's unlikely.

Now that you know your front rotor is good (it will be.. it's almost ALWAYS the rears that go), put the plug back in and do the same thing for the rear rotor..


here is what i got when i did this on my front rotor masive bursts of air from the plug hole, loud!!
when i did this on my read rotor 1/4 the sound really low sounded dead
i guess this means my rear rotor seals are gone :(

I have an 87 block in my garage that just needs a rebuild..interested..??

How much would you be willing to sell that block for?

what about really loud pops out of the exhaust??? I'm getting something very similar. Wife told me its shooting flames too.
Got fuel cut cause of bad omp. Just need to drive it home(less than a mile) but there is a hill and a stop sign. Any suggestions?????

if you think it's the ignition unit just unplug the jacobs from the power pak and plug the coil into itself it will be obvious. i had a slightly similar problem with my power pAck but mine wanted to die alot. i called jacobs and they told me to do that the car started right up pluged the power pak back together and all was well their explaination was the paks do that sometimes? weird

james