okay...i just bought the car and i am plagued with what seems to be electric issues , she runs fine at idle in park/neutral...for the first 5-10 mins of drive time she shifts ok(not perfect) and has very good power...after that she is a dog and wont accelerate past 55 mph or so when i give it WOT or close to it...and she stalls on me at stop lights...she also seems to hang onto gears way too long...is this my transmission causing the problems or is it something else.????

i will also add she has a new fuel filter and i can always hear the pump engage properly,previous owner replaced iac,map,and tps sensors and the only code she throws at me (with the paperclip trick is 45 which means the mixture is too rich) please help me i love this car and would love to see her to her full potential (also maybe will help has 305 tpi)

 

Could be a simple as a bad O2 sensor. Your car is in OPEN LOOP when you first start it up. During this time your computer is not recieving info from your O2 sensor. Once it warms up, your O2 sensor "comes alive" and your computer goes into CLOSED LOOP. If the info your O2 sensor is sending is bad, you will have all kinds of issues. An overly rich mixture woud be one of them. Good luck!

 

thanks...but do you think this would cause the stalling and lack of power?

 

As far for it stalling when you come to a stop, maybe your Torque Convertor is not unlocking. I just had this issue with a buddy of mine's truck. I had him unplug the wire to the TCC solenoid and drive it around for a bit. Had him plug it back up and then put some trans treatment in the fluid, and he has not be having anymore issues with it. Could be the solenoid has become stuck or lines clogged.
May not be your problem, but this truck had the same symptoms as you described.

 

THANKS...its a 700r4 trans as far as i know im a bit of a newcomer to the electronic age of vehicles ...(my other car is a carbed 72 nova with t350 and lt1 350 bolted up) so i am clueless where all this crap is ...maybe you know where i can find the solenoid? and or where and what lines are clogged?

 

The truck had the 700R4 as well. The plug is located on the drivers side toward the back of the trans, it is a four pin plug. I just had him drive it around for a bit unplugged (won't hurt it). It never started running better until after he plugged it back in, he put some trans treatment in it afterwards and it has been fine. From what I understand the solenoid is not hard to change, it is just right inside of the pan. Look up how to test the circuit as well to make sure you have power to the solenoid. Any clogging will be on the inside of the valve body probably, so maybe a good filter and fluid change is in order, maybe even have someone flush it?

 

thanks for your help jwallace...do a trans filter change on my days off this week (lol sux with no garage doing it on my back in a gravel driveway haha) but thanks for your input i hope it helps my car...do you happen to know anything about speed sensors?

 

No problem.

Don't know to much about speed sensors..

 

You refer to the car a "she" many times so maybe it's that time of month?

Sorry I had too!

Check mechanical things as well like charging system, if it's low or wanders it will through all EFI stuff off.

Check fuel presuure.

Check vacuum reading. What is it? Is it steady at idle?

 

I would consider your Coolant Temp Sensor (CTS) possibly at fault.

It has a lot to do with the fuel mixture based on temperature.

Pretty cheap to replace.

 

i think it may be a combo of things such as coolant temp sensor(fans dont kick on but when jumped they work beautifully which tells me the sensor is bad) as well as o2 sensors bc the code it threw me with a paper clip is 45...so ill replace them and give the tranny a new filter and new fluid ....anybody k now about VSS? i replaced the sensor and my speedo still doesnt work i do not wanna track wires and such to find a short maybe is there a fuse?or relay? im lost with the electronic aspect ... i miss the good ole gas guzzlin carb days no computers only fuel and power bahahah

 

Pretty sure a code 45 is "Oxygen Sensor Rich". That does not mean the O2 sensor is bad. It's telling you the motor is running rich! So it could be a faulty Coolant Tempreture Sensor (CTS). The ones that I have seen go bad have all shown to be Max Cold which tells the ECM it's -40F. You can check the CTS with an OHM meter. But it is a very cheap sensor to buy, usually like $10. But that is still a guess and not a diagnoses...

 

i figured this could be an issue due to what ive read however i will replace thme because previous owner i guess broke a wire at somepoint installing a sound system and spliced it , i know thats not always a problem but id rather it not become a problem , my brother has bran new o2 sensors he never installed in his camaro so if theyre free i figue why not..and yes ive found the cts for 10$'s so ill replace that and see what it does, i really wish i had to money to lay it up in a professional garage and have them diagnose it but i am a midclass construction worker who knows a fair amount about mechanics so i will (although i dont like to) try little things like these sensors before i put big money into it

 

That's the point I was trying to make, no need to throw big money at it. Just ask around here how to diagnose it, you'll get an answer. Right now your throwing money at stuff and not sure if it's the problem. Luckily you picked two cheap parts! O2 about $25 and CTS like $10. But if they are good you still wasted money...

Do you have an OHM meter? If so hook it up to the two probes coming out of the CTS on the intake manifold. What does it read? I'll look it up and tell you, it should read about the ambient tempreture outside converted from OHMS. I have a chart here.

 

i dont but im going to borrow a friends on friday to check, do you use an ohm meter to check tps as well? ive heard if theyre not just right it can cause running problems like the ones im experiencing

 

TPS you check with an MultiMeter set on volts. Should be close to .54 at idle and swing up to around 4.5 to 5. volts WOT. It's that easy to check some of this stuff.

 

Look at the bottom part of this writeup and it tells how to check the TPS.

https://www.thirdgen.org/tpimod2

Here's the OHM readings for the CTS

Coolant sensor approximate resistance specifications:
177 ohms @ 212 deg. F. or 100 deg. C.
241 ohms @ 194 deg. F. or 90 deg. C.
332 ohms @ 176 deg. F. or 80 deg. C.
467 ohms @ 158 deg. F. or 70 deg. C.
667 ohms @ 140 deg. F. or 60 deg. C.
973 ohms @ 122 deg. F. or 50 deg. C.
1188 ohms @ 113 deg. F. or45 deg. C.
1459 ohms @ 104 deg. F. or 40 deg. C.
1802 ohms @ 95 deg. F. or 35 deg. C.
2238 ohms @ 86 deg. F. or 30 deg. C.
2796 ohms @ 77 deg. F. or 25 deg. C.
3520 ohms @ 68 deg. F. or 20 deg. C.
4450 ohms @ 59 deg. F. or 15 deg. C.
5670 ohms @ 50 deg. F. or 10 deg. C.
7280 ohms @ 41 deg. F. or 5 deg. C.
9420 ohms @ 32 deg. F. or 0 deg. C.
12300 ohms @ 23 deg. F. or -5 deg. C.
16180 ohms @ 14 deg. F. or -10 deg. C.
21450 ohms @ 5 deg. F. or -15 deg. C.
28680 ohms @ -4 deg. F. or -20 deg. C.
52700 ohms @ -22 deg. F. or -30 deg. C.
100700 ohms @ -40 deg. F. or - 40 deg. C.

 

awesome..now when i check tps for wot is that while running of just with the ignition to the "on" posistion but engine off? people have told me to do both but im pretty sure its either one or the other?

 

Key on, engine off!

 

thank you ... it seemed kinda fishy to run the car like that for no reason id be too afraid to blow a main bearing doing that..but thank you im gonna hook it up friday and see what happens

 

TTT ..... looking for more thoughts on the problems listed?

 

Well is the check engine light on all the time?

When you turn the key on, does the check engine light come on, then off, then back on till you start the engine?

since it's running rich and seems like the previous owner was having issues too, one thing that could make it run rich is the fuel pressure, so what is the fuel pressure?

Wondering if the previous owner had changed the injecotrs? If he replaced them with bigger ones that could be an issue.

Is the motor stock?

What is the vacuum reading at idle warmed up? Is it steady? Or does it shake?

Hope that helps...

 

this is all usefull and i will trouble shoot it...but what i can tell you is the sel light comes on normally but shuts off after a few seconds of running(seems normal to me) it comes on after maybe 10-15 mins drive time then will shut off a few minutes later and wont be on when i restrt the car...im going to get a tester to check my fuel pressure it is kind of pointing towards maybe a bad regulator..i dont think the p.o changed injectors they all look stock and as far as i can tell the engine is bone stock...i will however be doing a semi tune up this weekend (pulling intake off and cleaning out the runners/plenum the best i can...im going to replace the egr(if its reeeaaal bad otherwise ill give that a cleaning),ill check vaccum lines and (obviously) new intake gaskets..on top of that im going to replace plugs/inspect old ones..maybe go an msd cap/rotor/coil (why not is relatively inexpensive and the coil will help burn more effeciently (so ive heard through this site so i trust giving is a shot)...after all that i will inspect wiring and test, tps,vss connection,cts and a few other things like relays,fuel pump (as soon as i learn procudure how to test that without dropping tank and pulling unit) .... do you know what injectors are stock? 19lbs right?

 

how do i check vaccum at idle? brake booster? and i havent really paid attn. to the sel when on but not running but i think it stays on?i will confirm this tomorrow when i look at it..i will keep updated as i replace/troubleshoot/check things thanks you are really helpin out like i said i am used to old school carbs no computers awith ont electric from battery to alt to distributer lol and very few vaccums so this 3rd gen deal is new to me

 

That sounds like a lot of unnecessary work and may cause another issue... if it were me I would get this problem fixed first...

Checking vacuum reading is just like a carb, have to find a port, or tee into one. Checking that and fuel pressure along with looking at exactly what the CEL is doing first is pretty simple...

Vacuum leak to the MAP sensor could cause this rich problem too... I'm not familar with your car so I don't know what injectors come stock, or if it's a MAF or SD system...

 

no maf...its runs a map system so that brings up another valid point...ive owned import cars that gave me problems with a bad vaccum line to the map...only reason i am gonna pull apart the intake is becase its simple and because when i opened throttle body and looked in with a light i saw mega carbon in there past the throttle body so my friend will hot tank it for me at clear it out plus thats the only way i can access my egr and some vaccum lines (will test fuel psi and other things before i do any of that though)

 

Yes 19# injectors in a 305.

Did you get a chance to check the fuel pressure yet? It should be ~42-47 psi when the engine is running above idle. Leave the gauge attached to the fuel rail then stop the engine and note how quickly the fuel pressure drops off. If it doesn't hold for at least 20 seconds your old injectors may be leaking.

I had to replace all my injectors because 4 of 8 were literally dripping fuel into the runners. It ran in this rich condition but not very well and eventually everything was covered in carbon...sounds familiar.