idles great, stalls in gear, then has no pull...help?
 

hey everyone,
im new to this forum. my car is an 86 iroc, 305 TPI.
i just had my intake manifold gasket replaced. im having a little trouble figuring out this problem. when i start it up it idles fine, but once i throw it into gear it bogs down to about 400-500 rpm. i can see my lights dim down as the rpm dies. after i give it some gas to save it from stalling i run into another issue. i find that the car has ZERO pull. i can floor it and it just doesnt react, and when it finally kicks into passing gear, it doesnt speed up, it just revs with no power. on a side note, i warmed it up this morning and later in the day my dad came home to a house with a carbon monoxide alarm going off. i was in the driveway with the garage open for less than 3 or 4 minutes.

i am wondering if the timing may be off and the cam is just a small dregree from closing my valves completely. the distributor had to be removed to take off the intake manifold itself. does this sound plausible?

Re: idles great, stalls in gear, then has no pull...help?
 

If the lights are dimming before it stalls could be a bad alternator.

For the acceleration issue I would think a clogged fuel filter could be your problem. It probably is due for replacement anyway so its a good place to start.

However, if this started right after the intake gasket install then could be a vacuum leak.

Is the service engine soon light on?

Re: idles great, stalls in gear, then has no pull...help?
 

Vacuum leak would not indicated good idle like he mentioned, like stated dim lights could be bad alternator, check the current at the alternator at idle. As for the bogging issue check your fuel pressure, plugs, and timing, could be an off chance they set the timing wrong, should be 6 degrees

Re: idles great, stalls in gear, then has no pull...help?
 

You're right, a vacuum leak would probably idle high and erratic.

One other thing to check is that the distributor hold down clamp is tight.

Re: idles great, stalls in gear, then has no pull...help?
 

okay so biggest thing i found today was that i had a short in harness the also sends wires to my alternator. also (stupid me) i found the kick down wire that attatches to my throttle body with my throttle cables. it was off to the side. so that issue is fixed. the only thing is the stalling when i throw it into gear still. i checked during idle and my alternator is charging my battery. any suggestions what the urge to stall might be?
on a side note. thanks everyone for the extremely quick responses. its greatly apprectiated

Re: idles great, stalls in gear, then has no pull...help?
 

again check fuel pressure, with the key on only, at idle and during throttle. start with the basics as it could be a number of things, check plugs to see if your running lean, and is your engine light on, check the codes

Re: idles great, stalls in gear, then has no pull...help?
 

check your EGR for functionality...