ok guys heres the deal, i bought some edelbrock tes heades for my car and installed them over a two day period, when i was finally finished i started it up, much to my dismay i discovered a hideous miss when i started down the road, the car vibrated and backfired. I found out that one of the spark plugs wires had been left unhooked, so i hooked it back up, still ran like crap then i found another plug wire unconnected, hooked that up STILL CRAP! ok so i was ready to get down to business i removed ALL the spark plugs (all are bradn new NGKs) and regapped them, i then discovered one of the boots was burnt i thought "YES , finally i found what the problem was" , so i got a spare wire and reconnceted everything. I started it up and heard that sweet sound i had been waiting for the sound of the exhaust gases passing through the edelbrock headers down through the gutted cat, and out of my hooker aerochamber exhaust system, but then as soon as i started down the road it did almost exactly the same thing it had been doing. So this is were im at, sounds good in park or neutral, but as soon as you start moving th entire car sudders and the engine lacks a TON OF POWER , not to mention that it sounds awful,also when i stop the car it dies and when i start it again it bangs really loud under the hood and smoke comes from the valve cover area, and after it did this once or twice it has developed a wistle coming from the valve cover/penum area AHHHHH WHATS WRONG? does anyone have any ideas? because im sick of not being able to drive my car, oh and by the way its an 86 IROC with a 305 TPI and auto tranny. Thanks for the input

 

Are any wires crossed?

 

Sounds like quite a problem you've got there. Did it act like this prior to the install? What kind of smoke is coming out? If it's oil, you may have excessive blowby and your pcv became disconnected, creating that whistling sound and a vacuum leak, which could potentially make the car stall. I'm pretty sure the problem is unrelated to the headers; it has to be something that happened before or during the install. Since you messed with the wires, are you sure the firing order is correct?

 

Possibly a broken valve spring. Pop the valvecovers off and have a view.

 

sounds to me like you just messed up the order in which the wires go. You have to be very carefull when you mess around with wires, i only take them loose one at a time, so that way you always know where they go.

That diagram up there should help you out a lot.

 

You might of burt some of the spark plug wires just enough to where its only arcing when there is more voltage going trew the wires at higher rpms.I dont know just an idea.

Also you could start the car at night wheres its completly dark outside and see if you see the spark arcing onto the headers or anywhere else on the car.

 

yeah you guys were right i had the number 3 and 5 cylinders crossed i went ahead and replaced the wires with some accel 300+ race wires and fired it up, oh my did it sound GOOD i took it down the street and nailed the gas and the car got sideways and the exhaust purred like it never has before, 60 mph has never come that fast , thanks for all the input!

 

Glad we could help.

I like it when people reply with the fix. Thank you.

 

ok guys ive got another question, now at stop lights my car idles real irradically, and then stalls, when i put it in neutral and start it up it goes up to almost 2000 rpm and just sits there until i pop it in gear and chirp the tires, what do you guys think it is? i know the car has some vacuum leaks could this be the problem?

 

a really big one, mabe

 

yeah....i'd consider it lucky if thats all the problems you have with vacuum leaks...