went to start my car after going to town a few days ago, and it was an extremely rough idle and when I hit the gas, it felt like it didnt want to go. Parked it and checked the oil, and there was no oil in it, cant for the life of me figure out why, I check it weekly and it was fine the week prior. So I get some oil and fill it up, then I have a vaccum leak, which was a dry rotted hose going into the upper part of the plenum on the pass. side. Started the car up and its still an extremely rough idle and it shuts off if I dont press the gas. Would this mean my engine is about to lock up from lack of oil? Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks.

 

as a rule it's a bad idea run an engine without oil. how much oil did it take to bring the oil back up on the stick to where it should of been

 

3 quarts and it was back on the dipstick where it should be, as I said I check the oil weekly and last week it was fine, I wouldnt knowingly run it without oil hehe.

 

Anyone? im really at a loss here on what I should do, please help!

 

any kind of metallic knocking sound? if so you have probably done it it. check your oil pressure too when running ,is it good?if it's low , that's a bad thing also. good luck to ya , dude.

 

oil pressure is good when its running, no knocking coming from the engine, just a real rough idle and it stalls if im not giving it gas, and when I give it gas it acts like it doesnt want it.

 

sounds like something else to me . maybe check fuel pressure and spark. it would make really bad noises if the motor was gonna let go on ya. need to find where all that oil went, pull your spark plugs and see if they're oily

 

pulled 3 plugs today, some oil around them, nothing drastic (but then again, I dont know much about this). They were quite nasty looking, I have a pic of the 3 I pulled, dont know if this will help. Also, would there be a possibility of having bad gas? I had just filled up also before this started happening, and is there any way to check the fuel filter, or would it be easier to just replace it? Thanks again!
Edit: pulled the pics, dont seem to need em.

 

how long has it been since you had a tune up ?

 

well the guy told me it had just been tuned up when he sold it to me, which was nov 03, I really didnt start driving it until around april of this year, so Ive never tuned it up, didnt know the plugs looked that bad either. I plan to tune it up, depending on whats wrong with it at the moment though.

 

Well, I changed out the plugs and wires, distributer cap and rotor button, it sounds better on the start up, but still stalls out, giving it gas its still hesitant, but not as much. I did find one spark plug that was just covered in sludge, looked like thick oil. Any ideas as to what else could be wrong? Thanks in advance.

 

Try running a double-dose of Techron in the gas. You may have some clogged injectors. When was the last time the fuel filter was changed?

Is the SES light coming on? any codes?


don't let that oil get so damned low!!!

If you are fouling plugs, you have a rings or valve stem seal problem.

 

I just changed the filter, no change in the way the car acts. The car does smoke when it starts up, im assuming because of leaking valve seals, but ive never had a problem with it. Any chance I got some bad gas? I did just fill up right before this started happening, going to try some gas treatment and fuel injection cleaner and see if that helps any. Thanks for the info.

 

ok, I changed the fuel filter and added some gas treatment/fuel injection cleaner and still having problems, anymore ideas? Please help!

 

Your problem IS either...

1. Ignition timing slipped, maybe the guy didn't tighten the distributor enough.

2. Timing chain slipped. (this has happened to me on 305's more than once)

3. Fuel problem. (although I doubt it if it runs) Check to see if your mass airflow is disconnected or any other connectors missing.

 

Sweet, thanks ill do that today! Another friend told me to check the O-rings around the injectors to see if they were dry rotted and air was leaking in. I started it up this morning, and I can still hear a hiss coming from the engine comparment, but it wont idle long enough for me to stick my head under there. Thanks for the advice though RealPower!!!

 

ok, going on a friends recommendation I replaced the O rings in the injectors, which was a task, and a good learning experience, but I found a vaccum line coming from the throttle body that was cut in half and a shoddy job patching it up, so I fixed that also. I put everything back together and it fired right up, idled good, took gas well, but then I realized I hadnt plugged back in the air sensor? Coming from the air filters right in the middle there. So I plugged it back up and started it again and it stalled out on me and didnt want the gas, so I unplugged it again and it ran decent. Took it on a test drive and it runs good, but a little irratic, with the sensor unplugged, could this cause that? and Can I assume replacing the sensor will fix my problems? Thanks again!!!!

 

Yup, sounds like you need a replacement.