I went to autozone to buy the ignition switch for the 89. the guy there told me that it could also be the ECM. I beginning to think that this may be the problem. Remember i said the engine was a transplanted 93 TBi 350 from a truck? (see post "Weird starting problem...Getting tired of it!") well, when that was done, would it have been necesary to change the ECM since it went from 305 TBI to a 350 TBI? the car already had the transplant when i bought it, and i don't think the previous owner changed the ECM for the swap. is there any way i can find out if the ECM is causing this problem? if i get a new ECM, what kind of ECM should i ask for? if i ask for a 350 they're gonna give me one for the TPI because from what i know, they didn't make a 350 TBI. although i could be wrong. please let me know. any and all input is greatly appreciated!

another thing...today for the first time, it died on me while driving on the street. i was about to turn when i felt that i lost power to the brakes and steering. sure enough it had died. wouldn't start in neutral until after a couple of tries. after it started in surged a few times. it would like turn off but turn back on before going completely dead. it was weird and kind of hard to describe. sorry i made it so long, just that i'm getting really tired of it and want to get it fixed pronto! know what i mean? thanks again for any advice.

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"WARNING: Objects in mirror are about to disappear VERY quickly!"

 

Check out my response to your overheating and starter problems question; it may help out a little. I read that section first, so I didn't know what the original engine was. I thought it might have been a V6, since some of the RS's came with them. One of my suspicions was correct. The ecm from the 305 is set up for that engine's requirements, one of the most important being fuel management. I think you are running into a lean condition. Your 350 may be getting just enough fuel at idle, but when you start to get up in mph, I think that the engine is being starved (that might be the reason that the engine is dying on you). I think that since the original engine was a 305 I feel that the fuel pump and fuel lines should be similar if not the same for the 350. You may want to check to see if the pump is different or if the size of the fuel line is different from the 305 and 350. If the car had come with a V6 I'd really be concerned about that.

A quick thing about a car dying. A bad Throttle Position Sensor will cause a car to idle very rough (acting like it wants to shut down). It can also cause an engine to die at idle. The driver just twists the key and the car will fire right up. If you're every next to a car that's doing that you'll know. The driver will usually hit the gas when the light turns green so that the engine doesn't die.

I had a catalytic converter go bad on my first car, an 84 z28. I didn't know what was wrong at the time. The symptoms: When I was at freeway speeds (60mph or so) the car wouldn't want to go past a certain mph (that I knew it could do). She would hesitate the more I pushed. As time went on the car wouldn't go past 50mph, then 40mph, and so forth. Then she just started dying while moving. She died one final time and wouldn't start up again until I took the cat off. I don't think that this is you're car's problem since it started from idle on up. But, I guess the more we know the better off we are.