ill be driving my car for about 15 mins and as soon as i stop at a light or soemthing for a min the ses light comes on and stays on but whn i turn the car off and back on its off and stays off untill i stop again for a few min what is causing this?

 

The ECM. It's unhappy about something.

What's the code(s)?

 

i dont have a scaner so i dont no

 

You dont need a scanner you just jump the diagnostic terminal under the dash.

 

how do u do that?

 

https://www.thirdgen.org/newdesign/faq/thirdgen.shtml bottom of the page

 

Check the Manifold Differential Presure Sensor

Thats what mine was doing too.

 

exhaut manifolds? i have headers now...where would the sensor be?

 

Forget that sensor for a minute. That sort of thing is merely a descent into "maybe it's this, maybe it's that, I'll just start replacing them both" hell. You'll NEVER get the car running right that way; most likely, you'll end up buying a whole car one piece at a time by taking that approach, and the very last piece will turn out to be the one that's been broken all along.

Start at the beginning, which is, ask the ECM to confess what exactly it is complaining to you about.

Step 1: What are the error codes?

 

im geting code 23 and 33

just to make sure i did it right...it blinks once then pause the blinks 2 times which equals 12? after it does thast 3 times it will blink 2 times then pause then blink 3 times to equal 23? and it did that 3 times and then blinked 3 pause then 3 to equal 33?

when i was doing this the fans also came on

 

Yup, that's exactly right.

So, look up on that list, and see what those codes are.

Remember, the codes don't mean "replace the so-and-so"; they mean that whatever the ECM is seeing from those things, doesn't make sense. So for instance a code for "rich oxygen sensor reading" doesn't mean "change the oxygen sensor"; rather, it might mean you have a very leaky injector. And so forth.

 

23. Low temperature at manifold air temperature sensor

33. High voltage (low vacuum) at mass air flow sensor (or MAP sensor)

Sounds like you forgot to reinstall a few sensors after installing a cold air intake.

 

i dont have a cold air intake i have the maf still hooked up and the stock air box

and i got rid of my air pump cause i have headers but i never got the code till now...i jsut rebuilt the motor

 

Low temp at air temp sensor = wire is unplugged (makes the ECM see "absolute zero"; similarly, the wires shorted would make it see "surface of the sun") Find the wires and hook them back up

This being a 87, it'll have a MAF; so disregard the MAP thing. It doesn't apply to your car. That code list covers a variety of year models and cars.... they re-used the same trouble codes, there being only just so many 2-digit numbers, but gave them different meanings. Check your MAF wiring carefully, especially the plug where the wires plug into it. If that doesn't fix it, try swapping around the relays on the firewall; there's about 3 or 4 of them there, 2 of them control the MAF, and if you just exchange them all in the same direction (say, one position to the right, take the rightmost one and put it in the leftmost postion) and it either starts working right or something else goes wrong, then you know it's relays; if so, go buy one, and use it to replace them one at a time until you hit the bad one. The MAF might be bad, but it'd really suck to go buy some $300 part and it not fix the issue.

 

To test the maf you can simply tap the handle of a screwdriver on the assembly if the motor studders or dies bad maf.

 

where is the air temp sensor?

 

the motor hesitates when i give it gas from idle now to it was fine when i first ran the motor

 

The MAT is under the plenum facing up. Right in front of the distrubuter.

 

its the 2 wires going into the plenum?

 

anyone? i had to redo those 2 wires cause i riped it out when i took the tpi off and i might have mixed the wires around