Hey fellas, I just finished replacing the engine in my 91 RS, and I'm having a bit of trouble. The car will barely start, and if it does, it never gets above 600 rpms, I need to lightly press the gas to get it to fire, once its running I can put my foot to the floor or completely let off and it just sits chugging at 600 (won't rev AT ALL), then stalls out after about 10 seconds. I know its getting fuel and spark, because we've had a flame fire out of the manifold once. That was exciting. Any idea what it could be? Fuel filter? There is ****-tons of fuel getting into the TBI, so I was doubting it. It still backfires occasionally. If the distributor was 180* off, it wouldn't start, correct? Any help would be greatly appreciated, as I'd like to finally drive this car.

 

Did you buy/build the engine? Set the valve lash set correctly? What cam are you using?

 

You may not have your timing set quite right to get it running smooth enough to warm up and set the base timing exactly where you want it. Have you thrown a timing light at it yet?

 

Timing

 

The engine is just another 305 TBI out of another Camaro. It ran when it was in the donor car.

I tried a timing light, its a bit difficult when the engine only runs for 10 second intervals, but it read roughly 2* advanced.

 

I'd try moving the distributor around alittle to see if it will run better.

 

Leave it slightly loose. Have someone fire it up and turn the distributer a little with the engine running. You can only do 1 of two things, make it run better or make it run worse.

 

Good idea, unfortunately one we already tried. I think, but am not sure, that I may have been an idiot and put the distributer in backwards, although I thought I had been careful not to. I'm going to spin the engine to 0* TDC tomorrow with a breaker bar and double check. I

It would make my day if it was that easy a fix.

 

If you find TDC on #1 make sure you time off of number 6. Or find TDC of #6 and time off #1.

 

#1 and #6 are at TDC at the same time. The trick is finding out when they're at TDC on the firing stroke.

 

Fixed! Found a loose vacuum line. Mwah-ha-ha. Took it for a break-in cruise this afternoon with the top down.