I have an 89 Formula with a 305 TBI in it. When I first got it it ran fine on the way home, when I got it home I went to move it and it ran like crap. My buddy opened the hood and pointed out one plug wire was arcing on the manifold. I taped it up, obviously not too professional but I wanted to see if it would work, and that didn't help any. I changed the plugs as well, still no help. I gave up on the car and planned to sell it, but now I'm back from college on winter break with a renewed interest in taking this car back to school. I don't know if changing the plug wires will help or if it's something else. It idles kind of ok until I put it in gear (auto), then it bogs down. When I try to drive it, it has NOOOO power when I give it gas, I have to push the pedal back and forth to ease power into it or it will stall. There is also a tick coming from the timing chain cover so I think it needs a timing chain as well that I plan on changing, I was just hoping to get it drivable to get it to a mechanic to change since I have limited time. I was also thinking it could be the distributor or the cap/rotor. Any help on this matter would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks!

 

do a general tune up. new plugs, cap, rotor, then check your firing order.

 

OK, will do. I'll let ya know how it turns out.

 

if nothing else works try the egr valve i had that same problem before and the egr valve was stuck open.

 

So it turns out it wasn't the car, I'm just an idiot who didn't calculate things. 5 dollars of fuel, or about 2 gallons at the time I brought it home, and about 30 miles. I put some STP gas treatment to get the bad stuff out of what old gas remained and put in about 5 gallons of midgrade fuel and now it runs fine. Lol all that time I thought it was broke. Thanks a lot guys, and I'll be sure to check and make sure the EGR valve is ok too!