well i have an 85 firebird and about a week ago i noticed a popping in the exaust not an exaust leek. it was only under accelartion. the first thing that came to mind is plugs or wires, so i changed them. didnt fix it. so i looked to the cap and roter. they looked fine. but my dad gave me a mallory distributer so i put it in any ways. but in my car the old distributor is an eletronic advance and the new one is vacume advance. i unhooked the eletronic advance and hokked the vacume advance. the car runs now but i still have the popping noise and it runs way rich. i dont know what to check now i dont want to check the carb cause i changed the ignition. what can i do?????

 

Welcome aboard thirdgen.org.

Put the original distributor back in. You need the electronic distributor to tell the computer what speed the engine is running.

Do a compression test. If you need more details on that, check a shop manual or ask. If the readings don't improve with the wet test, you have burnt valves, most likely exhaust.

 

it dosent seam to do it as bad after the car warms up or if i dont get on it. if that helps any. how bad is it if i just keep driving it with burnt valves?

 

Popping in the exhaust is also sometimes called "afterfire" and can have several causes or contributing factors. Rich mixture, poorly sealing valves, improper valve timing, retarded ignition timing, inadequate coolant temperature, and other factors can contribute.