My bro is looking at a car and this is what's wrong with it. The car was originally a 305 tpi car. The car started overheating so the owner put a 350 in it. The car still overheats and is in the current condition I'm about to explain.

Before the car was turned on I had the owner pop the hood. I saw a one single fan, it didn't have the dual fans. The owner also said they put some 3 core radiator in the car. She said the injectors were changed and all the sensors. How much of this is true I'm not very sure of.

So we start the car. The first couple of times she started it the car struggled to stay alive for more than about 3 seconds. It sounded like it was getting way too much fuel and was just choking on gas. Eventually she got it to the point where it kind of idled. It idled really badly but just barely enough to stay on. At this point my brother got in and fiddled with the gas enough to get it to rev a little bit. He coudln't have even gotten to 1500 rpm when the louded backfire I've ever witnessed happened. Flamed shot out of each tailpipe a good 4 inches.

Back to the heat issue. This again is why the radiator and injectors and the whole 9 yards was replaced. She also said it had some kind of super chip in it. I was poking around on the forums and it looks like there may be an issue with the 305 vs 350 computer in combination with this super chip and maybe the wrong size injectors. I'm not really sure but I'm hoping you guys can help me isolate the issue.

There was also allot of black sut, the owner stuck her finger in the tailpipe and it came out black as night. It was appaulingly clear that there was too much gas going into the engine. My goal is to figure out why so I can possibly get a really good deal on this car for my bro. It has zero rust!

Help me out here guys. I need your wizdom.

 

Is it a $20 eBay chip? I would yank that first and go from there if you're not sure what kind of chip it is.

 

I'm not sure. I'm just looking for as many possibilities as to what could be wrong since I can't try anything untill we buy the car. i'm trying to determine if the car is worth it.

 

Sounds like the ignition timing is SEVERELY retarded and 2 plug wires are swapped.

Also sounds like the PO doesn't know how to set the timing, probably isn't aware that you're supposed to disconnect the EST lead. So the timing is probably 20-25° ATDC instead of 6° BTDC like it's supposed to be.

As far as "worth it", that would depend on (a) what you want the car for - crank it up and drive it home, a parts car, a project, etc.? (b) how much it would take to buy it (c) what condition it's in.

 

(a) we want to just be able to drive it withotu having to put 3k into it. We don't mind putting up to 1k I'd say but anymore than that would probably make it not worth it.

(b) She wants 4k for it. There is no way I'm giving her that much money for it.. even though it has NO rust which is very rare for a car in my area that is that old.

(c) It's in great condition!

 

If your really interested in the car...try this...Pull the Dist Cap...Crank the engine around to the #1 post. Climb in over the engine and look down at the reluctor and magnet...I used a mirror. Hell... your this far,.. just pull the dist out....Check that the reluctor lines up with the magnet. The magnet is only about .125" wide or less and the reluctor is the same. Everything should line up...rotor to #1 post,...reluctor to the magnet. If it's not... that will cause all that is going on! Of course...this is all about troublshooting and this was one major problem that I discovered on my new billit aluminum distributor!

 

Update: We ended up buying the car. When we got the car home the first thing we did was take out the prom chip that was in the car and replaced it with the other one she gave us. The one we put in was a hypertech ct59847. I have no idea what chip this is, but it nearly fixed the car. The car is now driveable and does not overheat, backfire, or anything like that.

On our way to that point we found a vacume line that wasn't connected and a line that was almost 3/4" wide disconnected undernead the drive accessories on the passenger side. They didn't even have clamps on them! Needless to say I am not impressed with whoever installed this engine.

However, the car has very little low end torque. Once the rpms get past 3000 - 3500 or so the car starts to pull a little bit. It still does not run quite correctly. I'm going to have my brother call the guy up that put the engine in the car and hopfully he will be able to tell me what injectors he put in the thing and what heads, cam, pistons, ect, ect.

Tonight on my way home from work me and my bro went and bought spark plugs. I'd like him to wait untill we find out what chip/injector combo we have but I'm not sure if he's going to be that patient. We bought bosh plugs from Walmart.


What can I check remedy the low torque problem? Any and all suggestions are welcome as we are pretty much flying blind .

 

How about more info about your '91??

Total miles if known? Is it TPI or TBI? ECM type, broadcast code of the EPROM that you end up installing in. Any engine internal information, ie cam type, heads mods, compression. Condition of the CAT - original or replaced? You get the drill.

//RF