i looked over about a month and a half worth of posts and couldn't find anything so here goes. i have a 86 with a 2.8 v6. sat for about 2yrs finally replaced head gaskets. anyway. when pulling off passenger head i broke off a sensor on the back that i hadn't seen i thought it was a knock sensor but no one lists a knock sensor for my car. even the dealership! so i found a temp sensor that fit the threads and had the same wire connection. (the temp sensor on the front driver head is there and fine but i was told some engines have two) anyway got the car running but timing seems way off kinda like its retarding itself up to 20* cuz its not getting a signal from a knock sensor. so i found a delphi part at autopartswarehouse.com that had the same wire connector and said it was for my car. i order it. got it today and the thread size is wrong. i'm tierd of being told my car is too old by everyone who just dosn't know anything about it. someone please help.
thanks.
hippie

 

2.8 doesn't have a knock sensor, the 3.1 does. What you broke is your radiator fan thermostatic switch. The knock sensor you got is supposed to go into the passenger's side coolant drain plug hole, if you had one, which you don't.
The timing is probably right... check it anyways with a timing light. Should be 10 BTDC with the EST wire (the tan one that has the connector coming out of the wiring harness next to the heater fan motor) disconnected. What you don't realize is that the early MFI fuel injectors were junk right out of the box, and yours have been sitting, full of fuel, gum, gunk, and varnish, for 2 years, so they might be either partially or fully clogged. Try finding a used set of injectors for an 88-89, which are the newer style.
Search for the TomP tuneup, and do that before you try to drive the car. You never know what time has done to it.

 

well then the thermoswitch i got probably was right. the tomp tuneup is that the IAC clean thing. i found that. and other than ebay any good place to look for decent used 88-89 fuel injectors? thanks for all your help, i'll try to work on it over the weekend and see what happes.

 

ok so i found some new accel injectors for 85-92 but they are still a bit expensive (better that what parts places have quoted me though, also found remanufactured 85 - 88 multec for reasonable but you said 88 - 89?