after one year and some months I finally got to drive my trans am again.

I went up to ottawa to pick her up after a mechanic fixed her up. Not even sure what he fixed. Distributer was most likely the issue. He replaced uselss thing like the emissions air pump too.

I turned the key in the ignition and she fired right up,... I missed that sound so much. *sniff sniff*

I backed her out of the barn and headed home to guelph. Without insurance I might add. That was never racking.

On the way she started overheating a bit, most likely due to the air dam not being on. The left side go ripped off during towing one time. She was running close to red so I had to drive at around 100 clicks to stay in the green.

After getting some gas I fired her up and she started ti die on me. Basically dropped to around 500 rpm and was studering. I turned the ignition off and tried it again. She ran a bit better so I put her in drie and drove off without anymore problems other than the heat issue.

My buddy said it could be the spark plugs since the car has been sitting so long. Or maybe the heat of the engine...

what do you guys think?

anyways gotta go to sleep.

peace!

 

Possibilities:

I had the same problem you described 2 wks ago.
I replaced the items mentioned below to no avail. Then somebody suggested that it may be a tiny piece of carbon that broke loose and was keeping the valve open .
Go to GM and buy a bottle of Combustion Chamber Cleaner for $10. Warm up the engine, rev her up to 2500 RPM and poure the bottle down the primary on the carb. The idea is to pour it to the point of almost stalling the motor while she revs at 2500.
This took me half a minute and the car ran like a charm immediately.
You can get the Combustion Chamber cleaner at CT too in aerosol I believe.
It might be worth trying a $10 fix before embarking on costly replacement parts. Just need somebody to rev the motor while you do it. Same procedure on FI cars.
A word of caution: do this in a parking lot away from people because your gonna get tons of while smoke out the tailpipe ... but that's to be expected !

1. Spark plugs ... if you haven't changed them in a while it's a great investment for $20 regardless. Don't forget to check the gap.

2. Spark plug wires ... maybe arching someplace? Check at night when the engine is running to see a spark .. or take a spray bottle with water and spray 'em down lightly to see if one of the wires misbehaves while the car's running.

3. Distibutor cap & rotor ... when were they changed last?

4. Combustion chamber cleaner .... as above

Pacer

 

Yeah that sounds worth a try.

I'm deffiantly going get the plugs changed. Not even sure how long they have been in.

The cap and rotor is new. The old one was in pretty bad shape. The rotor had black burn marks and some plastic was even melted.

She needs a good oil change too I think. I mean after sitting for 1 year and some months and then to drive over 500k is kind of harsh. But I had no choice. With no insurance I couldn't stick around the city too long.

We also added some lucas so maybe it freed some deposits in the engine.

thanks for the advice

 

oh and toronto was terrible driving. We got stuck going up to ottawa for about 2 hours or more. We took and offramp and drove into the city a bit and beside the 401.

We managed to drive off just before the wonerland exit and then tried to get back in but the police had the ramps blocked off. So we drove further and finally got back on with moving cars while everyone else was still stuck.

 

I am not entirely sure, but I have heard that excessive heat will cause the Q-jet to work poorly. Just a thought....

 

it was pretty hot under the hood. close to 260 doesn't say degress or farenheit. but it's a van nuys car.

even the rubber and plastic was crazy hot. we smelt some plastic too on the way... my friend was behind me and he said he could smell it.

that was over 120k speeds. we drove most of the way at 100 and everything stayed normal. just need the air dam back on.

 

excessive heat could cause the fuel to boil or dry faster.Vapor lock is also a possibility.