My 86 firebird with the 2.8 is having a problem. When it is first started, it dogs and tries to die. Sometimes after it does this, you can smell raw gas in the car. Any ideas?

 

That's a pretty vague description.

What grade of fuel are you using? How does it run hot? Did it just start happening ? Is the check engine light on?

 

I use 87 in it. Once it warms up, it runs just fine. This happened last fall, and it turned out that the idiot who had my car last did a ****ty job of putting the spark plug wires on. No check engine light.

 

Make sure the timing is set to10 deg, the throttle body is clean, the spark plugs are gapped correctly and your using the lowest octane fuel you can find. Yes you read that right.

These engines run terrible cold. The carburated units even had heater plates under them to warm up the fuel. These have to have cold start injectors just to light the damn things off.

I set my base timing to 14 deg and buy the lowest octane fuel, and I still get a little hesitation. Give the suggestions a try and see what happens.

 

I'll check everyhting tomorrow and see what happens