Good Morning,

I have an issue with my 87 RS V-6. Once in a while and all of a sudden my RS will backfire through the exhaust and stall. It will start right back up and drive but will sputter and stall and backfire again. If it sits for a while, the car will run perfectly normal again. About a week later it happened again. Then back to normal.

I ran codes and recieved an EGR fault. Went and had a full tune up yesterday, new EGR installed. After running around town a little bit the symtoms returned. This time, I let the car cool down about 1 hour and drove it around town again, no problems.

Help
Tim

 

I have an '87 also. The only time I ever had backfire and sputtering problems was both times I lost my Ignition Control Modules over the years.
If you pull it out of the distributor and take it to Autozone, they will test it for free.
The only drawback is Autozone does not sell the workhorse AC Delco modules, so don't by a crappy Wells unit if it is bad and they try to sell you one. Ask if they have the Delco units (they don't, so just tell them thank you and that you'll check around for a better quality one)

 

Sputter, stall, backfire? Hmm...weak ignition coil or related components (cap/rotor, wires, plugs?) ?

Or maybe your fuel filter is plugging up and youre going lean, which can create popping....but the fact that it starts back up, hard to say. I'd check spark and fuel pressure at the schrader valve with a gauge. Check both out of gear, and in gear, under a little load if possible

 

check timing chain play too. if theres too much play, it will have bad idle and stall also backfire.

 

Replace your ignition module. While your at it, pull your distributor and rebuild it, (disassemble, clean, replace the ignition module, the pickup coil, polish the copper ignition shield, new cap, rotor etc.). Do a search on distributor rebuilds and see threads by TomP, KED, Doward and others. It's easy, just take your time and follow the directions on the threads. It's the best bang for the buck going. The distributors in these cars range in age from 13 to 23 years old. The only one's that don't need a rebuild are the one's that have already had it done.