hey all, i have a 91 firebird 3.1 auto. i bought the car a few weeks ago as a daily driver and last week it started idling rough when i come to stop, and will finally sputter to a stall. although it dosent happen all the time. if i come to a stop and throw her in neutral, it will idle fine. also when it does idle, sometimes it will smell gasy, like the car is running rich, and when i start it up after it stalls itll blow a cloud of smoke. the car has been sitting for 2 years before i bought it, im thinking it might need a good tuneup, but this one issue bugs me, cause i dont want to mess anything up if i keep on driving it. also... it dosent seem like all the power is there. i dont really beat on the car, but when i floor it. itll hesatate and bog down.. id appreciate any help!!!
thanks

 

I'm havein close to the same problem with my cutlass. idle fine but when you "gun" it sputters then goes.

dis there still old gas in your by chance?

 

no thier isnt, when i got the car, it only had 1/4 of a tank in it, and its had at least 30-40 gallons of fresh gas burned through it since ive been driving it

 

could be in ur ignition

 

yeah i have a 91 V6 also and mine does the same thing i just put new plugs in mine and its still there mine also backfires but im going to buy some 8 or 8.8mm wires and put on it b/c like your mine was sitting for a year and 3 months and well it has (whom ever put them on) cheap 7mm autozone silcone wires on it and i think thats my prob.

 

ok mine, if I cover my carb and rev the engine till it almost stalls it runs better then normal for like 15 mins

 

I had this same problem and corrected it with new plugs and wires... If that doesn't solve it then I would move on to replacing the distributor cap and rotor.

 

thanks for the info!!! i was going to replace the plugs and wires this weekend when i get paid. funny thing about it is today the car ran fine.. no problems at all.. but im still going to do a turne up, also a new fuel filter

 

Mine was like that... One day it would run horrible, the next it would be fine and it was just back and forth until I changed that stuff. No problems since.

 

Check your plug wires. Get a multimeter and set it to read ohms. Put a lead on each end of the plug wire. The general idea is 8 ohms of resistance per foot. If you have a wire or two that is completely out of whack with what the other wires measured, replace them.

My 92 RS with the 3.1 had a rough idle and would miss from time to time. I pulled the plugs. 2 of them were delcos and the other 4 were some cheapie ngk plugs. I replaced them all with Delco R43TSK plugs. Then I replaced the plug wires. The car runs much better now.

 

mine is a carb gasket. at least it got me to adjust the carb and all.