yellowline

On my own car, I was the genius who oriented the plug wires as:

3 4
2 1 on the distributor, in a rush to get it running . It sounded a bit like your car at idle. Double check that?

StoogeMoe

Wait. I missed the year old gas part. Before throwing in the towel, get that crap out of there and get some fresh stuff in there. I think I fired mine up with about 2-3 gallons. That could make all the difference.

____________________________________
1986 944 NA - Guards Red - 91k miles - minty
1983 944 NA - Platinum metallic - 9000 mi beginning a new life
1985.1 944 NA - Guards Red - donor car
1984 911 Carrera Coupe - Guards Red (gone, but not forgotten)
"If you're not living on the edge, you're not living"

Dynamite 76

I don't know if by its sound anyone could say one or the other, it is just not enough info. I am still working on the two headed monster, which gave me the worst time because it was two problems that occured at similar time.

Check the DME relay. My engine would sputter out similar to yours, however, that problem was/is caused by a yet to be rebuilt altenator. The other problem, bad DME, forced the injectors to stay open at all times when they should have been closed. All that gas into the cylinders was forced into the oil, which in turn seeped back into the cylinders. Now I know why I was getting about 100 miles on a tank of gas. Oh yeah, get rid of that gas! About 6 weeks is the shelf life for gas. There is some stuff out there that might work to force it through, but I don't see the reward as worth the risk.

schwank

Thanks for the ideas everyone... last night I siphoned off over 10 gallons of gas... I need a couple more containers and I plan to finish that tonight. Then I'll dump in 5 or so gallons of fresh gas and see what happens.

Something else HAS to be wrong though, it's just so rough running... DME relay and alternator are brand new BTW.

Dal Heger

Check for vacuum leaks. If you have a big leak then it'll run like that. Even a number of small leaks will add up to a big leak.

Dal.

schwank

I'll triple check those for sure, but the car has a brand new Lindsey vacuum hose kit.

PeteL

Rough running when cold, then smoothing out may be bad FPR. Try starting the car cold with one injector wire removed. If it runs smooth, it is probably the fuel pressure regulator.

schwank

UPDATE: Siphoned all but a gallon or so out, dumped in 5 gallons of new gas. Found one wonky vacuum line, so I fixed that.

I'm headed home from work early today so I can test it out...

schwank

Throwing in the towel... she's going in to the shop.

It starts, runs rough, doesn't like to return to idle, drops down to low rpm and stumbles hard. If you gradually bring it to idle it will run but pretty rough.

I have now triple verified vacuum, plug wires, distributor, timing, and balance shaft alignment.

Rebled the clutch while I was under there... at least that worked and the pedal comes all the way up now...

Techno Duck

Any chance you have a AFM you can swap in?

F18Rep

You DO have the AFM plugged in, right? Bruce;]

zoltan944

AFM, FTW.

schwank

Yep... all power wires verified, AFM, ISV, throttle body, all injectors. Even reinstalled the stock chip.

Ran over all vacuum diagrams and confirmed those, that's how I found the one messed up vacuum connection at the TB. After retensioning the balance belt today it sounds better, but it didn't affect running. It will hold idle ok, just vibrates like mad, and when revved it won't return softly to idle, it falls to like 3-400 rpm and stumbles before coming back up. Actually seems to run decent when held at 2K rpm.

I just don't know... I did do a new rear vacuum line from the ISV to the new intake... but I think that bastard is tight, sure was hard enough to get on anyway. And the Lindsey vacuum lines don't seem like they would leak very easy. Meh.

I would keep troubleshooting myself but I have 10 days til my first track day... and I need to get this bad boy to the DEQ first to get new tags. Plus lots of final prep, wire tie-down, re-install 3 point belts, etc. After a year of not running, I really would be happy to get the thing running solid for a couple hunny... once it's well tuned it should run for quite some time with minimal maintenance, as I've already done everything.

All that remains is suspension... come on tax return!

Techno Duck

Did you verify the AFM is working correctly? Try to find anyone with a '85.5-87 that has a spare AFM you can swap in for the time being. Im not sure of the '88 AFM is the same, i know the '89 is not.

zoltan944

10 minutes-
check your plugs
check your AFM connection
check for spark
check your AFM connection
pull a vaccuum line off when you start it up and see if something changes, that would help with vac leaks
unplug your AFM connection while running and see if soemthing changes
check your marks line up on flywheel with timing
check your AFM connection