i gave him a coil and an ignition module

yea the throttle body was cleaned when i put in a new gasket for it so its not gunked up.. the car has about 3/4 a tank of gas in it..the thing is i bought $10 of super at a Bp on rt 4(all out of regular) and then I bought $10 regular at a Delta in my town (river edge) and it started acting funky like 2 hrs after.. i dunno if its just coincidence or what but it seems kinda weird to me. maybe one of the places had bad gas?? is the ignition module the one thats at the bottom of the distributor?

i never run less than super in my car.

Yes, take off the distributor cap (don't forget to mark your firing order on it) and you'll see it held onto the base of the distributor, below the rotor. When you install the new one, make sure you put plenty of dielectric grease between the bottom of the new module and the distributor, or you will cook the new one.

Clogged cat / too much backpressure?

TIMING CHAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! on ignition module

do u really think a clogged cat would make it so the car wouldnt even start though??

cool, thanks for the info.. ill make sure to do that

quasar34... i have the same exact problem with my car. before it got really bad, the car was lacking power, getting 2 miles to the gallon and belching out unburnt fuel.

when it got real bad, my car completely failed to start and drive. to start the car, i have to spray starter fluid in the intake. it'll run "EHH" for about 5 minutes and then it seems as if the car is missing on like 6 cylinders and can't get the RPM's up past 1000 (1000 if i'm lucky) or else it stalls out. i've replaced fuel filters, distributor cap and rotor, ignition module (the unit to the left of the distributor, i think thats what it's called.. long night), plugs, wires, o2 sensor, and set timing and cleaned PCV valve. still no luck

quasar34 i took my car to connor chevrolet off bloomfield ave in caldwell and they weren't of any help. i've had 4 mechanics look at it and were baffled. i threw codes hinting i had low spark at ignition module and my o2 detected lean running (wtf it was running rich!) and that was it.



i'm going out of my mind here... if YOU figure anything out, be sure to share it loud and proud because i know i'm sure as hell BEYONED baffled.


if i find anything out i'll post or PM

blackbird, same car/motor as quasar?

1991 LB9 305 tuned port injection. i'd imagine he has the LB9 as well judging by his sig

1991 firebird trans-am WS6 yadda yadda


you ever heard of how to fix something like this or where to start? i wana know if quasar fixed his yet


-carmine

nah he hasnt, n we got no idea wat to check next

back when i had my 88 GTA, 305 LB9, i had some weird issues, car would randomly stall out and such. Took it to one shop couldnt find anything, codes that came up werent any help. I took it to a second shop that had worked on the car previously for years for the previous owner(washington garage in bergenfeild). They had it fixed in a day, they put a new ecm in it and all was fine and never did it again.... maybe try a ecm?..worth a shot at this point.

i guess i could try that. how much does an ECM run you or what did you pay at the garage?

i bought a new ecm and tried it 2 days ago and its still doing the SAME EXACT thing its been..i really have no idea what else to check..

smokingss.. u think i should bring my car to the place in bergenfield u mentioned? me and my dad dont know what else to check.. the thing is i dont really have the cash to bring it somewhere but if i have to i wanna bring it somewhere thats atleast pretty knowledgable with thirdgens so they can pinpoint the problem and won't rape me out the ass

checked ESC and MAF, nothin new... i pulled 2 plugs, the front 2 on the drivers side after cranking the motor for a while and one was dry and one was damp. now when my 88 wouldnt start the plugs would be soaked to the point they were dripping with gas when cranked alot. fuel pressure is good, im thinkin maybe clogged injectors (mulitple injectors)? we cranked the motor with the plugs out and no gas sprayed out. maybe the fuel rail is clogged?

also the car will run when you spray starter fluid into the TB, but once it burns off it dies

DID YOU CHANGE THE IGNITION MODULE YET??????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, and Blackbird615, the part you changed is the ignition coil, not the module. Follow my instructions above for how to change the module. If that still doesn't do it, it could be the pickup coil too, but they only tend to go bad if the car has well over 100K miles on it.

Remember, the TPI is a batch-fire system. Injectors 1,3,5,7 are on one fuse, and 2,4,6,8 are on a separate fuse. It seems a little suspect that one entire bank of injectors wouldn't fire, so check the fuse too.

i gave him an extra module i had laying around from my 88. yea i know there on 2 banks but it got dark and i just pulled the 2 easiest to get to lol

my distributor is rusty as all hell so before my new one came in, i tried to get some of that rust off and it ACTUALLY started without starting fluid.. call it a fluke? no my friend i call it a lead!! WOOOO

probably a fluke but it gave me an excuse to be excited... we'll see if thats the problem. if not, i'll check out my ignition module. if not, i'm going to bergenfield and bringing my car where you suggested

i'll update my situation when the new distributor comes in


-carmine

got it towed to my mechanic this morning.. will update

Its probabaly a bad fuel filter

fuel filter was one of the first things i replaced

********UPDATE*******

ok so my mechanic was goin crazy for a couple days tryin to figure out what the problem was..first he told me that my fuel pump was definately good.. i told him that i replaced the computer but he thought it might have been the computer anyway so he swapped it out and the problem persisted.. he then found that when he was using the noid light to check my injectors it didnt seem like it was lighting up quite as bright as it should.. he investigated some more and found that one of my injectors has a short in it and is causing this whole mess.. the thing is he allready has about 3 hrs labor into the car and told me that the total would be 1,300 if he replaced the injectors. First thing, im 21 and dont have $1,300.. secondly, anyone think hes rippin me off? he said its an 8 hr job.. Third, do you think it'd be better off if me and my dad just pay him the 3 hrs labor hes got into it, get the car towed back to my house and replace the injectors? is taking off the fuel rails, plenum, and injectors all that hard?

no its not hard at all...maybe the manual says it takes 8 hours but it wont take you that long at all.

i still wouldnt be suprised if fixing that doesnt fix the entire problem though...i figured that would just cause a misfire.

i have a full set of 305 injectors (19 lb/hr) if you need em....theyve got 61,000 miles on them. i would recommend soaking them in injector cleaner, and they should be good to go.

8 hours for injectors? Take the car home and do it, it takes about 2-3 for a beginner. $1300 is rediculous. If you need it I'll drive down there and change them out for you for free. There are plenty of people who can give you a hand with it onthe board. Buy a new set of injectors and get that car home! While you have it apart would also be a good time to check all the grounds in the harness. If one of them is off you'd be surprised how bad it f's everything up. Also, if it hasn't been mentioned (don't feellike reading all the posts again), when you cleaned the TB you took out the sensors right? The last 4 TPI cars I've worked on with similar problems all had a bad TPS (some had other problems also). Food for thought. Maybe get a volt meter and do some snooping