When I first Start my car, it idles at about 3000 rpms, then if i drive it about half a mile-mile and i'm at a stop light the idle drops to 1500, but it bobbles back and forth from 1000 and 1500 or so, like it wants to stall out. I also notice when i'm driving it's like my gear ratios are off or something because the rpms are in the red zone half the time when i'm driving, if I go over 80mph it's buried in the red, like 6000 rpms, and it routinely hits 5000 when I'm driving in the range of 65-75 mph. I would say on average when i'm driving it it's like one notch away from the orange, which seems odd to me, since i'd imagine the rpms should be around 2000, not 4500 when I'm going 45 mph.

Any tips or thoughts on this?

 

A 3000 RPM idle is very high. Mine runs at around 2000 RPM idle when its really cold outside after I first start it up. It will drop down to around 15000 RPM when I drop it in gear. After it warms up, if you can call it warming up with the lack of a thermostat, it idles at around 1000 RPM in gear. Sometimes after it's warm the RPMs will surge between around 800 RPM and around 1000 RPM. Soundsl ike it has a cam in it with the way it lopes. The TBI generally won't die unless it gets below 800 RPM with a long lope.

Based on that in my 92 and the way my 88 was, I think the surge is somewhat common. The rest of your issue isn't though. Is it an auto or a stick? If it's an auto are you sure it's upshifting? Does your engine actually sound like it's spinning that fast? Is it stock?

 

The motor was rebuilt as far as I know, since the block and the valve covers have been painted. It's an Automatic transmission. And i'm sure it's upshifting, i can feel when it goes into higher gears. It does sound like it's spinning that fast, it's alot easier to tell when i'm really flooring it and it's in the red. The thing i hate about it is that there is no way of telling if he had rebuilt it, or if he swapped engines. No way of telling if it's a 350 or 305 unless i tear it down. But aside from that, the only things i've done to the car myself are putting in an open element edelbrock pan filter, breather, thermostat+housing and a lower radiator hose. Nothing effected the way it idles.

 

That sounds pretty extreme, a stock lo3 cant even spin at 5000 or 6000 rpms. He already asked you if you think its spinning that fast, but i kinda have to ask again. I have catback exhaust, with 40 series tips, and if my car idle'd at 3000 rpms when i started it going to work or somewhere in the morning, it would wake everyone in my neighborhood up. If your car was really running that high in the rpm band just to go 60-80mph, i would think that if you let off the gas for one second it would feel like stepping on the break. Definitely dont know what to tell ya concerning the idleing, as far as driving it goes, the only thing i can say is make sure its on D and not 3rd . I have an automatic too, and my shifter sometimes looks like its one spot higher than it really is. For example; when im in D/automatic overdrive, the N (nuetral) indicator is light up, and when im in 1st gear, the 2nd gear light is indicated.
I highly doubt thats it, no offence intended by asking such a simple question.

 

sry

 

sry

 

sry

 

super sry, i was getting some lag and didnt think i posted at all. I refreshed and tried again a couple of times. Let me know where to go to pick up my medal for longest string of double posts

 

The only thing that comes to mind is that maybe it has a set of gears in the rear end. They would have to be fairly high in numerical value though and even then I don't know that they would push the RPM that high. Even if was a set of gears though, that would only explain the driving condition and not the idle.

Are you sure your throttle cable isn't binding or sticking? Are the TBI's throttle blades fully closed when there is no pressure on the gas pedal?


I'm sort of at a loss on this . . .

 

Its either a completely smoked transmission, or the tach is toast. Im leaning toward the latter since 6k+ is really hard to get to even under no load with a stock engine. What does the motor sound like? If its a roar from hell, then its probably really turning that fast.
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Rossi, I dont know if its just my machine, but that double post has got to be a record. 5 in a row!

 

Oddly enough, my engine is now doing this and I'm certain it is really spinning that high. I'm going to do some searchin now that the search option is working again.

Did you get your idle fixed blaZerTire?