just to give some back-up info i have a 86 305 tpi auto. i have no codes come up when i check the ecm. my car will start but to even idle i have to press the gas pedal all the way and it doesn't go over 2500 rpms. i dunno.. i'm just afraid something really messed up here. whenever i press the gas i have noticed there's some smoke coming from the engine bay. a little puff of smoke here and there. at this point in time i'd just be glad to know i didn't crack the engine block. any insight would help, thanks, knox

 

Well, in your case the first thing I would do is check your coolant and oil. If either look funny, then you may have a serious problem such as a cracked head or block, or if you are lucky only a blown head gasket. If the fluids look fine, I would start with looking at the ignition. When was your last tune up? If the plugs/wires/cap/rotor are fine, the problem may lie in something such as the MAF sensor. Its difficult to tell without more information.

 

I have an 88 iroc when the maf went out it did the same thing.I unplugged mine and it at least got me to the parts store.

 

i tried the maf, didn't work. sucks with or without it plugged in.

 

my coolant and oil look fine. i had a friend press the gas when i jad the hood open and it appears the smoke is coming from the rear driver side of the engine bay, specifically the exhaust header. i'm gonna put new headers on it and replace the gaskits and see how that goes. i do think that it needs a tune-up though. i've also heard that i should check my timing, but i don't exactly know how to do that.

 

You can't check the timing if the car wont stay running. Your timing may very well be off to the point where it wont run, but if you don't already know what you are doing in that respect then now is not the time to learn.

 

that's cool. i thought timing might be something worth checking since it seems to be a problem for so many things.

 

Ok I have the same time of problem Its a pain to start and than when it does I have to give it some gas or it just dies would that be an MAF? Sorry I dont know to much I have always helped my friends work on their cars but I just started paying attention to what Im doing so knowledge is really there yet

 

Knox, what's your fuel pressure?

lilpoot, the pain to start may be a bad f/p relay. Your car may be cranking until the oil pressure gets up high enough to energize the fuel pump. Of it could be a bad fuel filter or dying pump or even a bad MAF relay or two. The MAFs themselves go out far less frequently than many assume, most of the issues in that circuit end up at the relays or the connections themselves.

 

my fuel pressure is about 41 psi

 

I've heard of this happening on third gens when the cat got clogged up or a piece of it broke off and blocked the exhaust...

 

ya my cat is clogged and the same thing as u guys are saying happend look at it in the dark after u have ran it for awhile if the cat is glowing bright red there's ur promblem right there. My smog pump died but i live in canda where i need emission's well atleast for a year cause i have a 88 and u don't need emissions for anything more than 20 years old so i just can't take it off but i got coolant in my smog puymp whitch leads me to think that i got a warped head or a blown gasket ora cracked block at the worst possible scenario. This is staring to drive me nuts

-Mike

 

Wow, I don't know how you got coolant in your smog pump. It's just a belt driven pump hooked up to your cat. However, I've seen cars overheat b/c the cat was plugged...Maybe it overheated and spewed coolant into your smog pump?

 

could be it really boggles my mind i'm gunna keep on poking around. What i just remebered is that i put my intake manifold u know the big gray one with the 2.8 on it the upper intake on backwards after i put it on my and my brother came to an agreement that it shouldn't really matter or should it, now that i think about it?
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i ment it shouldn't matter cause all the passages would line up no matter what but there's like an octagon on it that ur sopussed to line up i noiticed it when i was dropping the engine back into it.