deepsouth

Hey guys , I am at a loss. My daily driver had been doing ok for the last year, then the other day I had noticed that a lot of the vacuum lines were turning to dust , so I on hooked the lines and took the whole thing to the auto store and made a new assy. hooked it back up the same way it was, took it for a test run and it did really good, so I thought while I had the time I would change the cap and rotor , so again went to auto store got the cap and rotor, made sure I marked the wires and put it back the way it was, no the car will start but it runs really rough and then dies out at idle. Could it be a bad cap and rotor ? before I changed it the car was running good but the cap and rotor were really old, I've only had the car for about a year so I'm not sure what to check next, don't want to throw money at parts want to figure it out. Thanks

1992 3.1L V6 MPFI RS all stock as far as I know just a daily commuter but it's paid for so I need to keep it running.

firebird904

This may sound stupid but I'll ask since it happened to me when I first started tinkering with cars, are you sure the cap is on the right way? On my dizzy it's very easy to get it in the wrong place because it has two holes on each side of the dizzy base and it's not that hard to get it in the wrong place. This would cause some rough running for sure. I even seen a camaro at the local pull a part that was in perfect condition and when I took the dizzy cap off it was stripped underneath which leads me to believe they couldn't figure out why it ran like poo and junked it because it had TONS of new parts on it and it was just that the dizzy wasn't screwed on right.

90 camaro cj

it could be a bad cap and rotor or you may have broken the wires when you pulled them off the old cap.

deepsouth

I'll look tomorrow, the cap has a flat side to it so it can only go on one way but I'll look and see if I see the extra wholes you are talking about, thanks

firebird904

Yeah it does have the flat side but somehow I managed to get it on there the wrong way lol you could check the firing order again also just to make sure you got it right. It should be 1 2 3 4 5 6 starting from the front passenger side wire which is cylinder #1

deepsouth

Firebird904 I'll pull it off tomorrow and check for the extra holes, if that fixes it it will be a great relief. As far as the firing order I know that is correct, I marked every wire and traced them to make sure they were going to the right cylinder. But just to be sure I'll check them again when I take the cap off tomorrow. thanks again,

Project 3.4 Camaro

I can almost promise your timing is off, doublecheck you did it right, then start tweaking it till it runs right.

ex-x-fire

How can his timing be off from changing cap-rotor-wires?
Triple check the firing order, everday mechanics make that mistake all the time. The dist. is kinda hard to get to, so there is a chance that you crossed 2 wires.

Project 3.4 Camaro

Depends if he had the dizzy out or moved it.

deepsouth

Just got home from work now,about 7:45pm here and it's pitch dark, so I'll have to get up early tomoorw before work and check it out, I did notice that the ground strap from the engine block to the firewall was in bad shape so I'll change that to, I already have one I bought a while back, and no I did not pull the dissy I just pulled the cap and rotor off.

deepsouth

Ok got you early this morning and took the dissy cap and rotor off, the cap that I had gotten and put on was messed up on the inside plastic was covering the center contact point on the inside, lucky I had stopped last night and picked up another cap and rotor from a different store , put it on doubled checked the wires, and got here to fire up , rough but she fires up, I took her on a road trip around the block a time or two , has some misfires on it for sure, and it will stall at idle if you are at idle to long like at a stop sign not every time but enough to make me wonder. So after work tonight or tomorrow morning I will pull the plugs and see if they are fouled, it was running good like I said before the dissy cap and rotor change so I'm thinking maybe with the back firing and missing and all that that the plugs might have gotten fouled, will update later gotta get to work. thanks all

deepsouth

Ok so here is an update on my ride. It's been crazy with work the last week, but I go off early today (still light out) and I pulled the EGR valve to check it, and I also pulled the spark plug and wire from #1 cylinder and let me tell you that took the longest amount of time why they would make it soooo hard to change a plug I don't know, but bottom line is I got the plug changed I got a new gasket for the egr valve put everything back together and cranked her up and so sounded so much better, she doesn't die when ideling like before when in park and I also put the parking brak on put her in drive and let her sit there for a good five minutes or so to see if she would die and she lived !!! the rpm drop to or three time like it was going to die but she brought herself back up and kept running, so It was getting dark and I figured I'd take her for a quick spin around the block (a country block that is), much better pick up, but I had the problem of coming to a fast stop and turning right (very sharp turn off highway) and she stalled on me but ehn cranked right back up, but on the next stop sign she was fine ?. Didn't want to take her to far being dark outside, so tomorrow I will take her on a longer trip and see how she does. If I can just get her to stop dying on the fast stops I'll be fine.

firebird904

How much gas is in the tank? When mine's near empty it stalls out on sharp turns.

deepsouth

not sure, I filled her up last week, and I calculate 15 - 20 miles per gallon so I still have 100 to 150 miles left. The PO said they had broke a wire or something when they put in a new fuel pump and never hooked the sending unit connector back up, that was going to be my next task. Just not sure how to get to it, don't know if I have to drop tank or what ?

RBob

iTrader: (1)

If you disconnected the battery at any time an idle learn needs to be done. A quick search here with those terms and my name as the author will bring up a couple of threads on how to do it.

As for the sending unit wire, it depends upon where it is broken as to whether the tank needs to come out or not.

If the stock OEM injectors are still in the engine keep an eye out for a deal on some replacement units. The OEM Multec injectors have a bad habit of shorting the coils.

RBob.

deepsouth

The Po said they broke the wire near the connector at the tank, I tried the idle relearn but the temp never seemed to get high enough to turn the fan on ? What temp does the fan turn on normally and how long does it usually take, maybe I just didn't let it run long enough ? I know the fan works cause I had jumped the aldl and the fan cam on.

RBob

iTrader: (1)

Fan should turn on at about 226* F.

RBob.

deepsouth

thanks RBob, I have the day off so I'll go give it a try again and sees what happens

deepsouth

Ok, just got back from my drive. I first tried to do the idle relearn let the car go forr a good ten minutes and the fan never came on but once the car warmed up it started to hesitate and then it stalled out, so I started it up again but again the fan never came on. So I figured after 20 min of it running the temp should have raised enough to turn fan on but the temp never even got to 220 on the gauge, so I decided to take her for a long run. So took her for a good 20 min run down long roads with out a lot of stops and then jumped on the 4 lane for a couple of miles then back on to the 2 lane. When I would come to a stop or slow down for a turn or a train track, the idel would go way low and I would have to keep the pedal pressed slightly while having foot on brake so it wouldn't stall out. So when the engine is cold it runs really good now, but once warmed up it stalls at stops and you can hear a miss?

deepsouth

Quick question does anyone know what the CCA should be for the battery in the 1992 V6 3.1L, I am pretty sure my battery is shot, it came with the car when I bought it a year ago , I have already check the alternator and it is putting out good voltage and I get good voltage at the battery it just isn't holding a charge anymore, I can't find any markings on it that say what the CCA are. All I can see is that it is an interstate battery.