Been a long time since I posted on here last...
I have a 1983 Sunbird Convertible.. When I drive the car, the engine stalls... it bogs down.. then after bit will run again..
I did a compression check.. I got 145, 120, 110, 120. I should redo the third one to make sure 110 is it.. the battery was getting warm. This is also with a cold engine.
The plugs are less than a month old and are black.
The mechanic that is right down the road to me thinks that the rings are letting oil leak up...and coating the plugs..
The engine was rebuilt 5-6 years ago...(it seems like yesterday) I have put no more than 5,000 miles on it in that time period. It has sit a lot, but it has at least been run every 2-3 months in the past couple years...when I drove it very little.
He thinks I should get rid of the car now.. I am attached to it it though
What do you think I should check next?
Bob
1983 Sunbird Convertible
1983 Sunbird Convertible
Just as a correction.. the engine bogs down...it does not die...just runs every few rpm...then will go back to running normally.
Just wanted to clarify.
1983 Sunbird Convertible
Is your check engine light on?
What was done when it was rebuilt?
Your compression numbers are bad, but it should still run like that.
Check Engine Light? I could be wrong, but I almost certain that this car does not have one.....
The rebuild was done about 5-6 years ago.. average 1000 miles a year..
The rebuild was comprehensive.. all new bottom end. moly rings. The head was taken to the machine shop...
It blew a head gasket maybe after 1,000 miles... We had the head re checked at the machine shop... bought new head bolts, and it was fine ever since..
This past summer, a couple times I felt like it lost power while driving.. I thought maybe it was me letting off the gas pedal... didn't think any thing of it..
After I did the compression check, it is firing...but not staying running... Getting cold out, so I didn't mess with it anymore... battery keeps going down real fast.
What should the compression be? The manual says minimum 100 psi, with 25% variance between cylinders..
Thanks..
Bob
1983 Sunbird Convertible
it is carberated, correct??? id guess it may be an issue with the carb
It is throttle body injected.
1983 Sunbird Convertible
I can tell u that u have a single bore model 300 throttle body,used specically on the 83-86 1.8L ohc engines.Just out of curiosity have u looked at the injector spray pattern to ensure it's not spraying everywhere,no dripping?I have rebuilt my throttle body mines a model 500 with a 2.0L eng these two throttle bodys are similar.U may want to make sure the fuel meter body gasket is not leaking fuel down into the injector spray area dumping too much fuel which will flood the car lose pwr,ruin ur plugs and do a psi check for ur fuel pump as well.The idle air control valve screws into to the throttle body may be faulty,it may or may not throw a code.I would check the basics 4 any leaks around the area and def the injector.
If it's throttle body injected, there should definetly be a check engine light as the car would be fuel injected and therefore have an ECM. I had a TBI 2.0 sunbird as my first car and I know for sure that car had a check engine light. I've never worked on the 1.8 TBI but I'd have to assume it's similar, prbobly even uses the same ECM.
When you first turn the key on, I believe all, OBD compliant cars, turn on the Check Engine light to indicate the ECM is on and working correctly. So turn the key to "On" (not run) without starting the car.. and see if the light turns on - look around the dash, if it's off, bulb may be blown or it may be indicating something isn't working right in the ECM.
Once the car is cranking and / or started, normally with no error codes, the Check Engine light should turn back off. If it stays on, or turns back on after running, it's telling you something is wrong.
This may be a long shot,but your egr valve may be sticking and this normally occurs once the car has run enuff to reach normal temps and it will cause the car to stall and choke the engine to death.A simple way to check it is to disconnect the vacumm line going to it(if u choose not to remove it first and check for carbon and stuck pintle) and if the symptoms clear up u need to either clean it,or replace it and make sure the pintal if it has one moves up and down freely,some are a diaphram type no pintal and works with a seal inside and if its worn out or stuck it will choke the crap out of the car and screw all the emiss functions up with no codes.Just something that came to mind bc mine did the same thing and the egr was shot,and did not have a pintal style just a seal dome with seals inside that were worn out ,simply replaced it problem solved.This may be totally unrelated but,a cheap fix and it would cause the fuel sys to drowned teh plugs at least based on my scenario i had.btw the eng may do this cold as well but mine was typically when warmed up.
Ok... I am now back home...did some checking today on the car..
I am was not sure that my compression figures were accurate... so in order to get a warm engine, I figured it would run if it had new plugs.. so I bought new plugs...
It wouldn't start at all for a while.. I floored it...and it finally grumbled to life.. The exhaust billowed out smoke...the header was smoking... ran like crap.
After a couple minutes, the smoke stopped, the idle returned to normal... everything seemed fine...
I turned it off and did a compression test. I took out all the plugs... had the battery fully charged...I put the accelerator to the floor as directed...
Here are the results 165 155 165 170
The biggest change is 155 to 170...between cylinders, which is 9% difference...which should be acceptable.
I looked at the injector spray.. it seems pretty uniform...
I pressed ont he diaphram of the EGR...and it moves freely...
It got a lot of oil all over the plugs...in the exhaust... What would possibly cause this?
Bob
1983 Sunbird Convertible
Seafoam is great do not get me wrong but,clearly will not fix this.Ur map sensor may be bad which in turn screws up the idle but until u do a code check to see if any hard codes are set u may not know.U could just buy one and see if that changes it but,would not go that route until u check the ecm for codes!Could be code 63 or 64 both indicate map sensor.Check those vacumm lines too they may be in need of replacement if u have leak would either choke or flood the eng with fuel if it's sucking too much air.I replaced all mine about 2yrs ago for under 10 bucks.
