help! Car going to sh*t!

phaedrus432 · Jul 18th, 2003, 04:08 PM

Damnit! My muffler fell off the other day and my negative battery terminal won't tighten... Both these probs are getting fixed after I'm done posting this... The main prob is: When cold starting, my engine races so bad it smokes, then when I give it some gas the RPM's drop and it stumbles really bad and then dies... Even when the engine is warmed up it still stumbles really bad through the lower RPM's, and has absolutely no power in the higher RPM's.... I fear the worst......... help....

fastpakr · Jul 18th, 2003, 05:54 PM

Do you have a tach? How fast is it turning on a cold start? That may be perfectly normal (although the smoke is not). Have you checked your timing and carefully inspected for vacuum leaks?

Myetball · Jul 18th, 2003, 07:16 PM

Also what color is the smoke...does it smell like oil or coolant? What I'm gettin' at is you may have a bad head gasket.

phaedrus432 · Jul 19th, 2003, 05:05 PM

The smoke is typical piece-o-shit-car bluish white... As for a tach... anyone with even the slightest knowledge about cars could take a listen to mine and tell that the RPM's are WAY too high... I replaced all my vaccuum lines and fittings a month or so ago so I doubt that's the problem (thought that's on my list of shit to check).... Perhaps could the sudden loss of back pressure in the exhaust system have caused this somehow? *sigh* I miss my old VW's... hehe, you can fix any problem with bailing wire and duct tape.....

minute rice sentra · Jul 19th, 2003, 05:45 PM

the backpressure decrease wouldn't cause this. on cold starts my engine idles up to about 1200 rpm til the engine is warm then it stays @ 800. My muffler rusted off ~2 weeks ago and i have a hollow cat and a tach and my rpms didn't change at all. do you have the e16s cuz if you do then chances are it's something wrong with the carb if you don't touch the petal and rpm's just jump real high.

fastpakr · Jul 19th, 2003, 06:07 PM

Look for a vacuum leak. You're dealing with two separate problems here - the smoke shouldn't be related to the idle speed at all. You really do need to get a tach so you know exactly how fast it's going though. Once you know that you have a little idea of how big a leak you're looking for. Check all vacuum hoses going anywhere in the intake tract below the throttle plate of the carb. Could the throttle also be sticking? Try disconnecting the throttle cable from the carb so you can work directly with the carb to ensure that it's fully closed.

Myetball · Jul 19th, 2003, 07:01 PM

Assuming you have a carb and not tbi, the high cold idle is controlled by the idle speed control valve. It's the big black thing on the front/drivers side of the carb. Here's a pic of the vacuum system with the ISCV lines colored.

Make sure all these lines are in good order.

The stumbling and loss of power is either elctrical or fuel related. Check out your ignition system, cap/rotor, plugs, timing, etc. If it's fuel it may be your carb is on it's last leg.