vonrottes Posted November 27, 2015 Report Share Posted November 27, 2015 That firebird my mom bought is having some issues.... it runs strong....sometimes. other times.... no so much. the problem is intermittent to say the least. occasionally it will hiccup on hard acceleration, hiccups are a LOT worse at highway speeds. sometime it will just spit and sputter once or twice and be fine... Other times the engine will loose power and drop down to idle on the highway and eventually stall then start up just fine after you turn the key off and start it. if you leave it in gear one it runs down to idle it will surge TERRIBLY (like blipping the throttle in 1st gear) until you put it in neutral and it stalls. Replaced the fuel filter and that helped a little bit, ran two different fuel system cleaners through it (they helped a lot while they were in the tank) What's weird to me though is if it was fuel/spark related it wouldn't drop down to idle and take a 10-15 seconds to die, would it? I'm kind of thinking it might be something in the DBW system? (I don't know much about them) It ran fine going to Zanesville tonight but on the way back it started acting up... it would start bogging like it lost spark, but was not stalling, it would run down to idle and if you kept feathering the throttle it would surge hard and keep running, if you shifted into neutral and stopped it would die. start it back up and it would run fine for a few miles and repeat the whole thing.. I went through 3 fuel pumps in 2½ years on my S10, and it's not running like a dying pump. It's a 2001 Firebird with a 3.8L V6 and Auto transmission. all I know is it has DBW, a ridiculous crank position sensor, some weird ass coil packs and no 4k abuse limiter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STEVE-O Posted November 27, 2015 Report Share Posted November 27, 2015 Does it throw/did you pull any codes? My first guess is crankshaft sensor going out but really need some more info Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cordell Posted November 27, 2015 Report Share Posted November 27, 2015 Put a fuel pressure gauge on it and get it to fuck up. Not every dying fuel pump acts quite the same, besides the regulator could be sticking open, so eliminate fueling. DBW just goes into limp mode and isn't going to make the engine do all kinds of shit, so stop thinking about that for now. It could be the crank sensor however those typically get hot and stop working, not usually firing right back up, it could be but doubtful. If it isn't fueling it's probably wiring. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grudes Posted November 27, 2015 Report Share Posted November 27, 2015 Check out the MAF sensor, sometimes those can cause some weird issues. Especially if it gets a bug or dirt in it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pontiacfreak142 Posted November 27, 2015 Report Share Posted November 27, 2015 Check out the coil packs and the thing they sit on (sorry, to tired to think of what its called right now lol). Had that go bad on mine and one minute it ran great, next it missed its ass off and had trouble getting the car to restart. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2 Sweet Posted November 27, 2015 Report Share Posted November 27, 2015 crankshaft position sensor or coil packs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vonrottes Posted November 27, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 27, 2015 Was throwing a maf low circuit the last week, cleaned and took care of that problem.. Was able to see cylinder 6,7 & 8 misfire count 6 & 8 were showing 10-12,000 7 was showing 55,000. Don't know if that is an accurate reading that's just misread on the cylinder or just bad data since I was using a crappy scanner. Only code I've seen it throw since has been the egr (which has been capped off but not removed from the pcm) I've read sometimes the crank sensor plugs corrodes and can cause intermittent problems (forgot to add when wet it is worse) And that apparently the coils overheat if not properly set on the heatsinks.. I'll go ahead today and start poking around at stuff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ImUrOBGYN Posted November 27, 2015 Report Share Posted November 27, 2015 B18 swap? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pontiacfreak142 Posted November 27, 2015 Report Share Posted November 27, 2015 B18 swap? 3.8 is far better lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aussiek2000 Posted November 27, 2015 Report Share Posted November 27, 2015 Converters starting to plug up? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vonrottes Posted November 27, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 27, 2015 went poking around under the hood and found the middle coil had been replaced (had two 1/4 coils) assuming they had replaced just a single coil and did not apply thermal grease I threw a whole different set in it's place. (there was a whole set in the spare tire cubby) so far it seems to be running much better (just went to stringtown and back) Still need to replace the plug wires since I found most of them had melted and probably do plugs too. B18 swap? Ls1 swap Converters starting to plug up? I was kind of thinking that, but don't those usually smell like sulfur when they get clogged and smoke? I know when the one my my girlfriends Focus got clogged up it would run, but could not move out of it's own way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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