Muttstiva keeps losing power occasionally...

[Safety Guy]

I put my Mutt in a local garage a few days ago and had a new fuel pump installed. She runs well for the most part but the same old problem that lead me to try to rebuild her carb (I couldn't do it) and then get a newused carb from Ebay is still with her.

She'll all of a sudden lose almost all power. Engine still barely runs but there's absolutely no get up and go. The exhaust manifold heats up and smokes (more so than usual), which seems odd to me and was why I at first thought it was a blocked cat (had a new cat put on last year and it didn't solve the problem).

A few minutes of revving and trying and cursing and she is able to go again.

This latest mechanic thinks it's still a carb problem. Evidently she didn't conk out on him and waited until I test drove her!

I could get my carb rebuilt nearby but it'll cost about $300, IIRC.

Or I could junk her.

Or she could be my winter project and turn her into FI. Lots of cussing and work would go into that one!

Any ideas of what could be wrong?

Karl

[25Horseplay]

Karl are you sure its fuel related? I had a car once that did something like that and it ended up being a loose ground wire, it lost power electrically drove me nuts until I found it.

[gdawgs]

I had a bad muffler that gave me similar problem. Mine actually idled ok, but when you stepped it down at all, no go. I had a hard time making it up the hill to my house. The exhaust sound wasn't any louder than normal, but every now and then it would rattle just a little bit, which was my clue that it was the muffler. I've never had to replace the cat on my. Although I have almost run over a few.

[4cylDreadnaught]

check fuel pump pressure, and check the lines. there might be something in them causing an intermittent obstruction

[Safety Guy]

The mechanic checked the fuel lines for obstructions.

New fuel pump was installed.

As for the muffler possibly being bad, I think that would occur most of the time. She drives well until she croaks.

I'll be checking on the electricals in the near future. Maybe if she stalls I'll hop out and begin jiggling wires.

I wonder if a bad TPS would cause this? Do I even have a TPS in my system?

I also wonder about a bad computer feedback loop attached to my air filter assembly. Isn't that the "computer" on the side of the air filter pan?

Thanks for the thoughts, guys!

Karl

[worfdog]

back in the early 1980's,i had a subaru that ran fine when cold. but would do the same as yours is doing now.thought it had a blocked exhaust.i got it going down the road about 40 mph,switched off the ignition,pumped the gas pedal several times,switched the ignition back on,it back fired and really cleaned the converter and muffler out and i mean really cleaned it out.never had a problem with it again.we used to do this to our school buses we drove in the very early 70's to make them sound like they had glass packs on them.there is a chance you could do damage to to your engine but in all the times i did it and idid it alot back then,most of the time just to scare the hell out of people never did damage nothing to the motor.this won't work on a fuel injected car because the injectors don't work when the ignition is off.

[Safety Guy]

He he. I just may try that Worf.

Or I could find a long steep hill, let it get up to speed (let's say 25 mph) while the engine's off and then pop the clutch in 2nd to "push start" it!

Karl

[bbrown]

Check the gas filter. Mine had similar problems twice. Both times it was a clogged gas filter.