Quote Originally Posted by camoit View Post
I’m. So it’s running but when you hit the throttle it is very slow to respond and back fires, YES?
if that’s that’s the case it’s probably off one tooth on the cam timing. Many times someone will put the belt on and use the flat of the head as the mark or the belt is getting ready to snap. The timing mark is actually below the flat of the head on the passenger side. It’s a bump on the head. It the marks on the crank and cam are lined up and it’s still having problems it might be the MCA jet valves. You can check them with a vacuum gauge. When they go bad the needle is a whip.
If the timing is off 1 tooth the engine will run but but have no power. In the tech section we have pictures of the mark.
also a bad coil will keep it from revving up and can cause erratic timing
thanks camoit, this is useful as leads! i can believe that the cam timing could be an issue, but what befuddles me is that the engine was working fine for a while. then a) bad spark wire, b) busted exhaust manifold led to big problems but they kept running it. now those are fixed, but i don't see how doing the repairs on those would have affected the cam timing?? unless it slipped? or, as you say, is stretching and ready to snap?

as for the mca jet valves -- isn't that a 1st gen thing? do 2nd gen engines have them? (haynes says carbureted systems only?)

here's another weird symptom: the revving problem was getting worse and worse. got to the point that i couldn't even get it to rev in neutral, with throttle wide open. switched the MAF with that from the '96 parts car, and it worked better again -- back to the original problem, of really bad power at low RPMs. again, to describe this -- in neutral, it stutters and is slow to rev when suddenly go wide throttle, but if go slowly it revs fine. when driving, going up a hill is hard because the light touch on the accel isn't enough to really make it go. but once you get higher revs, it's pretty much fine -- except for backfires now and then, especially when releasing the throttle.

i'm going to go and test the TPS. when i disconnect it, behavior is basically the same, which i realize might be an issue. going to do the resistance test...