Hi all,
I'm new to the forum. Hopefully this is the right forum for my problem. This going to be a long post but I want to give as much info as possible.
I just got an 81 El Camino with a 229 v6 and a 3 speed on the floor. It is 100% stock with 79k on the odometer. The guy I got it from said he found it in a barn where it had been sitting for about 10 years. It's in pretty decent shape, but it doesn't run right. He told me the electric choke didn't work so he converted it to a manual choke. He removed and cleaned out the fuel tank when he first got it, but then he lost his job and had to sell it.
When I test drove it, it seemed to run great. The only thing I noticed was a slight tick coming from the engine- maybe a valve, maybe an exhaust leak. I haven't looked into it yet. When I picked up the car, I stopped for gas and then the problems started. About 5 minutes after I left the gas station, the car started bucking and seemed like it wanted to stall, but then it cleared up after about 30 seconds so I kept going. We stopped at a diner for lunch for about half an hour, and about 10 minutes after we left the diner the car started bucking and trying to stall out again, but this time it didn't clear up. I pulled over and the car stalled as soon as I pushed the clutch in. I didn't see anything obviously wrong when I popped the hood. I started it back up and it idled fine so I tried to continue on my way but only made it about 100 yards this time before it started acting up again. Then I had it towed the rest of the way home.
At home, I replaced every vacuum line under the hood because they were all dryrotted and cracked. I replaced all the spark plugs and wires, one at a time so I wouldn't mess up the firing order. The plugs looked good, and 4 of the wires looked ok. 2 of the wires were really bad though, massive cracks in the insulation and caked with grease, so I'm sure that was part of my problem. The car was hard to start after that, and the manual choke wasn't adjusted right so it was basically useless. I got it to idle by holding my foot on the gas pedal just far enough to get the rpm's up around 1,000 until it warmed up, then I took it around the block. It was better, but still not right. I then changed the fuel filter in the carb, but it looked fine. Last night I pulled the electric choke off an old q-jet from my camaro and ran a new wire for it to the wiper motor. I tried to start it, but now the battery is stone dead. My voltmeter showed about 150mV when I checked the battery. The battery is on the charger now but I'm probably going to get a new one anyway.
I didn't replace the cap or rotor yet, but that's probably next on the list. What else should I be looking at? It seems like it only acts up when it's hot. When I look down in the carb (rochester dualjet) while working the throttle with the engine off, it looks like it's squirting gas in there pretty good and both jets look like they are squirting the same amount.
When I get out of work today I'm going to mess around with it some more, but I need some advice on where to go from here.
Sorry about the wall of text, but like I said, I'm trying to be as descriptive as I can. Any help is appreciated.
I'm new to the forum. Hopefully this is the right forum for my problem. This going to be a long post but I want to give as much info as possible.
I just got an 81 El Camino with a 229 v6 and a 3 speed on the floor. It is 100% stock with 79k on the odometer. The guy I got it from said he found it in a barn where it had been sitting for about 10 years. It's in pretty decent shape, but it doesn't run right. He told me the electric choke didn't work so he converted it to a manual choke. He removed and cleaned out the fuel tank when he first got it, but then he lost his job and had to sell it.
When I test drove it, it seemed to run great. The only thing I noticed was a slight tick coming from the engine- maybe a valve, maybe an exhaust leak. I haven't looked into it yet. When I picked up the car, I stopped for gas and then the problems started. About 5 minutes after I left the gas station, the car started bucking and seemed like it wanted to stall, but then it cleared up after about 30 seconds so I kept going. We stopped at a diner for lunch for about half an hour, and about 10 minutes after we left the diner the car started bucking and trying to stall out again, but this time it didn't clear up. I pulled over and the car stalled as soon as I pushed the clutch in. I didn't see anything obviously wrong when I popped the hood. I started it back up and it idled fine so I tried to continue on my way but only made it about 100 yards this time before it started acting up again. Then I had it towed the rest of the way home.
At home, I replaced every vacuum line under the hood because they were all dryrotted and cracked. I replaced all the spark plugs and wires, one at a time so I wouldn't mess up the firing order. The plugs looked good, and 4 of the wires looked ok. 2 of the wires were really bad though, massive cracks in the insulation and caked with grease, so I'm sure that was part of my problem. The car was hard to start after that, and the manual choke wasn't adjusted right so it was basically useless. I got it to idle by holding my foot on the gas pedal just far enough to get the rpm's up around 1,000 until it warmed up, then I took it around the block. It was better, but still not right. I then changed the fuel filter in the carb, but it looked fine. Last night I pulled the electric choke off an old q-jet from my camaro and ran a new wire for it to the wiper motor. I tried to start it, but now the battery is stone dead. My voltmeter showed about 150mV when I checked the battery. The battery is on the charger now but I'm probably going to get a new one anyway.
I didn't replace the cap or rotor yet, but that's probably next on the list. What else should I be looking at? It seems like it only acts up when it's hot. When I look down in the carb (rochester dualjet) while working the throttle with the engine off, it looks like it's squirting gas in there pretty good and both jets look like they are squirting the same amount.
When I get out of work today I'm going to mess around with it some more, but I need some advice on where to go from here.
Sorry about the wall of text, but like I said, I'm trying to be as descriptive as I can. Any help is appreciated.
