Hey guys.. I bought my 89 SE a while back, and after spending many many hours on it, it still isnt running well. When I got it, the owner told me #4 fuel injector is bad. I verified by testing resistance, and pulling all spark plugs wires. All made rpm go down, except #4. I changed the fuel injectors (put in a used rail...checked resistance before installing of course) , and also changed the exhaust studs, belts, fuel/oil filter, valve cover gaskets (recquired removing distributor), and put in a UDP.
All this took me about 6-8 months..yes the car was on jackstands for that long..I mostly worked on it only on weekends when I wasnt busy. I finally got it running this past summer, and it is RRREEAALLYYY slow and rough. I went through 2 tanks of gas, so old gas is out of question. I did a compression check, I get 155-165 is all cylinders. While the car is running I pulled out the spark plug wires one by one. There is NO change in RPM when I pulled out the front 3 wires..(cylinders 2, 4, and 6) I checked for spark by pushing spark plug wire in until metal part comes out, and touching to ground. I see a blue spark....I checked injector resistance again and they all ohm good(10-14 ohms)
Any ideas????

 

is there a lot of unused fuel coming out the tail? or i guess, does the exhaust smell rich?

 

pull the front 3 plugs and see if there dry or soaked in gas

also get a niod light to see if the ecu is fireing the injectors

 

I already tried switching the spark plugs. Here is how the front plugs (2,4,6) looked vs. the rear plugs(1,3,5).
Front (bad) cylinders plug on left..Good on right..

 

Did u check for injector click? Front ones have a sub harness, maybe connector loose, corroded??? See for plug in engine end behind IACV, the rear one...

Click tst: engine off, ign on, take distr off, rotate.

 

Did you change the timing belt?? Front cam out of time?
Other thing would be plug wires on front bank are wrong order. Bob

 

I just remembered. When I was putting everything back together, I accidently switched the #2 and #4 spark plug wires. I turned on the car, and it sounded really bad, and was kinda backfiring. I found out after about 5 minutes, then switched them, back right away..Could this have done anything??

 

Be sure you don't have the wiring harness for the front injectors flipped around with the wiring harness for the nuetral/reverse sensor coming from the tranny. Yes they fit in each other, yes it cuts out the front 3 cylinders, yes I've done it.

For all three to be out that'd be one of my guesses if you ever unhooked those wires. They're easy to flip around if you don't know the wires too well.

 

is the distributor in there right? timing set?

 

Sounds like the plug wires are switched.

 

The plug wires are not switched. I checked them abouyt 10x. The distributor is in there right, but I have no checked the timing.

mtcocksoon, I hope that is the problem. Do you know if there is any way to tell the difference between the two wiring harnesses? Can you describe them?? are they both grey?? got a pic by any chance??
The last thing I wanna do is mess something up even more..

 

I believe both of the connectors are grey, one has a bunch of white wires and the other a bunch of blue. I need to search around to see if I can find which wires are supposed to go where.

edit: not sure why i didn't notice your pictures above but if your plugs are wet on the side that's not firing fuel actually isn't the issue. it would have to ignition.

 

PROBLEM FIXED. You were right mtcooksoon. I removed the airbox, and searched for the wires. They were connected in the right order, but the connector wasnt pushed in all the way. I pushed it in, but it doesnt "click" in, because the clip is broken. I pushed it in really hard, and then put everything back together. The car started up and was AWESOME. The engine sounded great. The only thing is that it smoked out of the exhaust for about 5 minutes...prolly all the gas in the front 3 cylinders????


I took it out for a drive, and man this CAR IS FAAASSSTT. especially with the underdrive pulley. It feels so much faster than my Auto VG.
One problem: Sometimes the rpm will go up and down continously between 1000 and 2000. It will just keep on shooting up and down, when im in neutral.. any ideas??? I need to get this fixed beforej I take it for smog..
Im gonna make a video of the problem with me new camera ..can anyone host it?

 

clean your IAC that may help with the erratic idle. also look for vaccum leaks

 

I already cleaned my IACV when I did all the work. The funny thing is that when the front 3 cylinders were NOT working the idle was fine (just really low). Now its going crazy, its like someone keeps on pushing and releasing the gas pedal.. I will check for vaccuum leaks..any specific ways to check, or do I just eyeball all the hoses?

 

Just replace all the vacuum hoses, do not check - the hoses are guaranteed to be cracked. I had spikes of RPMs in idle before the cleaning and vacuum hose repair, not anymore.

 

you can check for vaccum leaks with propane.

 

You can also get a can of starter fluid and spritz it on all vacuum connections.

 

If you smoke you can take on of the lines that goes into the intake (i.e. after the throttle body) and just blow some smoke into the manifold. You'll see right away if there are any leaks. Just another option to add to the list.

Glad to hear its running.

 

What will happen once you spray the stuff on the hoses if you have a vacum leak?
Thanks.....

 

the idle will race up

 

then when it does.. the last place you sprayed.. there is your leak!