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Wedge TR8 Running Poorly

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chrisc

chrisc

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Looking for some suggestions and if anyone has been down a similar path before....

I have an '80 TR8 that I bought earlier this year. The car has not been driven much since I bought it as I had been focusing on a repaint first, then suspension and now finally finished up the interior. When I first picked-up the car, it seemed to run fine -- at least nothing like it is now!

This is a relatively stock car, original carbs, Crane ignition system, air pump off the car, cats still on. 51k miles.

The symptoms I'm experiencing are that it starts and runs fine and but when underway, no power. The car is not stumbling or bucking, but it certainly sounds "restricted" and a little like a VW when accelerating.

I'm unfortunately traveling this week, but tried to call the knowledge experts. Managed to get through to Ted who said don't do anything else until you do a compression check. That's good advice and something I'll do. My original thought in calling the experts was to see if I was even thinking along the right lines of an exhaust restriction. I know at this point there are some basic checks I need to do.

I'll be doing the header, holley conversion, etc...but would like to drive for awhile before I do, and sure don't want to throw money at those upgrades until the basic issue is diagnosed/fixed.

Not trying to avoid the detective work, just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience based on what I'm describing?

Thanks,
Chris
 
First check to see if both carb pistons are raising when you give it some throttle. They can stick. Second, I've seen the cats and mufflers clog up with broken up pieces of catalyst before. Behaves like your description. Header and Holley will take care of that. You can also try shaking the mufflers and see if something is rattleing around in there. You would have to remove them and dump the stuff out to fix that problem. I would just install the headers at that point.
 
/bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/iagree.gif ...with Todd. Could be a compression issue, but I would think that would show up on a gradual basis.
 
I would agree with Todd.... Compression is a slow gradual loss usually. The original carbs are tough, the holley (or eldebrock which is my recommendation unless you are familiar with Holleys) are easier and much more dependable
 
putting additives in the gas tank, or old gas can cause the cats to plug or partially plug up. Maybe you could drop the cats and punch out the honey comb array? If you are putting on a new exhaust system anyway you wouldn't be hurting anything.
 
Are you sure she is running on all 8 cylinders? I know from experience that the 8's will start and idle with only 4.
 
Thanks for the thoughts/suggestions so far.

I would suspect the gas might have been a partial bad tank as the car was not driven all that much by the previous owner. I've put several stabilizers and a mostly full tank of fresh gas in and the car seemed to be running ok before I went down the repaint/suspension/interior path. Now that I'm focused on driving -- it's running like crap. I think I have all 8 cylinders firing, but it feels like 4 cylinders worth of power....

Beyond my initial quick diagnostics this weekend to see if I have a dead cylinder (or cylinders) the intermediate pipes will come off to see if any junk is downstream from the cats. I'll work my way up from there.

Fun, fun, fun....I guess half the fun of owning a car like this is doing the detective work!
 
Ah, a repaint. Make sure you have a good clean ground from the engine to the chassis. Take the existing ground loose from the chassis and scrape fresh metal, then retighten.
 
RonMacPherson said:
Ah, a repaint. Make sure you have a good clean ground from the engine to the chassis. Take the existing ground loose from the chassis and scrape fresh metal, then retighten.
Click to expand...

ABSOLUTELY! That (I think) was the source of a problem I had with the car dying at the most inopportune times! And I do mean dying - everything!
 
Good idea and worth checking to make sure there is no problem with the ground, the repaint did not extend to the engine compartment......

Regards,
Chris
 
THat is a great site, I have it tabbed among "my favorites"
 
Mine is running a little rough at idle too. Has a Idle Air control code. need to check what is causing that.
 
Thanks for asking -- I'm on business travel this week and won't have a chance to dig in on the problem until this weekend. My objective this week was to solicit the great advice of those of you on this forum before I roll my sleeves up!

Chris
 
Check the fuel filter. My tank started to rust and pieces of rust clogged up my filter and caused it to run like crap because it wasnt getting enough fuel. Check that first, it is an EASY thing to replace!


Good Luck!


Rod
 
It is amazing how I follow these threads and want to see the out come and I feel fustrated you are not home to tell me what is wrong with your car....
 
Thanks for the encouragement guys.....fuel filter will be checked (I'm assuming we're not talking about one near the tank, but one in the engine compartment?), as well as a dry and wet compression test. I'll report back results and see where what direction that takes me in next.

It would not surprise me if the tank had rusted somewhat as the car was in a relatively cool climate and I would bet that the tank was not kept full most of the time.

Chris
 
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