[DeTomaso] Unhappy motor - looking for suggestions

[Mark Charlton]

Charlie,

I had a very similar experience with my car during a long tour in western Canada. We checked everything and concluded it must be a carb issue. After a full tear-down of the carb revealed nothing wrong at all, I filled the car (it was 3/4 empty) and the car ran fine again. We concluded that a stale batch of 94 octane gas (not commonly available) caused the issue. With any luck that will be your case too I hope.

Mark Charlton
pantera01826 at rogers.com



On Nov 2, 2014, at 2:20 PM, Charles McCall <charlesmccall at gmail.com> wrote:

> I haven't checked timing, but wouldn't that make the engine run hot? 
> 
> Would that explain the stumble? It might explain why it doesn't feel as
> crisp as it should
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: thomas [mailto:thomas at hax.se] 
> Sent: domingo, 2 de noviembre de 2014 20:18
> To: Charles McCall
> Cc: <detomaso at poca.com>
> Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] Unhappy motor - looking for suggestions
> 
> The distributor gear pin?
> 
> Checked timing?
> 
> 
>> 2 nov 2014 kl. 20:13 skrev Charles McCall <charlesmccall at gmail.com>:
>> 
>>  Hi all
>> 
>> 
>>  I just got back from a Supercar event in northern Spain with 35 cars
>>  attending - Lambo, Ferrari, Viper, Porsche, and, as usual, a lone
>>  DeTomaso!
>> 
>> 
>>  The highlight for me without a doubt was an 8-minute burst on the
>>  highway with the police clearing the way for us, cruising at a steady
>>  GPS-indicated 180 k/hr in a 35 car convoy... the people out for a
>>  Sunday drive must have had their minds boggled...
>> 
>> 
>>  Anyway, my engine is not happy. This morning in the hotel parking lot I
>>  really thought that we'd have to skip today's event because it wouldn't
>>  start and didn't sound like it was even thinking about starting. Took
>>  probably 5 minutes of crank-wait-crank-wait before it fired. Yesterday
>>  at the gas station it took 2-3 minutes to start, something that has
>>  never, ever happened before. It is really hard to describe the problem
>>  so much of it is "feel", but I'll do my best.
>> 
>> 
>>  A few weeks ago I noticed that the engine would tend to stumble if I
>>  would floor the throttle, then clear its throat and pull. For example,
>>  I like to heel-and-toe, just because, and when blipping the throttle it
>>  would stumble instead of rev. The engine also felt a little rougher, as
>>  though it vibrated more than I remembered it. I don't remember if this
>>  was before or after I did a short tune-up, by adjusting the valve lash
>>  (I have mechanical lifters), and cleaning the K&N air filter by
>>  applying K&N filter oil, etc. or if it is irrelevant. So I was messing
>>  around in the engine bay recently...
>> 
>> 
>>  This weekend the engine felt considerably worse. It felt like it would
>>  stumble under partial throttle as well. It would stumble a little bit
>>  under trailing throttle going downhill as well, so I don't think it is
>>  a clogged fuel filter.
>> 
>> 
>>  Oil temp is perfect. Oil pressure is perfect. Water temp is perfect.
>>  The engine idles perfectly. But if you floor the gas from idle, it'll
>>  stall. The engine doesn't feel crisp, it feels bloated and soft, if
>>  that makes sense. It feels rough, and it feels like it occasionally
>>  stumbles under constant throttle at highway speed. It pulls hard when
>>  accelerating, but I don't think as hard as it used to, or as high (I
>>  have a 6500 rpm limiting chip in the MSD that it used to pull very
>>  easily to).
>> 
>> 
>>  Suggestions for where to begin looking? And other info that would help
>>  in troubleshooting?
>> 
>> 
>> !DSPAM:54568258260291209923907!
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