Car will start right up.
Car will run great
Car hits closed loop
Car runs a little crappy
Car bucks and hesitates
Car will stall if you do not touch Gas
Car runs great after about 20 minutes
Car doesn't buck or hesitate
Car will idle no problems at all.
Car will repeat its crappy state, turn car off, turn on (After a little cooling period)

I know TPS is like 2 or 3% and at like .86

Think that could be the problem?

 

Maybe the heater portion of the O2 sensors failed, causing you O2's to take longer to heat up and work properly...any codes?

 

Yea? hrm... where can I get O2s? Jason Cromer give good prices? haha

 

First off, get the sensors reading properly. I assume that you are reading .86 volts because you had to prop the blades open with the stop screw to get it to idle. Now just slot the TPS and set it to .45-.55v and see what happens. That made a big difference with mine.

 

I was told that the voltage on the TPS isn't bad if it's that high though... that not true?

Does that O2 thing sound like it could be the problem? They are old... that's for sure. But I heard that they couldn't cause a problem like this.

Somone else also suggested... MAF?

 

Technically your TPS is within spec, but it is always best just to get it set to the center of the tolerance. Its not hard, it will take you 10 mins with a file and a DVOM. If you have a datalog, I would take a look at it if you want.

 

I got it down to .70volts

The computer was reading 4 o2s? But I only have 2? Could be the source of problems?

 

Your '96 does have 4 O2s.

There are two on each bank; one before each cat and one after each cat. the ones before the cats feed the PCM for mixture control. The ones after the cats feed the OBD-II for cat efficiency (basically, their used to predict catalytic converter failures)

Do you know what your temp sensor is reading? (Not the one that feeds the gauge, but the one that feeds the PCM)

Thomas.

 

http://web.camaross.com/forums/showthread.php?t=370948
I had a very similar problem that your describing, new plugs and wires fixed mine.

 

The plugs and wires are pretty freakin new... so is the opti.

The car will start fine in open loop. Run pretty bad in closed loop... it'll want to stall. But it won't. But car acts funny. If you give it gas, nothing happens? Goose the throttle? Nothing.

But then the hiccup is gone and car runs great for a bit, then it happens all over again.

If you run the car with stop and go for a bit, the cars idle changes and rises to 1500 then after about 7 seconds will fall to 1100 or so. That it the sign for everything is not working properly. If you turn the car off... filling up the car with gas. Once turned back on, car won't be the same. It's very weird... car runs great once it is running. But if you turn it off for whatever reason... you have to do whatever it is you need to do to get it to run right (I don't know what it is!!).

Please... someone help with some ideas!!

 

Chris, what kind of plugs do you have and exaclty how long have they been in there I had NGK's when mine acted up and they just had little over 3k miles on them.

 

Depending on the brand and type but the plugs with exotic metal in them have a heavy resistor in them. This makes them hard to fire and if something goes wrong with it it will fire whenever it wants/or not fire.Some ignition boxes play havoc with the resistor as in burn it up.
It might be an O2 problem after it goes into closed loop from what ya say the symptoms are.

Don't tell everybody(they won't listen) as I have been preaching the .035 gap and no exotic metal plugs for a good while now.

 

1racerdude, when you say exotic metals do you mean like platinum?

 

Yes and Iridium and any other's they might come up with. They go a long time with a STOCK set up but that's all. The puck's on the tip's fall off and small things like that.

 

LR, can you explain what you mean by a "heavy resistor"?



FWIW, all plugs for these cars whether they be precious metal type or not are going to have a 5k ohm resistor in them for RFI suppression.

As for capacitive discharge systems... check with the manufacturer. Some race series boxes will not work with resistor type plugs and they will specify that. However, most boxes built for use with these cars carrying a CARB number will work with resistor plugs. The reasons should be obvious.

Years ago we would file ground electrodes back halfway or even full width of the center electrode. All the plug makers offer plugs this way now and the reason has to do with what they call "quenching". The goal here being to get more of the heat energy generated by the spark into combusting and less absorbtion by the spark plug surfaces. Thin wire plugs like the iridiums & platinums do much the same thing.

This is a good SAE article about Iridium plugs for those interested.

http://www.sparkplugs.com/pdfs/iri.pdf

-Mindgame