What grade fuel are you running? How many miles are on both? Any rough driving (romping on gas, etc) lately? May have to do with the timing. Is the Skylark using points? Also, gasoline floats on water. When you added more fuel to the cars did you drain the tank first?
ethanol blended fuel starts breaking down after only 30 days . going from 10% to 15% soon its only gonna be worse . also the ethanol acts as a cleaning agent and any crap in the tanks is gonna try and work its way forward . isopropyal gas line antifreeze is soon not gonna be recommended for ethanol blends maybe . and yep - worse mileage ( extra cost ) . and small engines like chainsaws , lawn mowers , weedeaters etc are even worse . we are starting to sell a bunch of additives like seafoam and stabil etc ( extra cost ) . and we get more info ( mostly negative ) in almost daily from both official sources and people working the big trucks , town road crews etc . del
Come on, guys. This may not be a fuel related issue. Get a grip. I'm almost sorry I brought it up! No need to jump on a bandwagon that doesn't yet exist. Devon
Id pick one car and start double/triple checking basics. Start with the easiest stuff and then go from there. Im just going to throw this out there- Any chance of somebody messing with both of your cars? Like sugar in the tank or any of those types of things?
KISS. Fuel is the common thing between his two cars. Also having problems with fuel in Seattle area also, not so much a bandwagon yet.
Actually I believe we need a little more information as to exactally what has changed or happened to begin this problem, and what all has been done thus far to try and solve it.
Ok what has been done up to this time on the skylark new spark plugs,wires didn't get a cap and rotor figured it wouldn't need a replace since it has electronic ignition not to mention the cap looked brand new when i bought the car it use to have an exhaust manifold gasket leak wich is what it kinda sounds like now but only coming from the top of the motor. bottle of iso heet was poured in prior to me putting fresh premium gas in it like i always have. drove it for more then a hour freeway and city the power seems fine just makes a loud clackin tickin noise and some hesitation on acceleration and when maintaining speed could it be something to do with a vacuum hose from my tranny to the motor? The car would and still does sometimes blow blue smoke upon starting ive been told it could be my valve on my tranny that could pretty much when failed put tranny fluid in my motor? So after everythang ive done and said as of right now it still runs the same
When you changed the plugs what did they look like? Did anyone think that maybe the choke was sticking in the closed position. When it got cold, really cold the choke will close up on both cars and maybe by some weird coincidence they both stuck closed or part closed? Just a thought
Well first you have to do the compression test to find if there is a bad cylinder, and pull the valve cover on the side that is clacking and do some checking, it could be a bad rocker,lifter,bent push rod or a cam.... I am a little confused that it took you till the second page of posting to tell us that you have a noise in the top of engine, also your title and posts tends to make one think {both cars just started to run like crap outta the blue, at the same time} but that could be just the way I read it, anyone? "didn't get a cap and rotor figured it wouldn't need a replace since it has electronic ignition" Makes no sence, points or electonic would still need new cap and rotor! We are here to help each other if we can, just give us all you can up front so we can better help you.... But please do the test or at least pull the valve cover, if it's clackiing that bad, you should be able to feel and see the loose rocker(s).... Johnny
the sound doesn't sound like its comming from my valve covers it sounds like its comming from the carb or from the intake manifold
Replace cap and rotor, even if that doesn't end up being the problem it still needs to be done. Your carb could be clogged or you could have a collapsed fuel line thanks to the ethanol doing its share of breaking down the rubber. Gasoline floats on water as mentioned earlier so I doubt that is the issue. Check all your plugs to make sure they are burning consistently and re-secure all the wires at both ends. There are 3 major ways to diagnose an engine. Fuel, air and spark. My car started having a miss over the last month and since I have gone through quite a few tanks of gas and I know it is getting fuel I am going to overhaul my ignition system. If it isn't that I will replace fuel lines, rebuild the carb and drop the tank to clean and replace sender. Might even change the fuel pump. These cars are old, anything your replace can't hurt but if money is really tight start with the cheaper items.:laugh:
Any varmits in your storage area???...groundhogs, raccoons, squirrels, mice? They can chew on gas and vacuum lines, and wiring too. I've even heard of mice entering a tailpipe and building nests in there!
not that i know of the car is parked on the street....the sound it makes sounds like theres some sort of leak from the exhauust or from the intake or the carb its been cold so i havent out to pop the hood since yesturday
take the valve covers off and check the rocker shafts or maybe a bent pushrod or hook a fuel line from your fuel pump to a jug and mount it between your grill and radiator and secure it . drive it and see what happens
It sounds purely coincidental that both cars are acting up. Take one car at time and diagnose and fix it.
thats what i plan to do the skylark is up first....by the way my avatar shows both my poor running vehicles :shock:
ok so today i got some brand new spark plug wires that looked mis matched but made them work installed them and my my el camino ran even more rough then before barely staying running any and i thought it would be the problem because 1 of the the original wires i took off did have a crack in it to where you can see the wire in the spark plug wire
