By December 13, 20050 Comments Read More →

My Car is Very Sluggish and Does Not Have The Power It Use To Have

Reader Question:
Hello Austin, could you just answer me this one question please ? Any input would be GREATLY appreciated. I have a 1990 Chevrolet Camaro RS 305 V8. I had the motor rebuit about a year ago and have just recently got the whole car up and running. The car ran fine for the first few months of operation and then it started getting sluggish on me. It would be very slow to accellerate, and would sometimes stall out around turns.

Return trips (when the motor was warmer) seemed to make this worse. I had the catalytic converter checked for blockage and everything was ok, but the mechanic there told me I needed a tune up. So I took the car in to replace the plugs, wires, distributor rotor, pcv valve, map sensor,coil, fuel and air filters. After the tune up the car ran beautiful, like it had the first few months after the motor was put back in. 2 Days later the car started acting up again. The same problems too.I have a mild vibration or a shaking coming from the motor,and is very slow to accellerate. The stalling hasn’t happened much since the car doesn’t accelerate as fast now. Would you possibly be able to help me?
Thanks Matt

Hey Matt,

Humm, sounds like you have already done all the easy stuff..

I would have your mechanic check out the following items:

1.)Take a fuel pressure test, you could have a weak fuel pump
2.)Inspect for a vacuum leak or a problem with the vacuum hose routing (listen for a hissing noise under the hood)
3.)Check MAP sensor operation
4.)Check base ignition timing
5.)Check firing order
6.)Compression test on each cylinder

Let me know what they find

Blessings,
Austin C. Davis

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