The symptoms you describe could be caused by a vacuum leak. Since there are so many possible sources of vacuum leaks plug off everything and sort them out one by one. Start with a THOURGH visual inspection especially where things are hard to see like on the front of the motor and under the intake manifold. David Teitelbaum vin 10757 --- In dmcnews@xxxx, "pbartusek" <pbmain@xxxx> wrote: > Had a question for the group... > > How common is it for there to be a leak in the gasket that goes > between the lower housing of the fuel mixture housing and the > throttle valve assembly? > > The reason I ask is that my car was running ok, with the exception of > some issues I posted on last fall where the car would be going fine > down the highway, but when I released the gas for a moment and then > accellerated again, the car would just start dropping speed. It > seemed as if backing off the accelerator would help a bit, but the > car wouldn't go above 55, and I'd have to do some quick lane changes > as everyone here in Detroit wanted to speed by... > > I decided a tune up couldn't hurt the situation, but then the > nightmare really began - after new spark plugs/wires/cap/rotor, > (taking off the two bolts and pulling up on the mixture unit to get > clearance to get the distributor cap off, and the car ran like > complete garbage. Couldn't go above 25. I looked and looked for any > sign of a vaccum leak, disconnected wires, etc. Nothing that I could > spot. I started replacing the replaced parts, with the old parts that > at least would let the car run good enough to drive around town, and > still the same symptoms. The car sat through the winter in the > garage, and now when I went to turn it on, it won't start - unless > you give it gas right away and keep it above 1000rpm. No longer does > it sit at the nice fast idle, then back off after a couple minutes. > You just have to kick in the gas or else it won't even be close to > staying alive, and the word idle is not a part of this car's > functionality any longer! If you floor the pedal, it won't go above > 1000 or 2000 or wherever you have it - it just sounds starts > sputtering. If you back off the accelerator a bit, it zooms up in > RPM very fast. If you accellerate more gradually, it will rise, but > usually sounds a bit rough in doing so...Took the plugs out - all are > equally alike - dull black. > > I'm kind of stuck at this point that I'm not sure if I should be > chasing fuel system issues, vacuum issues, distributor, etc... The > obvious answer seems to be 'retrace your steps, you screwed something > up', but I've gone over distributor cap wire routing, replaced the > new parts with old and back again, trying to find the mysterious > variable that's causing the problems, but I just seem to be getting > more problems without reducing the number of variables! > > Any suggestions on testing vaccum, fuel pressure, or any other common > Delorean troubleshooting steps for something like this are greatly > appreciated... > Pete Bartusek > #6707