J30 won't accelerate/sputtering

[pharmman]

Hello All,

1993 J30, 130K miles, Florida car, purchased 2 years ago, well maintained. I use synthetic motor oil, changed regularly, Royal Purple transmission fluid. I have flushed the cooling system, fuel system, and had some electrical work (sunroof, windows, door locks). It isn't driven hard, or far.

Apx. every nine months I experience the 'flooded car - won't start" problem described elsewhere in this forum. It has always had a hard shift 1st-2nd, 2nd-3rd, when I give it more than moderate throttle.

Three months ago it began to lose power at 2200-2500 RPM; it sputters like it was running out of gas and refuses to accelerate. If it sits for several hours it runs okay again. It has no noticible problem at idle.

It wants to shift at around 2500 RPM. If I back off the gas for a second as soon as it sputters and then give it pedal again it will shift and I can crawl up to 2200 RPM again.

It was intermittent at first. The mechanic thought it was probably bad gas (charged me to flush my fuel system). Lately, it has become more frequent, and has started to sputter at a lower RPM. It happens after I've applied moderate-full throttle, slow down, and give it gas again.

If I put in neutral it still sputters, and changing gears doesn't matter.

I'm making a date with my local dealer on Monday, but I would love to know what I'm getting into. Any insight would be appreciated.

Thanks.

[DAEDALUS]

It actually sounds like it's running too rich, but verify the fuel pressure first. If the pressure checks out, then the next step will be to keep the gauge hooked up and do a fuel rail leakdown test.

[metaverse3]

Look at the service bulletins I posted here: zerothread?id=113076

These are known issues..

[pharmman]

Thanks, I'll check it out and come back with the findings. What is amazing is how the problem comes and goes. Saturday morning it would barely make it around the block, this afternoon it ran great. I'll let you know what I find, thanks again.