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1987 New Yorker T-1 auto. Driving a few days ago and I started going through twice as much fuel as usual. It also felt like it wasn't making as much power as it usually does. I ended up running out of gas before I got home. I see no leaks anywhere and there is no gas smell that I noticed. It seems to be running ok other than this. This is my daily driver, so I need to get it running properly. Thanks.
There's no cooler way to do it than DDing an 87 NYer.
Do you think the timing belt could have jumped a tooth? I would pull the plugs and see what they look like too. There's no way you're not leaking it or inefficiently burning it if you're getting 12-14mpg in that hog. Injector stuck on? Can you smell gas in the oil?
ETA: I switched to the .91 transfer gears in my car and the gas mileage is incredible. That and relayed headlights are my two favorite mods in mine, and there's a lot done to it.
Due to the Thanksgiving holiday, I've been out of town and haven't had a chance to check it out since parking it. A friend of mine mentioned that it may be a MAP sensor issue, possibly a partially plugged cat or that my waste gate may be stuck open some. I will get a chance to look at it Monday and will check the timing belt, pull the plugs and sniff the oil.
A bad map or vac signal to it can cause extreme fuel use. The plugs should easily tell the tale. A plugged cat will make it down on power, but I don't think your fuel mileage should suffer much from it. I would do away with the cat at all possible regardless. The WG being stuck open will surely make it down on power, but it should have no ill effect on mileage. I can't wait for your report back.
Well, the plugs looked black and kind of sooty. They're not that old, so I cleaned them, set the gap and put them back. When I was running it earlier, I could smell a strong fuel odor as well as a catalytic convertor stench when standing beside the car. I threw a can of Berryman's Chemtool fuel system cleaner in the tank and drove it around town running errands for a couple of hours. Before heading home, I drove about 20 miles on the freeway and noticed that it seemed to be running better. Some of the power was back and it idled much smoother. (Dirty injectors?) I didn't see any vacuum lines that were disconnected or worn out, so maybe it's time to replace the MAP sensor. At my first chance, the CAT is going away. Either replace it with a piece of exhaust pipe or pull and gut it and see if it makes a difference.
I've had this car for just over a year. The timing belt looks almost new, it looks like the when the belt was installed, they didn't get it right. It's 2 or 3 teeth retarded. Looks like I'll be fixing that the next dry day we have.
I would recheck that. At 2-3 teeth off, I would not expect the engine to run at all... 1 tooth off is generally enough to cause the engine to run badly at one extreme or the other of the RPM band...
I have a new belt and since I don't know the age of the belt that's on there, I am going to replace it. It is definitely retarded at least 2 teeth, so I will pull the valve cover, bring all the marks to where they should be and hopefully it will run better. This is the most gutless turbo 1 car I have ever owned. My 89 turbo Caravan would run circles around this car.