Well I recently bought my kid his first car. It's a 88 vert 4cyl. We have done all the usual things u do when u buy an older car. I dropped the tank and emptied the old fuel becauseit had been sitting a while. We changed the oil, spark plugs, plug wires, fuel filter, put some fresh gas in it, and I used what little bit of carb cleaner I had and sprayed down the throttle body while it was
running. It runs better but it still runs rough. I drove it around the block and it kept wanting to hesitate and stall when I gave it gas.


What should be my next step? Should I rent a timing light and check the timing or could it be my fuel pump from sitting.

 

I think I would look at the timing belt, it may have skipped a tooth. Does it idle rough or just under acceleration? What does the exhaust sound like, any missing coming out of the exhaust? Compression test?? Burnt valves? Does it run any better if you tinker with the timing? Good Luck!

 

Idles fine. It when I give it gas it acts up.

 

oh brother..........well i was tinkering around with it when i got home today and i pulled out the dipstick to look at it and the oil was black.....wtf.....we just changed the oil. is that a sign of water leaking in?it seemed kinda thin too but it is fresh oil. the only place we ran it was around the block aobut 5 times and idles in the driveway. the oil looks black, like it did when i got it. i will post a pick of it on my finger but i don't know how well it will come out.

one of them is blurry as heck but it shows the color better. i had more on my fingers than the other one. this oil is only a couple of weeks old and the car has not ran but the short times i mentioned.

 

i have had d same problem
may not be your problem
but i did all that plus maf sensor and oxygen sensors

 

well, i borrowed a timing light and checked it out today. when it was running it ran at about 20 above the zero. i read that it should be around 10 or so. now all i did was mark the notch so i could see it better, hooked the timing light to the battery and clamped on to the #1 plug wire and started it up. it was on the 20 or so. i loosened the distributer and tried to start it back up but it would never start. so what did i **** up? i did have a sensor unplugged that came off the throttle body but didn't realize it till the battery was too low to start the car. so i am going to charge it up and try it again tomorrow prob. did i do something or could it be the sensor that i didn't have plugged in?

 

Ok so I still can't get the thing started. I tightned back down the distributer and can't get the thing to catch and run. I looked at the spark plugs and even though they are brand new they are blacker than u know what. Is that a sign of anything.

 

your a good daddy!! VERY WISE starting him in a 4 cyl car for starters.