Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Idle quality/Lack of Power

Ok most of you have read prior posts by me about a contour I aquired and all the problems we went thru to get it to finally run. Well where do I start.

New:
Fuel Pump
Fuel Filter
PCV
IAC
MAF
Plugs
Wires
Upper gaskets (Head Gasket Kit)
Timing Belt
Air Filter
Breather Element

Ok FINALLY got the car to idle (found the pcv T was FUBAR), decently enough to say. We idled it for about 3 hours. In that idling time drove it around the block about 4 times.

If you gently press on the throttle, car hesitates a second and takes off fine. Now if you mash the pedal to the floor regardless, if your stop or going, if falls on its face and you can feel the engine struggle to go, its falling over its face. We eliminated the ideas of maybe a vacuum leak. Sprayed the back of the intake with a full can of carb cleanas well as the vacuum lines, then used propane gas to see if we could pinpoint a possible vacuum leak.

Has a slight idle miss, nothing bad, we figured turning the car over all these times and not starting fouled the plugs up. But still wouldnt cause the car to lack power under full throttle. The car doesnt miss under full throttle, just no power takes forever to get up to 55mph, but yet if you go light on the throttle it goes with no problems,

Clogged cat?? Faulty MAF? Plus we noticed a whining hiss coming from by the battery tray, Hiss goes with idle, idle stumbles a bit so does hiss. Another thing we notice, when the cooling fan kicks on, idle stumbles almost stalling the car. In my 12 years of being in the automotive field, I have never come across a more stubborn car, guess the old saying learn something new everyday (especcially in automotive world). Sometimes the car will idle in gear, sometimes it wont. And when it does sometimes idle is rough, but other times its smooth .

Any suggestions to this, that something we may have over looked? That we should look into.

try unplugging the MAF and drive around the block. If it's acting the exact same way (no power, crappy idle) with the MAF connected/disconnected, it is probably the MAF. (You can clean the MAF with some electrical contact cleaner, but if it still runs the same, I would buy a new one) Another thing to check out is the hiss. Do you have a K&N or regular filter? If it's K&N, the hiss is probably the intake itself. If it's a normal filter, tear apart the air box and look for cracks. Check all your intake hoses as well. As far as I know, there's nothing directly under the battery tray that could hiss, but the intake/air box is right there so that's a good place to look.

When the car is running, what is the voltage at the battery, should be 14 or so. If it's low or unsteady the car would run poorly.

Voltage going to battery is roughly 14.20-14.30 when car is idling. With headlights on and heater in car going full blast at idle, voltage drops to roughly 13.10 - 13.20.

Will try the unplugging of MAF.

As for Fuel Pump and Filter, Both are brand new. But I will check the fuel pressure.