Sluggish 91

Dec 02, 2003 5 Replies

OK gang I have the ultimate dilemma......I have a '90 model that is normally aspirated, I have added most of the normal tweaks, (fresh air, timing advance, slack out of the throttle cable, polished the ridge out of the throttle body). I made the mistake of letting my boss drive my car!!! Big mistake!! He left his '91 with me last week to do the ole timing belt/water pump replacement, and ask if I could do some of the timing tweaks while I had it. Before I started the repairs I drove the car around a little to get a baseline for performance. I also checked the ignition timing before tearing it down, it was at 8 degrees ?? After the repairs I checked the timing, still at 8 degrees naturally, I changed it to 14 degrees. I also took the slack out of the throttle cable, checked the air filter and it is like new. The problem is that the '91 has 89k miles on it and to save my life can't figure out why it won't rev as fast as my '90. It takes forever to get the car to 70 miles per hour as it did before the repairs. My wore out '90 seems to wind up so much faster !!! Any ideas as to why this is???? I've even tried moving the timing around from 10-14 to see if there was a happy spot in there some where, no luck!!!! HELP!!!


Jerry Randolph '90B Red 134K Miles Frenzy Chrome Twin Hoop Glass Back Window


Plug wires? Clogged catalytic converter? Try swapping parts from your car.

The wires have been recently replaced and the cat is less than 10 days old. Had to replace the cat to get it to pass emissions test, NOX levels were too high.

-- Jerry Randolph '90B Red

Did you advance the timing before you did the emissions testing? If so, you probably caused the failure as the advanced timing makes big changes (increases) in NOX levels. I found out the hard way too but luckily, before I went to the expense of the cat replacement.

Good luck, Chris

92BB&T

Exhaust restriction after the cat, maybe?

That is a very good possibility it is much much quieter that my car as well and we both still have the stock exhaust.

-- Jerry Randolph '90B Red

Join the Discussion

Have something to add? Share your thoughts — no account required.

Didn't find your answer?

Ask the community — no account required