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1987 volvo 244 DL idles fine, stutters and backfires at highway cruise speed

Symptoms as described above: At idle, the car sounds and behaves fine. No problem starting. However yesterday at highway cruise, momentary loss of power occured at irregular intervals, accompanied by occasional backfires.Power loss duration was from split second to up to 20 sec. About 2 weeks back, the Smog check mechanic stated that the hoses to the evaporation canister are cracking. He also adjusted the timing by several degrees, making what I thought to be an occasionally rough idle.

4 yrs ago, I replaced the failed original air mass meter.

Could the problems described above be from the evaporation canister hoses being more severely cracked? What is the function of the evap canister during highway-speed cruising?

My first suspicions are for air mass meter, but the fact that cracked hoses exist on the evap canister make me want to understand that system better. Any help appreciated!

Reply to
Alex Bonne
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Reply to
Jon Robertson

Has the outside of the harmonic balancer spun on the rubber damper? That can make the timing way off when the mark shows it to be just right.

'87 is also one of the years with the biodegradable engine wiring harness, I've had to replace several of those, the car will never be dependable with the original harness, the insulation crumbles all over. I rebuilt a few by splicing in all new wires from near the firewall to all the connectors since the cars broke down.

Reply to
James Sweet

Yeah definitely replace any cracked hoses, those aren't helping anything.

You might be able to clean the IAC valve in place but you'll save yourself time and headaches by removing it, there's only two bolts to loosen, a couple of hose clamps and an electrical connector.

Reply to
James Sweet

You can set the engine to TDC by looking at the mark on the cam pulley which you can see if you remove the screw at the top of the timing belt cover and pull the cover away a bit. With it lined up with the mark on the backing plate the mark on the crank pulley should line up with the 0 mark on the lower cover.

Reply to
James Sweet

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