Car chugging/lurching, running bad.

[OhDearAudrey]

Hey guys, i have a 77' 280, lately My car has been lurching forward / chugging / just running terribly. It used to do it sometimes when the engine warmed up but it has been really cold here lately so i didn't notice if it was doing it or not. But now it does it really bad whether the engine is warmed up or not.

Other things i have noticed that may be related. sometimes the car takes a lot of time turning over to start and it feels like it won't start then it does. But the idle is very low. about 1k ish, and dropping lower then coming back up. Also my oil pressure seems a little higher then usual. But these things could have nothing to do with the main problem that the car runs terribly!

[Zed Head]

Have you examined anything under the hood? Spark plugs, measured fuel pressure, etc. Does it run rich, with a gassy smell and smoky exhaust? Does it backfire at all? Does it miss? More data...

1,000 is actually a high idle. Spec. is 800.

[FastWoman]

Zed, I think he means the car idles at 1000 cold (when he first gets it to turn over).

ODA, when it's cold, the oil pressure will be higher, but you're right that has nothing to do with engine performance. There's a lot that could be wrong with your engine. Cozye and I have gone through great lengths to straighten out our '78 engines (successfully), and Jennys280Z is in the process of debugging her '76. You can read Jenny's current thread to see what we've been doing. I believe your '77 is more like my '78 than Jenny's '76, but all these systems deteriorate over time and seem to suffer from the same problems:

* vacuum leaks

* bad electrical connections

* occasional sensors gone bad

* sometimes bad injectors

* inaccuracies in the ECU

Could be a lot of things. Tell us more, as Zed suggests.

[OhDearAudrey]

Hmm, Every now and then i get a gas smell. the exhaust isn't smoky at all. No backfires. Although it feels as if it will backfire at any moment with the way it runs. Under the hood everything looks fine. No oil leaks, or weird stuff i could tell.

[cozye]

If it's not backfiring and it's stumbling bad and missing, I would start troubleshooting the ignition. Get a new cap, rotors, plugs and wires. Install those then do a balance test to see if all cylinders are firing.