Car lost power, now idles low/won't stay running, Need help ASAP Options

[Mockmaw]

Well, my car is currently stuck in Kettleman City, broke down on my brother in the process of bringing it back to the Bay Area.

So.. after driving for several hours, the car began losing power (rpm still up there, just little to no power output.) He made it to the gas station right as the car died. Now the car will start with a little effort (that is, pressing the gas pedal), but idles very low before dying. Brother claims that there was a strange, repetitive noise when the engine was losing power.. similar to a pinging noise.

I'm about to embark on the 220 mile trip down there to see if I can figure something out. I'm beyond agitated as I just took the car to the shop to take care of a few oil leaks. Aside from the leaks, the engine ran beautifully.. since getting it back from the shop, it's been a real pain in the ass. Took it back to them, apparently they took care of the problem.. I guess they didn't. So what could have become f**ked in the last couple weeks? It's not fair for me to pin the blame on the shop, but I can't feel but cheated that the car ran perfectly before I sent it in.

So what can I do? What should I be looking for? I realize this is a hasty post and probably lacks some crucial details, so please ask for clarification where needed and I'll do my best.

[SirAndy]

stupid question, but, did you ran out of fuel that day?
i had something similar on my jeep, ran almost out of fuel,
car ran shitty afterwards, no power but plenty of RPM.

fuel-filter was plugged up with s**t from the bottom of the tank ...

Andy

[Mockmaw]

Hmm, I'll have my brother check that, but fuel filter was replaced about a week ago.

Nope, fuel filter looks nice and clean.

[Russ K]

Does it have FI or carbs?

My initial guess woulda been clogged fuel filter or injectors, just 'cause that always seems to be what happens when you drive old cars on long trips. (in the past 12 months i've been in 2 different friends' cars when the fuel filter clogged.. i'm getting used to swapping those on the side of the freeway)

Next wild-ass guess would be fuel pump. i dont have much experience diagnosing a bad one on the 914.. 'cept i know what mine sounds like when i stick the key in the ignition and i can tell when its not on. I also have noticed that there always seems to be one guy that shows up to any organized 914 ride with an extra one... so i take it folks know that it can be a problem.

Sorry my lack of experience cant help you any further.

[need4speed]

Repetative noise? a LOUD repetative noise could be a valve guide bushing coming loose, or something ugly like that, which would take out a cylinder, so running on 3 would feel like less power. . . (I always think of the worst scenarios).

[Britain Smith]

Could it have possibly overheated? If this happened, you could have blown a head gasket or warped a head and it would still start, but die at idle and little power.

[Mockmaw]

Okay, so I'm conducting a job interview in 4 minutes, so I'll give the short of what happened.

Took the 3.5 hour trip down to Kettleman City the other night to help my brother out. After some diagnosis I found that not all the cylinders were firing (tested by removing spark plug wires from the distributor cap.) Found out that one spark plug was loose (strange) and I think my plug wires need replacement (and time to buy that pertronix too?) So I got it running on all 4 cylinders, and head out to continue the rest of the trip. I drove the Porsche, brother followed in the Probe.

The car drove poorly, still felt sluggish, and it makes a strange 'flapping noise' (for lack of a better term) for the first 2 seconds or so that the accelerator is pressed. Does that sound familiar to anyone?

Got the car back to Berkeley.. I discover that it's burning oil (blue-gray smoke out the tailpipe _only_ on acceleration) and that the car has a pretty major oil leak: how frustrating, I just paid the shop to take care of the oil leaks.. now the car is running poorly, it's still leaking, and it's 500 miles from the guy who attempted the repair. I know, I know.. old cars have a tendency to do this.

So, I've deduced the following so far:

1. The car's still leaking, I can crawl underneath to find out where, but I'm pretty sure I'm just going to need to take it back home and have the guy take a look at it again.

2. I believe that the car is burning oil, but only when the gas pedal is depressed (acceleration).. can anyone offer any insight as to what may be the cause of this? The smoke is definitely coming out of the tailpipe (not from the outside of the heat exchangers.)

3. I'm experiencing that 'flapping' noise during the first 2 seconds of acceleration. I have no clue what this may be.. I'm currently looking through forum posts for anything that may pertain to this.

4. The engine runs rough at times but I'm fairly certain that this is an ignition problem.. especially because the tach bounces are considerably during the times when the engine feels 'rough'. That may be a points problem? But the points were just replaced.

That's all I can say for now, any advice would be great, and thanks for everyone that helped me out over the weekend!

[porsche735]

With same rpm and lower power that points to fewer cylinders firing. I would yank out one plug wire at a time to see if you notice a change... I guess it could be running very rich or very lean as well. Perhaps the head temp sensor is bad?

Chris

[mightyohm]

Does the flapping noise go away when it warms up?

How about a compression test?

[Mockmaw]

Let's see here:

In Kettleman City, I pulled spark wires to listen for changes in the engine note. On 2 of them, pulling the wire caused enough drop in power for the car to die. On one of them, pulling the wire made a slight audible difference in the engines idle. On the last one, pulling the wire made no change whatsoever to the engine note.

After playing around with the spark wires for awhile (notably tightening the connections and tightening the spark plugs, since one was loose) all 4 cylinders caused a change in engine note upon removal from the distributor cap.. yet 2 of them made considerably stronger changes than the other two.

I have not run a compression test yet.

The flapping noise occurs all the time, even when the engine is very warm. I've never heard of anything like it.. it only happens for a moment or two after I depress the gas pedal.. I can hold the gas pedal down for 15 seconds or so, and the flapping sound will only happen during the first 2 seconds or so. I can depress the gas pedal repeatedly every few seconds, and each time the flapping noise will sound for the first couple seconds of depressing the accelerator.

I have not tried pulling spark wires from the distributor cap since I got the car back in Berkeley.

[Brad Roberts]

Check the colling fan for debris.

I havent had time to go over your running issue.


B

[need4speed]

It's leaking oil?!
Well, at least you now know for certain.
It's a Porsche. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

As for all the other stuff, I wouldn't even hazard a guess w/o checking compression.

[Bruce Allert]

From what I have heard at a couple shops and also read an article that discribed this flaping noise while accelerating is a blown head gasket.
=$.02
What a bummer man... I can comiserate. I went through a bunch of different problems... as we all have
bruce

[Mockmaw]

I will see about doing a compression test and see what I can do about checking the cooling fan for debris.

Yes, incredibly frustrating.. as I said, car was running fine before I took it into the shop. I'm trying not to think about that part right now.

I'm a little confused by 'blown head gasket' as I thought head gaskets were only needed on water-cooled cars?

I think the big question is.. do I try to drive it home (505 miles), or tow it down?

[john rogers]

I didn't see where you said if you had FI or not? If you have FI, check the seals on the injectors as they can fail and suck in enough air to burn things up? Next, check the distributor to see if it is loose? Also look inside the distributor cap to see if there is any arcing or cracks so the spark is jumping around or grounding. If you have a high voltage coil or MSD box, you need that plastic insulator that goes under the rotor to prevent arcing to the distributor body? Good luck