Yesterday I drove from Chicago to Richmond in a freshly sealed 2.0. The car has a slight miss at idle but ran well at speed. The motor did great ran cool until I got to DC. At low speed, the car barley runs. It pops in both intake and exhaust. I got stuck in construction traffic on 95S just south of DC abd I started to overheat. The car couldn't make it up a slight hill. After an hour cool down, I was able to get going but barely. Once through the slow down, all was fine and I made the last 90 miles. I am thinking I have a sticking injector. Later I will use some spared I have with me. Any ideas on this would be appreciated.

Check the condition of your plug wires, could be as simple as that.

So sorry to hear it, Mark! You deserve good fix karma. Wish I could offer more than good wishes! If there's anything I can do to help from Chi-town, do let me know!

Are you thinking sticking closed? Lean condition? Do you have any tools? Test light to check and see if your getting an injector signal?

Where are you exactly? Maybe we can find someone close to help out. Richmond? I hope out of DC! That is no place to be broke down!

Give Scotty B or Welby a shout... they are in the area.

If Scotty can get free, he can get you fixed up.

Zach

maybe the valves have tightened up?

That was my biggest worry. I found the vacuum hose on the manifold for the deceleration valve had come off. I get some popping in the intake at low speeds. I know I need some tuning. The popping must have blown off the old poorly fitting hose. It is secure now. New hoses are on the list. Could the popping be from too tight valves?

There is a lesson here.
"The level of panic is directly proportional to the distance from home"

........Check the distributor -POINT GAP- it should be .016 ths inch wide(clearance)...a match book cover is a handy tool. if thats not the problem..Then look to having the VALVES ADJUSTED...pronto.before you burn a valve.

Pertronic ignition. The valves were adjusted just before the trip. The motor was out when I did this. I am not sure if these can get out of adjustment that fast.

............pertronic...no points.
...................DID the distributor -MOVE-...check the timing., and check the lock down clamp..(.10 mm, long wrench if possable)....13mm on the nut.

Popping can also be from vacuum leaks. A hose falling off or loose would surely be a source of a large vacuum leak.

If you are still in Richmond say hi to my car when you go by please.

O.K.

It is the ugly silver '73 at Scotty's place.

The final story is in. I stopped in to visit Scotty B. Scott was a life saver for me. It turns out my valves were tight. My timing also was not set correctly. Now that these things are corrected, my motor runs better than ever. No popping and I have a smooth idle. I am certain my motor would have been destroyed had these problems not been corrected. Thanks again Scott. Your help is really appreciated!

good I nailed another one! Keeps me young knowing that I can still come up with a solution to 914 problems.

Thank you George. You were correct. I could have easily written off the big problem as a disconnected hose. This came later. The tight valves caused the popping which blew off the hose. The thought of getting valves adjusted while on the road is not a pleasant thought. I am not sure what I would have done if Scott had not been there for me.

Karma. You helped Kelly, Scotty helped you. That's how we roll!

What caused the valves to get tight? You running a little warm? Or just not been adjusting them?

Glad it got fixed, though!

Zach

That is a good question Zach. I had the motor out and I had the heads off. I replaced the head gasket. and torqued the heads. I adjusted the valves. I was surprised that they all needed to be tightened up. I did adjust them properly. I will be home later today. Tomorrow I will check the head torque and adjust the valves again. Having just adjusted the valves caused a lot of doubt that this was my problem. Comments here helped push me to checking them before driving any distance.

On a side note, I left Harrisonburg VA yesterday. I took US33 through the mountains. I passed maybe 10 cars in 100 miles. This was the most fun I ever had in my car. Twistys up and down the mountains! It was a total scream! Car ran great. I gor near the red on long inclines but never into it. One happy puppy here!

After doing a valve adjust I used to do a quick run-thru to check tightness of all the nuts before putting the cover on. One day I found that tightening the rocker arm nuts will quickly eat up whatever lash you thought you had.

Another thing - the rocker arms are lubed under pressure, but if your lash was <0 then there might not be enough oil pressure to overcome pressure from the valve spring. Your rocker arms and/or shafts may be toast. The shafts can be flipped over if they are scored, but I don't think the rockers can be rebushed. Please no or - just my experience with these things.