picked up a 73 1.8 last night. drove it 55 miles on the hiway 1/2 of it fine. then it wouldn't go up past 4000rpm without stuttering almost to a stall. finally died in my driveway . woun't start up now. hasn't been run since last season according to old owner except startin once a week. stand up guy i trust him. car is almost perfect except this one (hopefully small) problem. any ideas?

crap in the fuel line maybe?

Hello and Welcome !

First thing is to find if its fuel related or Spark related,
I don't know how mechanicly inclined you are, but lots
of members can and will walk you thru it.
Need a couple details. 1.8l correct? stock injection or carbs?
Let us know.

Later

is the same tank of fuel in the car from last spring? falls on it's nose at high rpm...other than the fuel question, this first thing i'd suspect is the fuel filter.

k

Probably crap in the gas. As Kevin said take a look at the filter. Also try to look in the tank (not all that easy). There shoud be a sock on the oulet that does a preliminary filtering. If theres a bunch of rust in there and the fuel got low it probably sucked a bunch of crap up against the sock and into the filter. If the fuel supply is OK then you probly need to start a systematic sequence to troble shoot. Fuel supply is 1st on the list

Dave

crap in the tank i had the same problem easy to fix remove and flush out then replace all the fuel filters!!!!

Open the engine compartment and remove the engine lid. Find the small 4mm bolt inserted into the fuel pressure tap on the LH metal fuel line between the injectors (note: this may have been moved to the other side by a previous owner). With the key off, remove the bolt, and install a presssure gauge onto the fitting. Tape the gauge in the middle of the back window where you can see it in the mirror, then take the car for a drive. When it starts to stumble, take a look at the fuel pressure gauge in your rear view mirror. A really big gauge makes for easy reading when looking in the mirror.

A 1.8L with the original L-Jet should have 28 psi at idle, and 32 to 34 when the engine is under load (meaing accellerating).

If it gets below 28, you have a fuel feed problem. I would check the screen in the tank, the pump and the fuel filter. If someone before you had the same problem and removed the screen in the tank, what gummed up the screen in the past is now gumming up the pump.