[vinsanity2701]

88 Mustang GT 5.0:

For some reason the car is not running anywhere near normal. I have to crank it two or three times before it will actually catch and run, and then it wants to die. Theres a very long hesitation between the depression of the accelerator and the time the gas actually hits the engine. If I keep my foot on the gas in park to keep my rpms up it runs smoothly, if I peg it to see what it will do it wont go much above 3500 before it starts to choke like its not getting enough gas. its also running around 600rpms at idle when it normally runs between 800-100, and its running very rough. when you put it in drive and give it gas it wants to choke out and stop running, backfiring and lurching. Check engine light is not on so I cant pull codes. I replaced the fuel filter, that did nothing. So I pulled the plugs and they were burnt white obviously its running lean.. changed the plugs, and checked the distributor cap and the points were heavily corroded with build up from resistance. changed the cap and rotor. Ive narrowed it down to a few things, so see if any of this sounds right to you: Clogged injectors, bad fuel pump, clogged line, MAF sensor going bad, TFI bad, or timing off. Please give some input on the situation, as I need to get back on the road quickly. thanks!

[stangfreak]

i'd replace the fuel pump. but to me that's preventive maintanace. it's a 20 year old car, why wait for it to go out and leave you stranded?

[snoel123]

Invest in a fuel pressure gauge and you could rule out alot of things. Sound like low fuel pressure but It could be a few things. Try cleaning you're MAF sensor, also after cleaning reset KAM. I will explain how to do this without a scan tool, it sounds stupid but works. Make sure when you clean the MAF you clean the sensing wire. To reset KAM (keep alive memory) remove the ground from your battery (from both batteries if you have 2 ) use a wrench or jumper wire to connect the ground terminal connector to the positive post that is still connected to the battery (make sure you do not contact the negative post with the disconnected terminal while doing this or you will dead short the battery!!!).
Hold it there for 30 seconds. What this achieves is it discharges the capacitors in the vehicles PCM which causes all KAM to be reset. Which means if you change a faulty component (ie MAF) it will learn exponentially quicker when a new one is installed because it has learned to correct for the faulty one.

You're TFI could have excessive resistance but not likely. You could have low voltage to the injectors. Clogged injectors are possible but highly unlikely (as several would need to clog to cause hard starting. Timing could be off (suspect this if the engine seems to slow down as you are cranking to start).

Hope this gives you somewhere to start. Keep in mind you could change 100 parts if you want to guess. I would start by checking fuel pressure/fuel leakdown to either find the fuel system faulty or rule it out as a cause. A fuel pressure gauge is around 50 bucks. To change the fuel pump , regulator, filter, and injectors is going to cost you several times that not to mention the time involved and other parts required (o-rings, broken bolts, etc.). Anyway
If you have any questions feel free to ask.

[Vamp89]

Mine is doing almost the exact same thing I believe its my MAF sensor as when I put my stock one back on she fires right up as to my CnL it won't fire. It will die with the CnL if I connect the plug, but with stock no diff.

[fairlane_68]

How long has it been since the fuel filter was replaced?