I did some "exploratory surgery" today in preparation for the arrival of my throttle body gasket (along with other items) from IPD.

I have been having really bad hesitation when pulling away from stop lights when the car is hot. It has not yet stalled on me, but it has come close.

Prior to this resurrection (after two years of being parked) it would do this in rush hour traffic downtown. It once took me over an hour to get about six miles because it kept crapping out on me in the 105º local temp. At two locations I had cops threaten to ticket me and have the car towed. The first one was shortly after leaving where I had been for about an hour. Prior to that I had driven pretty hard for an hour to get to town with zero issues. In between these two places where it kept stalling was a three mile stretch of Interstate highway. Once I got it moving (past the last light and onto a mile-long entrance ramp) it was just grand again. But as soon as I took my exit and came to the light at the end of the ramp it died again.

And my brick and I sat there blocking traffic for over a half hour. No start, and so many tries that I was fearing that I would kill my battery's charge.

Shortly after that incident the car was parked unceremoniously at my mother-in-law's to be used as a decoy car. She had just moved into a home and we needed to keep the scumbags guessing as to whether there was actually anyone in the building. It did a great job sitting there doing nothing for 23 months. HA!

So since I turned this thing over and drove her home I have had miserable power/acceleration (especially up steep hills from a dead stop in my neighborhood) but no hesitation. Everything worked great, just really anemically.

Then I Seafoamed the gas and through a vacuum line. I do not think this had ever been done to this block, which is probably at 350,000+ miles. The smoke was delightful, by the way. ;-)

I got a big return for that bit of work. Everything got better, but now the old hesitation problem had returned.

Today I did a very halfway Quick Lube-type of job with a can of CRC Throttle Body Cleaner. All I did was remove the ruined intake accordion hose and the 90º elbow with the two large vacuum ports, the MAF and the top of the air box. I then sprayed in about a half a can while revving the motor by hand. I did not get all the stuff off, nor did I really want to. I plan to do that in a few days. I just wanted to see whether the hesitation would get better at all.

Anyway, next I checked the air filter. Still very clean.

I used the CRC MAF Sensor Cleaner, but it, too, was pretty clean.

[I][SIDEBAR: So, just how fine is that lightbulb-like filament supposed to be? I have what looks like one thick blade or wire in the central flow tunnel (about 1" in diameter) and a small pentagon of wire that is thinner than a hair, it seems. I could see, with effort, four lines of wires, from one of the two bases around to the other one, but could not tell whether the two bases had one between them. I want to say there was not one, so that it was a pentagon minus the bottom line. Is this correct?][/I]

The accordion hose has a small hole and was coated inside with oil and gunk from the elbow about halfway down its length. It is also misshapen due to heat and age, having been squashed a small bit flat on one side from the wiring harness and hoses between it and the fender well.

The elbow is trashed. The smaller of the two vacuum ports (going to the flame trap, I think?) that is closer to the butterfly valve in the mouth of the throttle body is nearly broken off. I tried to temporarily seal it but that failed. It was heavily coated with oil and hardened varnish, especially the aluminum inner sleeve that allows the two plastic tubes to be connected via a band clamp.

The throttle body was gummed up with hard, black varnish that was sticky and nasty and solid, lumpy black.

After cleaning the MAF and replacing some vacuum lines I tried to clean the throttle body in situ, like at the oil change place, knowing that the two small vacuum ports were plugged. (I will do this properly on Wednesday when the gasket arrives.)

The result was that the hesitation got more pronounced.

We took it out for a test drive of about two hours on a US highway where we could get away with a sustained 70 mph without getting a ticket.

After about ten miles things were going well again. We had decided that if things were okay at that point we would go on down to town and get supper. This would require a lot of stop-and-go driving, which would give it lots of chances to hesitate so we could try and figure this out.

And it hesitated a little, once or twice.

After supper we headed home.

More power, more acceleration, better hill climbing, and no hesitation.

Hmm.

I cannot wait to get that gasket so I can take my TB off and really go over it carefully. And we will be putting a new accordion hose/elbow on order with IPD tomorrow morning. (No IPD bashing, please. I like them a lot for my own reasons. I know I could have gotten that part for less. I an not concerned with that right this moment. But thanks.)

I am hoping that the IPD 740 accordion hose includes the elbow with the two ports, as that is what is broken. But if not I will see if I can get that bit from them on the same order. I still need the hose itself.

Does anyone have a clear photograph of the MAF for my car, showing how the filament should actually look? This gizmo looks spendy and I do not want to have to get one.

Anyway, with the increase in power and speed and response to the pedal on hills, it now also has the CEL on full time. And the idle is a bit more rough. So I started a process and am only partway through. I am hoping that everything smooths out and the computer is happy when I am done with this system.

Any comments or personal wisdom to share regarding my experience today?

Thanks!

Wade
--
Mama always told me to eschew obfuscation...