Can anyone help me with an ongoing problem!?! Yesterday I drove my 240 wagon w/194k on a 20 mile drive. It was running fine until I put gas and fuel injector additive in. From that point on, it bucked and coughed non-stop and I couldn't accelate - I couldn't get over 20 mph/2nd gear. This continued the whole way to my class. When I left 6 hours later, expecting the same, it drove perfectly fine! A few days back, it did the same thing for a few miles and stopped (thus the use of injector additive). I'm scared to risk taking it on the highway. My mechanic has within the past 6 months replaced the fuel pump. Note:I am in Boston and we have been in a deep freeze the last two weeks. Any thoughts before I schedule with my mechanic?

The cracked Distributor cap or water in the gas are both legit ideas.

Water in the gas. If you have it, what tends to happen is ny letting the car sit, the gas and water separate. When you first start the car it may run fine but after a few miles of 'shaking' up the mixture, the car will run crappy. Chug the car to school, hang out for 6 hours and the water/gas is separating again. Good for a smooth ride home.

The Cap could be cracked. It would take 5 minutes to put on a known-good old one from the last tune up and see if the car gets happy. I always keep may last tune=up parts just incase the new stuff die prematurely.
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'75 Jeep CJ5 345Hp ChevyPwr and two motorcycles: it wasn't Volvos safety , it was Longevity that sold me

Start with gasline antifreeze. There is little logic in the way frozen water and injection systems work, if the problem goes away, your in luck. Go easy on the injector cleaner. also keep your tank at least 1/2 full.

You could be suffering from water in the gas. Drive a while and it freezes up, let it sit in the sun and it thaws out. Doesn't take too much heat to do the trick. Depending on what you have used for injector cleaner it may pick up enough water to do the trick. I am pretty careful where I buy my gas, specially at this time of year.

Thanks for the quick reply. Can tou explain more? What do you mean you're carefulwhere you buy gas? If at high noon the problem was at it's worst and ten at night after sitting for 9 hours in 20 degrees there was no problem at all, what's going on? Does this make sense? Thanks again.

There is another thing. A cracked distributor cap can act up if there is any moisture, cure itself when it gets colder. Careful where you buy gas. Well. Gas tanks get water in them. Some dealers fight this problem, others just sell the water to their customers. Not too sure what to tell you, but I'd stay away from the nobrand and cutprice dealers. On the other hand, some of these guys sell so much gas that the quality is pretty decent. I buy my gas from an obsessive-compulsive. He lies awake at night fretting about having water in his tanks and tests for it almost every day.

It can get even worse. Here in California we periodically read in the paper that the State or EPA caught someone selling gasoline that was not 100% gasoline.

You see, here in California, it is extremely expensive to get rid of used industrial solvents, especially chlorinated ones. We also have very high fuel taxes.

You do the math.

Truckloads of used industrial solvents have a way of mysteriously getting dumped in gasoline bulk tanks in the middle of the night. If it is straight petroleum solvents, like benzene and toluene and maybe a little cold cleaner degreaser solvent, it's no big deal and it burns more-or-less OK in most cars, since it is a very small fraction of the total tank. If it is chlorinated, it cleans things up real well but it doesn't burn too well and it rusts the heck out of everything down-stream of the pistons.

That's why I pay extra for the peace of mind that comes with buying name-brand gasoline. There can still be hanky-panky, but it is not so likely.