My 87 740 (no turbo) has, for the past 2 months or so, had a problem with hard starts and rough idel. Upon cold starts, the engine turns slowly, as if the timing was off (not a battery issue). It then races to 1500-1600 RPMs and settles to around 700-800. It will stall during the first few minutes if the accelerator is not "feathered".

The idle is rough and if one listenes to the tail pipe, there is a skip, smells like it is running rich too. At a stop, in gear, the car lurches. Otherwise the car runs fine, MPG possibly down 5-10%, certainly not more, pickup is as good as ever.

New plugs, wires, rotor and cap, no change in symptoms. Sounds different then the TB gunk issue, more like Temp sensor, the hard cranking-skip situation makes me wonder if the distributor may have a role to play.

I intend to bring it in for a checkup but any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks