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Engine Misfire for about 30 minutes


jsnowbordr47
11-30-2008, 01:44 AM
So, today I got in my Suburban to make my trip back up north from Southern California. I loaded up and left and I immediately noticed something wrong with the way the truck was running. It was definitely shaking more than usual during idle. So I checked all spark connections, and they were good and snug both at the plugs as well as the distributor cap. Then when I started driving, I noticed that the low end power was very bad, acceleration was very very sluggish (kinda like a go-kart, you feel/hear the engine start to work, and then about .5-1 second later the power goes to the wheels. When I was on the freeway, the engine was running extremely rough.

While I was driving I was just thinking about what could possibly be wrong, and of course the first thought that came to my mind was compression. I have a 1994 with 2 dead cylinders (0psi) and I have yet to fix that Suburban because the 95 is my daily driver and my baby. As I was contemplating on what else might be wrong with the car something just popped and the truck shuddered (I think that's the word I'm looking for) and then it start to run even more rough, it was jerking during acceleration.

However, after about 30 seconds, everything stopped jerking/shaking. And I noticed that the truck was running normally. It was actually running very well, I was able to make it up the Tejon Pass with no problems. Usually my truck and any other TBI truck struggles to go up this pass unless you start of with a good run at the bottom, but I had no problems this time.

So now that I'm home, I'm still debating on what to do tomorrow to try and figure out what was going on. I'm planning to do a compression check, change sparks/wires/cap and rotor, and possibly fuel filter. But any suggestions as to what may have been causing my problem would be greatly appreciated. A buddy of mine said I may have had a bad batch of gas, would that cause a misfire like I experienced? I always fill with regular at either Chevron or 76, so it's not like I went to some crap gas station (though I'm not a gas snob, I really don't care about the brand of gas anyway. lol)

Any help would be awesome, this truck is my baby and I want it to stay in the family for a long time, and I love the fact that it's still on the original engine and transmission with 280,000 miles.

MT-2500
11-30-2008, 09:50 AM
A good tune up with AC delco plugs is a good start.
Check fuel pressure.
What year and engine?
Any check engine lights?

rockwood84
11-30-2008, 11:18 AM
could have been a moisture problem in the distributor cap try spraying bottom of the cap with wd-40.

jsnowbordr47
11-30-2008, 11:59 AM
Yeah, I'm planning to change plugs,wires,cap/rotor today, hopefully that is all thats wrong.

it's a 1995, 5.7L TBI, No Codes/SES

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