'86 2.3 sluggish acc, running too rich?

[CananBall81]

Have an 86 with a 2.3 liter. When it recently died, i thought it was an electronic ignition problem. My code reader gave me a code for the TPS, which i replaced. While doing this i realized my carb was very loose, so i took off the throttle body and tightened it. Welll...The problem ended up being the timing belt, which i had my mechanic do. When i got it back it didnt run the same, its very sluggish while accelerating. messing around, i disconnected the isc motor, and this seemed to solve the problem, the engine ran great. Unfortunatley, removing the isc causes dieseling, so i reconnected it. Is the fuel mixutre to rich? I've heard that the Carter carb mixture is non adjustable, but the Mitchell manual explained a way check the mixture using the propane enrichment test. How do you adjust the mixture, you have to remove the carb right? If anyone will knowledge of this could help me it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

cananball81
[email protected]

[SIKCRX]

shitty 2.3's mine gets shitty acceleration too, but i think its cuz i only have about 80 horses to the wheels...if im lucky.

[StangNut86]

heh, same motor, same problem... and mine lacks a little compression. timing on that bastard is advanced about 20 degrees BTDC. it sucks at idle, misfires and stuff, but i'm having the choke adjusted by my shop instructor so it should be fixed soon.

yeah having a stang with a 4-banger sucks but i'll bounce back soon enough with my v8. oh well, at least it's a stang =)

[Dauber]

I have a 85 2.3L, had that problem awhile ago, but what you should check out is the pump inside of the carb. The reason why I say this is because I tried three different carbs, 1st one was my old one, choke ready to go on it, 2nd had crap for acceleration but had a good choke on it and the third had good acceleration but crappy choke. So all I did was interchange parts on the carbs to get a good one and its been working good since. Still working on getting a 5.0L in it, but need a whole donor car to do it the way I want to.

[351wStang]

If the problem started after you had a timing belt put on it could it be the timing? Have you checked the timing?

[CananBall81]

The car seems to accelerate sluggishly only when warm, meaning after it kicks down. If you drive it before it kicks down it accelerates very smoothly. forget all the stuff i said about the ISC motor, because it had to do with the car running at fast idle. The timing was just set by my mechanic last week. I havent been able to check it cause my timing gun is broken. I dont see why it would be off being that it was just proffesionally set. Can this be a choke problem if it only occurs after kickdown?

[12_Sec_Comet]

Probably whats happewning is your choke isn't pulling off all the way, even though the fast idle comes off. after the car is warm drive around on a back road and try a couple of acceleration tests. as soon as it starts being real sluggish, stop the car. DO NOT touch the gas pedal, get out abd remove the air cleaner assembly and see what position the choke plate is in. My guess is that it's almost closed. Had same problem with my old pinto. Get new choke pull off. Worth a look see.

[Turbo_Raccoon]

ive never had that problem with my 79 2.3 it might be the carb cause mines turbo charged from factory and she runs pretty good with 140 hp to the wheels o baby.