New here...

[olds85]

hi newb here... my moms 85 olds cuttlas ceira 3.0 carb. is having some problems after I ran out of gas. its been about 2/3 weeks since then. whats been happening is it will surge under load *full throttle or going up hill* and lately its been stalling alot. just today I was leaving from seattle center going home and no more then 5-7 mins after I was starting to go up hill from a stop light it seemed like it was losing power and I pulled over and right when I pulled over it just shut off. and took about 5 mins to get it to start. once I did and after talking to my dad we headed to my sisters place which is closest place that he would be coming to after work. we got there ok. and after shutting it off I decided that it was running ok enough to make it home. I started it up and made it no more then a mile and a half before it did it again. but this time I got it started but it was racing and when I shut it off it would diesel. so I left the car at someones house *after they said yes* and called my sister to pick us up. well after about an hour we went back and tried to get it back to my sisters. we drove back and had to go up a big hill. I made it up it ok. but after turning left it stalled again *3rd time today* pulled over started it then it shut off tried it again and got it running and the idle was still really high. got it there. went to shut it off and it diesel for a while. scanned the computer came back with nothing. but noticed that something was pushing the gas pedal and looked at the carb and it is that sensor on the carb linkage. and we noticed a ticking noise. I think my dad pushed on one of the plug in on the carb and it stopped. this does seem to happen when it is on the warm side. we somehow got the idle down and running ok. went home with no problems. all vaccuum hoses *as I can tell* are connected. I did have some problems with the MAP sensor, due to a vaccuum hose. in the past I have gotten a rich o2 sensor code, map sensor high voltage one other that I cant think of. but they seem to go a way once I got the right hose on the MAP. we do get really bad gas mileage. I figure 13 city *od tranny too* and about 20 highway. it passed smog like a new car *literally* the guy was suprised. this all seemed to have happened after I ran out of gas once. sorry for the long post. just trying to get all the details out as possible. any help would be greatly helpful. manuals aren't to helpful. thank you, matt

[Chris Stewart]

Would you say it runs better cold than hot?
When it the last time it had a tune-up with new spark plugs and spark plug wires?

[olds85]

ummm kind of yeah. yesterday was kindof an odd day. it was in the high 70's then it got cloudy and thunder so it was humid and in the high 60's when all this happened. as for the tune up. we just got the car about a month ago and havent had the funds to do a compleat tune up yet. but might do that this weekend. I am wondering if the map sensor is not working as well as it should. or me runing out of gas caused some kind of vapor lock in the system

[Chris Stewart]

I don't know if motors with a carburetor even have a MAP sensor. Running low on fuel does make'em run kinda funky. Poor 'ol fuel pump wears out quick with no fuel to lube or cool it.
Ignition coil works fair but quits after the motor warms up when they start going bad.

[theragtopguy]

Maybe the fuel filter is clogged or even the screen on the fuel pump. When you ran it out, all the sediment may have clogged it all up. It may be allowing just enough gas thru to run sporadically then clog and shut down.