Hello, I would replace the magnetic pick up(s) in the distributor. My 1988 only has 1. Is the carb flooding ? When my car is part way warmed up and then turned off and it sits for a little while, it runs rich on start up and will not want to restart if it is allowed to die. I believe my carb is being enriched by the computer, sensing the engine is cooled down some therefore needing more fuel. The next thing I would try is the computer. Click the link. I also copied one of the articles for you below. Let us know your progress.
After I bought my 1980 Newport, I added a set of Borg-Warner KoolWire II wires, (magnetic suppression, lower resistance). The car ran as expected for a 360 with a 318-size Carter BBD on it (the
only year like that). As I got the carb idle system issues taken care of, it developed an intermittent “skip.”
If I was sitting in a drive-thru at idle in gear, if the idle suddenly got a little rougher, but not much; as soon as I throttled into it to move, it'd start running very rough. One day, while idling, I noticed the idle get a little rougher. Just a little more quiver. But as soon as I eased forward, it really acted flaky. More throttle made it worse. The word “gutless” would have been too nice for the way it was running. I'd manually upshift it from 1-2 so that the rpm in 2 would not be too low.
I got it up to about 50 on the flat, in 2, but any small incline might have just as well be a full blown mountain. It was a struggle with massive amounts of throttle just to try to maintain 40mph on the overpasses. But I got it safely in the shop and then shut it off. I tried the restart and it immediately started and ran as if nothing was wrong . . . or had ever been wrong. Then it all fell in to place. Killing it and then restarting had reset the computer. I could have done that before coming to the shop!
In that short drive of about 15 miles, it managed to use about 1/2 tank of gas!
I looked in my service manuals for possibilities of what the problem might be. My Chrysler contacts recommended I check all of the wiring harness grounds, which I did, scraping paint and such for a better contact . . . no change.
I checked the
spark plugs
, for general principles. When I pulled the #1 spark plug boot off, the terminal stayed on the spark plug, yet the boot and wire were in my hand. It looked as if it hadn't been fully crimped from day one. I got some silicone spray and pushed more of the wire through the boot and reterminated the wire with the old terminal. Put everything back together and put it back on the spark plug. Nothing wrong with the way the plugs looked. I checked a few others and determined them to be good. Reterminating that wire solved the problem. I guess that as the engine shook a little at idle, sometimes if it shook just right, the connection would arc and send a back-feed to the distributor and computer and it'd go into Limp In mode.
I used to get amused at the many mechanics who would hold up the Lean Burn system as a "Gotta take it back to the dealer" complaint . . . until I found a Chilton book that told how to troubleshoot the system using a volt-ohm meter. The whole thing, like modern computer systems, is based on voltage change and resistance values. It's a more labor intensive process than simply hooking the Chrysler box to it, but it works anyway.