1987 Bonnie LE was misfiring, now wont stay running?

[Jrs3800]

Finding a good Ac Delco MAF in the yard will be a needle in the haystack...

If you can get an AC Delco for that Price, thats the way I would go... I forget what the warranty was on the Aftermarket MAF for that car, but iirc it was not very good as the failure rate is high... The Code 34 is one of the codes I expected to see with that car... They are right, the Rich condition can be cause by the MAF...

If the engine runs properly, its a pretty good low end grunt car... And what ever you do make a Trans Cooler your very next priority...

[Djkthegame]

Well i took her out to work on my route last night made thru about 75% of it and the it cut off again. it started back up but it kept dying out every couple mins.
i took about 6 stops and restarts to get it back home and everytime right before it cut of the needle on the tach would spike up and down a lil bit up about 200 or it felt like one this start happening it wouldn't respond to me hitting the gas... so i guess im not as close as i thought to being fixed lol

[Jrs3800]

That would be the MAF getting really grumpy... Back then there really wasn't a lot of limp home in those cars...

Being that you have the code 34, Replace the MAF and move on... that car is bound to have some issues at 23 years old...LOL...

[Djkthegame]

i remember there is one junkyard that has quite a bit of older cars(by older i mean 80's) so im gonna check that one out first and maybe i can find a similar bonnie. I noticed when i checked the ac delco website that there were a couple other cars in that era that use that exact same maf in them too... maybe i'll get lucky and find one.

[Djkthegame]

well, i found an ac delco maf at the junkyard it does work. but, the car cut off again on the way home, im thinking the heat made it cut off faster this time cuz i got a good hour or so out of it at night last night but its about 90 here today... so my next guess is crank sensor is shot and when it heats up it stops working

[Jrs3800]

Very good deduction.. When this happens do you still have spark? Fuel Pulse?

[Djkthegame]

it will usually start back up but it only stays on for a matter of minutes... im not sure what other way to best describe it... it kinda sputters out and shuts off rather abruptly. when its hot out it dont want to run as long.

[Jrs3800]

I think you are on the right track.... And its what I would go for... But thats me.. Everything points to a crank sensor failure...

Will that be your next avenue?

[Djkthegame]

yeah, but probably not until next week... my daughter birday is in a couple days so thats gonna have to wait. Thats mostly why i tried to knockout all the cheap options first. Its gonna cost me a 100 between the part and install... thats something i just am not going to mess with myself, the crankshaft pulley and harmonic balancer has to be removed.

[boil359]

I would try getting a ICM and Coil pack, together in 1 unit, from 1 donor vehicle...instead of 2 parts to make 1 from 2 seperate vehicles...you should always try and get a complete unit from a car..ICM and COILS

[willwren]

There's no reason to get it all from one car. As long as the color coded insulators on the bottoms of the coils match. All these parts are cross-compatible with each other.

[Djkthegame]

ok i had her in the shop yesterday to have the crankshaft sensor replaced and have them look over the rest of what i had done, in addition to the crankshaft sensor they found a crack in the hose going to the pcv valve and replaced the old piece of hose. I took it out on my route last night and it made it through my whole route all the way from the warehouse until i got back home which ended up being about 2 hours of driving and it didn't cut off at all. So i am optimistic that it worked but i want to give it another day or two before i declare it resolved to be on the safe side

and the reason the icm and coils are from different cars is that on that year bonneville (87) the engine is a 3.8 SFI not a 3800 so i had to use the module from a 3.3 buick for the swap to work. the coils were from a 94 buick 3800 vin "L".

[00Beast]

Glad to hear that you got the problem fixed, hopefully.

[Djkthegame]

ok. been driving the car since thursday... no stall and no hesitation so I guess I have only one thing left to say and thats "issue resolved"!!!

[Jrs3800]

Glad to hear it... What do you think of the Low end grunt of that old 3.8?

[Djkthegame]

its running alot faster than it was before... next im gonna replace the cat and modify the rest of the exhaust ill prolly cut off the whole exhaust from the cat back and replace it all with straight pipe with a "Y" at the back so i can put on dual tail pipes

[Jrs3800]

Just remember.... Make your next mod a tranny cooler...

[00Beast]

Just remember.... Make your next mod a tranny cooler...

[Djkthegame]

how much does something like that cost to do, and how hard is it to do... and what about a shift kit can i do a shift kit in my car

[Jrs3800]

Are the trans cooler lines on the drivers side of the radiator or the passenger side? Most 87's I have seen had the cooler lines on the passenger side of the radiator( this is the hot side ).... And one of the largest problems they had was with overheating...

Its not all that hard, but will take some work..