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How to fix surging, missing, misfires, etc on a 88-91 car

Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2008 5:34 am
by Hans
Well I replaced the plugs and wires, cleaned the TB and all the sensors thoroughly on my 88 le sabre.

It still had a weird miss which happened occasionally. Sudden throttle bursts would cause a put put put, then normal performance. I guess it was more of a delay than anything.

I headed to the junkyard yesterday to find a Series 1 L27 motor in the "dead motor" part of the junkyard. Found a 94 buick park ave and grabbed the ICM mounting plate, ICM and coils. I tested the coils with a multi-meter and 2 read 5.7 and the other was a 5.8. I forget what ohms setting I was on. Either way, good to go. Popped the new ICM and coils on the car and boom, the car is smoother than my SSEi. Its amazing actually.

Moral of the story. If you have any misfire or weird ignition/performance problems with your 88-91 bonnie or whatever car with the 3.8, try popping in the newer Delco style coils and ICM, it cost me $20 for the whole set. Its so easy to convert it to the new system, all you need is the mounting plate, 15 minutes of time, the bolts, ICM, and the coils.

Re: How to fix surging, missing, misfires, etc on a 88-91 car

Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2008 10:06 am
by wjcollier07
It definitely seems we're lacking the same lot of 87-91s we had..and the ones we do have are mainly owned by people that know everything they need to know...quite unfortunate.

But yes, awesome to be reminded what a simple dump of the magnavox coils can do for a good ole' LN3.

Re: How to fix surging, missing, misfires, etc on a 88-91 car

Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2008 2:45 pm
by Jrs3800
wjcollier07 wrote:It definitely seems we're lacking the same lot of 87-91s we had..and the ones we do have are mainly owned by people that know everything they need to know...quite unfortunate.

But yes, awesome to be reminded what a simple dump of the magnavox coils can do for a good ole' LN3.

I agree with this... Forgot to tell you guys I had done the swap on the LE.... Nothing like Type II coils and TR55 plugs in an LN3...lol

Yeah Hans those magnavox systems get to be an issue when the years pile up.. I'll take a guess and say the system was Oozing too?

Re: How to fix surging, missing, misfires, etc on a 88-91 car

Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2008 4:57 pm
by Alibi
I hate it when the magnavox coils leak out that goo... its such a pain to clean it up. Acetone helps to clean it up though.

On every LN3 that I've owned one of the first things I do is swap in a Delco setup. Its just too easy and it makes the car run a bit better.

Re: How to fix surging, missing, misfires, etc on a 88-91 car

Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2008 7:08 pm
by Jrs3800
Yeah I love the Type II as well... It just looks right at home and clean with the 93 Wires....lol
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Re: How to fix surging, missing, misfires, etc on a 88-91 car

Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2008 2:15 am
by dirtracr95
yea my 4 door Lesabre probably needs this swap but it still runs just misses under throttle and i dont drive it anyway. Its not plated or insured.

Re: How to fix surging, missing, misfires, etc on a 88-91 car

Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2008 9:47 pm
by captainmiller
I used to drive an '89 SSE. This was the first mod I did. Prior to the swap the thing would crank for 20 seconds before starting if it were cold or raining out. After the swap it started instantaneously every time. Worked amazingly well.