LostAngel

Hey...I was wondering if anyone might be able to diagnose this...my manager has an Olds Eighty Eight and is experiencing the following:

Anyways, my car started acting up on me, and I’ve tried asking other people I know, searching the internet, and posting to forums, but nobody can really tell me anything definite, and I was hoping you may have a better idea…



When my car is cold, it will run fine. I can take the RPM’s up as high as it will let me with no problems.



As it warms up, it will only ‘take’ less RPM’s. For example, at around 150 degrees (on my water temp gague), I can give it up to 3,500RPM’s before is starts acting up. Once it is completely warmed up (around 210 degrees) I can’t go above 2,300 RPM’s.



It does this in any gear, at any speed. If I keep it below 2,300 RPM’s, it will run fine, shift fine, and you would never know there was something wrong.



I had a new fuel filter put on just about 3 months ago, and all the plugs and wires were replaced this past summer, along with the air filter and transmission fluid. Oil is changed every 3000 miles (about every 2 months). The coolant was also topped off a few weeks ago.



Now, when it starts misbehaving, it is acting as if there is no combustion. There is a complete loss of power, and the RPM’s will fall until it gets back down to around 2,000, then all is fine until the RPM’s go up again. There is no knocking, or any other sort of noise coming from the engine (or anything else) that would indicate a problem. I guess my best description would be, power, then no power, then power, then no power, as the RPM’s rise and fall between 2,000 and 3,000.

Clavius

Altenator!!! Friend had a similar problem. She had a 85 cutlass and she could only get it to a certain rpm before it would cut out. Sounds like a similar problem, I was the one who actually pointed it out to her since she thought it was something like the fuel pump, I noticed while waiting for her to get something from her house that her lights would periodicly dim ever so slightly.

Worth taking a look at atleast Hope this helped or atleast eliminated a possibility.

LostAngel

Would this happen at certain rpms only when the cars warmed up?

Clavius

For her it only happened at certain RPM's she could only get it to 4k RPM's before it would cut out and it was durring the winter in New England. It sounds exactly like what your friend is going through. It would cut out after she hit 4k's and start back up if you would after it got to 3k. Below 4k though everything seemed fine like nothing was wrong but if she gunned it if you will (and she would!) it could cut out after the 4k or so mark. By the gods I miss that car.. was a friggin' hotrod and a half hehe.