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87' 350 TBI Dieseling

dwnhiller93

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My Blazer started dieseling after the temperatures here in Idaho went up. As soon as the motor gets warmed up, starts hesitating and running like its on 4 cylinders. Also, around the same time as this started, I had just changed out my fuel filter. Could this possibly be a faulty fuel filter? Or a different common problem?
Thanks
 
I had the same problem as yours...hesitating, missing, low power after it got warmed up. Didn't have the dieseling problem like you are describing.

The culprit ended up being the ignition control module in the distributor. Mine was corroded and had a small crack in it. My guess is when it got hot, something inside of it was expanding and causing the issue.
 
Dieseling, is when the engine keeps running after you switch it off. If yours is doing that, then your injectors must be leaking or the computer is continuing to fire them.

Engines won't diesel without fuel.

If its just hesitating and running cr*ppy, and starts it when it gets warmed up, then it sounds like it starts giving trouble when it goes into closed loop.

You need to see if you can pull any codes to see why its doing that.
 
My Blazer started dieseling after the temperatures here in Idaho went up. As soon as the motor gets warmed up, starts hesitating and running like its on 4 cylinders. Also, around the same time as this started, I had just changed out my fuel filter. Could this possibly be a faulty fuel filter? Or a different common problem?
Thanks

My first thought was vapor lock but you said you just changed the fuel filter so the O-rings on the fuel line could be bad and it's sucking air causing your problem. Basically vapor lock is when the fuel gets so hot it starts to boil and creates air bubbles in the fuel and that is what causes it to not run or run very badly as there isn't enough fuel available. If the fuel system is sucking air it will create the same issue.
 
It is common for vehicles of this age, when you change out an old fuel filter, to send the pump 'over the edge'. It is possible the pump was weak to begin with and now with the new filter it has very little resistance and will burn out an old pump pretty quickly. It sounds counter intuitive but I've seen it happen plenty of times on older vehicles with in tank pumps.

BTW, dieseling is typically described as what happens when you turn the key off and the engine keeps running, but poorly and usually noisy. Seen more often in carbed engines and highly unlikely with injected systems. Your first post didn't describe any dieseling, just running poorly.
 
Nice call. Seeing as I changed out the spark plugs, wires, and coil, and its doing the same issue, I am leaning towards your idea. Or the fuel pump going out.

When I am running it without the airfilter/airbox, there seems to be a lot of white gas fumes coming out of the throttle body unit. Also, it sounds like a lot of air is being injected out. Not sure if this is normal.
Thanks!
(I did get the dieseling term wrong. Sorry about that.)
 
If you have the air cleaner off, and you put your hand close above the intake, do you feel air coming out?

There should only be air going in, and at a fairly good rate.
If you feel anything coming out, sounds like you have a valve problem.
 
no air coming out of intake, but throttle body yes.
Uhh, yeah, thats what I meant.
Air is supposed to be going into the engine. If its coming back out, then one of the intake valves is not closing.
Either a burnt valve, more common on an exhaust, or cracked spring or some other problem.

I don't understand why it waits until it warms up to do it. Usually valve problems are constant.

You can try the power loss test to see if you can narrow it down to which cylinder.
With it idling as best it can, pull a plug wire off and see if the rpms drop.
If so, that that cylinder is producing power.
If you pull one off and nothing happens, ease it back on partially and listen for the spark to jump to the plug.
If you don't hear it, stop at that point and find out why you have no spark to that plug.

Check cap, rotor, wire, and plug.

If you have power but the cylinder is still dead, check the compression.

You could use your thumb with the coil wire grounded or the ignition off while you bump it around if you don't have a compression gauge. It should blow your thumb off the plug hole with authority.

You can compare it to one that was producing power.

Might want to use some insulated plug wire pullers just in case......
 
Well, problem solved, I think. When I changed out the plugs and wires and coil, it ran like sh** all the time, instead of only when it warmed up. So I had the coil tested to make sure it wasn't faulty, but tested good. Then I thought maybe the dumb a** autozone guy sold me the wrong wires, or maybe one was faulty. Took them back, they had sold me the wrong ones. Which doesn't make sense, because (correct me if I'm wrong) I thought that any chevy v8 350 wires worked. So they must have really screwed it up.
Haven't really had the chance to really drive it a few miles to see if the problem is still there after it fully warms up, but had it running and driving for at least 15 minutes and no problems whatsoever. So I am hoping that problem is solved too, at least for the time being.
 
Asuming they reached from the dist. to the plugs and were not bare, don't see how they could have sold you the wrong ones.

Bad ones maybe, but any good wire should have worked.

They didn't say something like splitfire, or double fire, or something like that did they?

I don't think those are still being made, haven't seen any in years, but they had two wires inside the insulation and for some reason caused more problems then you could imagine..
 
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