Questions and Answers

Oldsmobile Omega Hard Start, Bogs Q. I have an 1984 Oldsmobile Omega, 2.8 liter and automatic transmission. I acquired this car from someone who had kept it in storage for about six years with little attention paid to maintaining it during this time. Naturally, with all the gum and varnish buildup, I couldn't keep the car running past idle.

I emptied the tank of old fuel, replaced the fuel pump, was leaking, replaced the fuel filter, had the Rochester E2SE carburetor rebuilt, changed the spark plugs, ignition wires, distributor cap and rotor and just today had the EGR valve replaced. There is a small vacuum leak around the throttle shaft. The timing was also out by 22°!

Even after all this work, it is hard to start and bogs down between low speed and 80 kph. After that, she zips along like nothing is amiss. What is going on with this? Hope you have an answer.

Thanks in advance.

A. That's a lot of timing to be out! Are you sure it was checked as per the emissions label under the hood? Does the accelerator pump work okay in the carburetor? Sounds like it may need a mixture control solenoid in the carburetor. Or try resetting the timing back to where it was.