What Do You Make Of This Problem

Indy Mike

True Classic
Greetings Fellow X-Heads,

What do you make of this problem?

For the last couple of months I have had this recurring problem where my X1/9 will start to run rough. It feels like not all the cylinders are firing, it won't idle on it's own and is down on power. I have to give it some gas to keep it going.

It happens at the start of the driving the car, about one mile into a drive. So, the engine is not up to temperature yet. It stumbles around for 60 seconds or so and then it is fine. I recently filled up the gas tank with some Premium fuel from Shell. Also, about one year ago, the car received a tune-up from John Logan in Columbus, Ohio.

Any ideas?
 
Greetings Fellow X-Heads,

What do you make of this problem?

For the last couple of months I have had this recurring problem where my X1/9 will start to run rough. It feels like not all the cylinders are firing, it won't idle on it's own and is down on power. I have to give it some gas to keep it going.

It happens at the start of the driving the car, about one mile into a drive. So, the engine is not up to temperature yet. It stumbles around for 60 seconds or so and then it is fine. I recently filled up the gas tank with some Premium fuel from Shell. Also, about one year ago, the car received a tune-up from John Logan in Columbus, Ohio.

Any ideas?
If it only happens before the engine is up to temp? Then you've answered your own question.
It's something in the "choke circuit" if you will. The choke system if it's carbureted, or the cold start circuit if it's fuel injected.

Could be a problem with the actual components or could be something simpler like a vacuum line or sticky lever.

Keith
 
Greetings Fellow X-Heads,

What do you make of this problem?

For the last couple of months I have had this recurring problem where my X1/9 will start to run rough. It feels like not all the cylinders are firing, it won't idle on it's own and is down on power. I have to give it some gas to keep it going.

It happens at the start of the driving the car, about one mile into a drive. So, the engine is not up to temperature yet. It stumbles around for 60 seconds or so and then it is fine. I recently filled up the gas tank with some Premium fuel from Shell. Also, about one year ago, the car received a tune-up from John Logan in Columbus, Ohio.

Any ideas?

Sounds like the classic crud in the jets problem to me. What's your filter situation?
 
I concur on the choke mechanism if the problem goes away after the engine warms up.
 
I’ve had this happen on my ‘76 when a spark plug is partially fouled. The engine has a rough spot between cold and fully warmed up. Apparently the mixture gets very lean when the choke opens before the engine is completely warmed up and a spark plug with crud built up, probably from a leaky intake valve seal, makes it misfire and then fire when the mixture riches. I’ve solved the misfire by cleaning the crud off the plug.
 
It's not an FI car then? The cold circuit on the FI car only stays on for 15 seconds or so. It is very brief. I agree with everyone else if it is a carbed car.

Get ready for some fun! ;)
 
Thanks for the replies everyone. It is a carburetor-ed car. One model upgrade on the carburetor. The 34 instead of the 32, I think. I can't recall the model numbers at the moment.
 
I had an intermittent rough idle that turned out to be corrosion in the distributor cap sockets for the plug wires. I found it by clamping my timing light on each the wires while it was running rough. One was pulsing pretty strangely!
 
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