2.5 n/a stumble? (beater I might buy)

[Vincent Brick]

I hope this is the right place for this......

I looked at a '91 Shadow 2.5 5-speed today that these guys at a machine shop are selling, and I'm thinking of buying it for a beater. It has around 5 miles on a rebuilt engine, but it has two little problems:

- It has a sort of stumble to it. You'll be driving and give it a little gas, and it will fall flat on it's face and do a little backfire. The car has a brand new fuel pump, the guy at the place says he thinks it is an injector problem.

- It also appears to have a small oil leak around where the distributer is on the front of the motor. Is that anything to be too concerned about?

Overall the car is in decent shape. The body seems pretty clean and solid, though I'd be willing to bet there is some cheese in the repainted rockers. The guy kept calling it a piece of junk, but I don't know if he was just trying to get me to buy one of the more expensive cars they had there. It's been sitting for a year, the guy who I talked to said they'd probably take $850 for it, and that I could have as many extra parts as I want from another Shadow they have sitting there. Besides the stumble it seemed to run fine.

So what do you guys think? I just want a reliable daily driver to get me through the worst of winter and get me to work while I have my Neon's engine torn apart.

Sorry if this is the wrong place for this. If there are any web resources for n/a 2.2/2.5s please let me know. thanks a ton!

[mike mckay]

I've got one (n/a) Shadow that has a stumble/flat spot and I've seen others mention it. Mine doesn't backfire but it stumbles a little; might be a sensor. It hasn't been that aggravating. If it's been sitting a year you had better change fuel filter because there's probably junk in the tank like water or fuel gunk. I had that problem with one car that had set up for a while.
These cars are like any other that are 10 - 17 years old; some parts go out .
Check your codes on the car and see if it shows anything first.

[iangoround]

the stumble could be a timing issue too perhaps. couldn't hurt to check it

[csdodge]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vincent Brick I hope this is the right place for this...... - It has a sort of stumble to it. You'll be driving and give it a little gas, and it will fall flat on it's face and do a little backfire. The car has a brand new fuel pump, the guy at the place says he thinks it is an injector problem.

Maybe a vacuum leak? Bad TPS? Those would be the first I would check....

$850 actually sounds a little steep to me for a NA 4 cylinder manual trans shadow. Never pay more for a beater then you think you could sell it for the next day...(just my humble advise).

www.allpar.com and www.thedodgegarage.com both have tons of 2.5 N.A. info.

-cs

[PTT]

My stumbling was a result of someone tightening the TB down so far as to break the driverside rear ear of the TB. Broken ear resulted in big vacuum leak and high idle (1400-1500) and lowend stumbling. No stumble at WOT though. As a stop-gap, I RTV'd it with the black stuff till I could get to the pick-n-pull for a replacement TB. Worked for a couple of months!!! Probably would have lasted awhile. Idle went down to 850 rpm and No stumbling.