When giving it gas it has a very hard vibration and very slow pickup. At speed it runs fine until I give it gas.
(Now the the strange part) No matter the speed on a flat level road at the same speed it runs fine, if the road starts to incline about 10 degrees or so, the car starts that vibration. The steeper the road the worse it is. On a level road or decline its been fine until you give it gas.

(when I say give it gas, it means a little throttle to a bit more. Not lots or full throttle)

I have read about the carbon line problems with this olds and I am going to change out the plug wires and plugs today, but i did change the plugs just a few months ago.
Any help or suggestions would be helpful.

Thank you

 

how did the plugs and wires effect the problem?

 

I had to order the plug wires it turned out so I was a few days late replacing them. I changed wires and plugs and the problem did not go away but it did diminish about 85% or so.
I checked the plugs for any shorting (carbon line) with a meter and they were good. In general the gaps were still set .059 and the center electrodes on all of them were good. Color of plug was all the same.
I checked the wires/boots and could not find any short or problem.

 

I can't say that I'm surprised the plugs and wires didn't fix the problem.
The symptoms you describe made me think of a lean stumble problem. ie: When you gently press the accelerator, the engine falters &/or hesitates, but if you mash it down, there's no symptoms, right?

The easiest way to explain it is to use carburation as an example. Carbs have two ways they deliver gas to the engine. One is through the jets, and the other is from the accelerator pump. The jets are internal, so you can't see their action, but it's easy to see what the accelerator pump does. Look down the carb, and open the throttle: the faster and harder you open it, the stronger the squirt of raw gas the accelerator pump delivers.

This stream of raw gas is necessary to overcome the sudden increase in 'raw' air into the engine. Remember, engines require an air-fuel mixture to run. The jets 'meter' the gas internally and the butterfly, (flaps in the carb), 'meter' the air. When the throttle is held steady, or is gradually increased, (very, very gradually), the jets and butterfly's handle everything just fine. But mash down on the throttle, and the jets can't flow enough gas to keep up with all that air coming in. The accelerator pump helps the jets by squirting raw gas into the engine.

When the accelerator pump is not working, there is more air than gas, (a lean condition), and the engine will fall on it's face. If it manages to continue running, eventually the jets will catch up and the engine will smooth out. Obviously when the engine falls on it's face, power drops off, and the car 'stumbles'.

Fuel injection works differently, and different types of fuel injection handle rapid throttle opening differently, as well. That's why I used carburation to explain things. Just know that fuel injection is designed to avoid 'lean stumbles'.

Now, why did I go down this road? I just dealt with a problem with my 89 Olds 88 that turned out to be two bad injectors. The symptoms were more severe that yours, but there was a component of the symptoms that I would describe as a vibration. I had two cylinders that weren't firing due to flooding, (plugs were wet), but when I mashed down on the throttle, or got the RPM's up high enough, it ran OK. Heck, it ran good enough to pass inspection here in Oregon, but it was idling really rough, and it wouldn't pull a fat butt off a toilet. When I replaced the two injectors, I smoked the tires the first time out of the driveway when I accelerated the same way I had before I fixed it.

One of the other problems I was having was a vibration when I got to about 40-45mph in OD. If I put it in D or 2, the RPM's came up and the vibration went away. I honestly thought I had a trannie problem, (the car sat in my driveway for almost 9 years). I was pleasantly surprised to see the vibration problem disappear when I swapped out the injectors.

The injectors are easy to troubleshoot. Use a stethoscope to listen to each one while the engine is running. You should hear a distinct clicking - if not, the injector's bad. You should also check both the voltage to each injector with the key on, (should be ~12v), and check the ground leg of the wiring, as well. The final test is to check the ohmage across the two connectors on the injector. All the injectors should be within .1 ohm.

Fortunately you can check out my theory that the problem's fuel related without buying any parts.

There are other things that might cause what you're describing. The other thing that comes to mind is a timing problem. But since everything's computer controlled, I'd check the fuel injectors; besides, you already know the ignition is good.

BTW, did you do a compression test when you had the plugs out? If a compression test isn't done, you'll never know if the symptoms you're chasing aren't mechanical? I grew up with an Italian uncle who'd been a mechanic since 1913 - he always said, "You can do (effing) tune-ups all (effing) day, but they won't (effing) fix a (effing) bad valve! Do a (effing) compression test!"

I guess it stuck with me..

Let me know if I can help.

Later,

GeoD

 

Uncles, I have one just like that. Thanks No, I did not do compression check...

I will check voltages and listen for the click.

As for the full throttle. Nope, when mashed it chugged hard a few times then dropped a gear and RPM increased. Yes, when I used the shifter to keep it in gear longer and the higher RPM it did run a little better.

The other plugs I removed were all dry. One other thing, I am smelling fuel now, like it has a small fuel leak (cant find it) and it's burning richer emissions.

Thank you for working with me on this.

 

Glad to help... let me know how it goes.

If you're smelling raw fuel that's a concern. (It only takes a spark.) If you can smell it behind the wheel, or under the hood, then you need to investigate throughly to find the source. I lost two months of work and several hundred dollars on a '57 Chev I was building one time due to a gas leak.

A friend, (?), decided he would help me by putting on the fuel line while I was getting a fresh beer, but he didn't tighten the fuel line completely. I took the car out for the first test drive.. It wasn't running quite right, (timing was off), and it stalled. Just as I hit the key to start it, I got a whiff of raw fuel... before I could let up on the key, it cranked and backfired, then.. whoosh! flames, big flames shot out of both front fenders, (I had a one piece tilt front end with no fender wells), and I was struggling to get out of the seat belt. The friend who was with me grabbed one side of the front end and we whipped it open only to have the flames nearly knock us down - the entire time I'm screaming at the top of my lungs for anyone with a hose, (it was nighttime & I was about 4-5 block from home), to help. By the time I got it out I had lost everything but the steel and aluminum parts from the firewall forward.

Let me tell you, the rest of my friends had to hold me down after the 'helpful' guy admitted he had 'helped' me.

So, smelling raw fuel is no minor thing. Find the leak so you don't have your own 'war story' to tell.

 

Thank you, I will check it over.