Sluggish throttle at start up

[PANZER]

New symptom..upon starting the car, it is reluctant to start, runs rough and the accelerator pedal seem unresponsive until warmed up slightly. This is new. It used to fire right up(except when it is warm, still workin on that one) in the morning. I DID however get my O2 sensor issue resolved and my foot is healing nicely thanks to David S Poole!!! I now must 'dial in' my fuel mixture, but does not smell like its running rich, well too rich anyway. The gas pedal seems to bog the motor and will stall if I get too agressive/impatient with it.
I just LOVE my Peaches peeps!

[boem]

Can it be the cold start valve?

[meltedpanda]

my guess is timing

[PANZER]

I have just adjusted my timing to SB&RS Degrees. (Starts Better & Runs Smoother) Just cleaned all my plugs as they were dry yet sooted up from running rich. (so much for that manicure) I found my Rotor Button charred on one side...again..Second one in 800 miles..white powder inside cap and inside plug wire boots..contact points seem intact. It is a newer cap and rotor when I got the car. I just changed the rotor button like I said when I changed the oil...and it is burned up again..Should I replace my coil? Is there one? Where is it?
What degrees should this timing be set? I heard it likes it on the advanced side..and which side would that be?
I wouldn't be pestering you with this stuff if Haynes would just publish a book on these things! Chilton is a joke..
Jan
the ever grateful

[meltedpanda]

year and model again? these cars are coil specific , can you find a part number on it?

[TylerH860]

This sounds like a classic fuel delivery problem to me. Most likely the fuel distributor or injectors have crap in them.

Fill the tank, run some BG 44k in it and I imagine it will get better. I've solved a few fuel issues this way.

[PANZER]

1982 380SL salvage yard motor. new distributor and wires, (old ones are in the trunk with old fuel rail and injectors..when I bought it) the dist. cap is dark orange plasitic, the original one was black and had a different number than this one. Inside cap is in goo shape just lots of white powder and plug wire boots were as well.
Would a fuel distrubution issue cause charring of rotor button???
Lucas injector cleaner in the tank now, we shall see...
Oh and Chilton says 5B or 5 degrees BEFORE TDC so it is a little advanced as you all have told me..
I do not know where coil is..so I don't know where to look for part number. duhhhh...
A little knowlege is dangerous and expensive!
Jan

[meltedpanda]

no fuel distribution would not cause rotor or cap issues, my experiance is this is usually caused by excessive secondary ignition resistance, your ignition wire(s) are wrong/worn or spark plugs that are worn or have excessively large gaps. What happens is when you have too much secondary resistance this causes a high voltage requirement and in turn causes the coil to have maximum output ALL the time, the coil should only see a high requirement during very heavy acceleration and then return to normal levels. or a coil putting out too much , too little
The coil is on the fender , drivers side,central large wire off distributor goes to it

[PANZER]

Will get new spark plugs to start, the w9rdc platinum gaps were set at .25 and they are supposed to be set at .32! I opened them up to .30 upon reading some posts on the subject. When I went to parts supplier, the plugs that I have were listed on the screen, it also listed the gap size as .32. After I reset gaps to .30, set timing to B5, dumped injector cleaner in the tank. Runs much better, I also coated the spark plug wire ends with dialectric grease and discovered #5 spark plug was loose from the previous days cleaning. Tightened that puppy up and so far so good.
I looked inside the distrubutor cap and found no R1 or R5 anywhere to indicate voltage rating. Fired her up and heard an ominus low BRUMMMBLE-CHUNK before she started...I have only heard it once before....I was thinking timing chain...
Hubby turned motor ever so slightly to get to TDC with a BF screwdriver to check the position of rotor...maybe he loosened the tension of the chain when he did...ARRG. no damage done.............yet.
Hey, thanks you good people for being so patient with me. I want to know everything
RIGHT NOW! Peach Daiquiris to all!

[jplinville]

I wouldn't run with those plugs...The car wasn't designed to run them. Go back to original stock plugs, or you'll be replacing those often.

[rocky raccoon]

If you are/were running resistor plugs (WR9DC) and stock wires you are doubling your secondary resistance. Original wires have resistance built into the connectors and are intended for non-resistor plugs.