Lethargic/pathetic/anemic 302 observations …

[Davekmd]

The 302 motor in my 2003 SVC is pathetic. I paid a shop over $400 to fully inspect, perform routine maintenance, service, and generally make sure the car I was purchasing was ready for the 2nd owner (me) so I was a bit surprised to find the following. See pics (I hope they attached).

Yes, that is one COMPLETELY clogged air filter. It is so black and clogged that even a halogen light won’t shine through at any level. It would appear that’s the original air filter from 2003… Notice also the clear tubing vacuum hose. It’s mostly collapsed at ambient temperature and when the engine gets hot the tubing deforms and collapses completely. So the motor can’t breathe and when hot can’t pull vacuum to advance the distributor. Wouldn’t a PERFORMANCE SHOP look at those things before passing judgement the car was fully serviced and is ready to roll? Wouldn’t they fire it up and say, hmmmm this motor doesn’t want to rev and runs like a dog?

Wouldn’t they make note the clutch is ridiculously stiff and absolutely unacceptable for an essentially stock 302? And wouldn’t they test drive the car drive and find the brakes are essentially useless? Wouldn’t they run the car for a few minutes? (as soon as it arrived at my house and was started, got warm, it puked anti-freeze all over my driveway.) Basically the car was not street worthy when delivered to me. I’m attending to all of the issues but I’d be feeling better had I not forked over $ for the service work. The work was performed based on the recommendation from the shop, 500 miles from my house, where the car was being sold from. Ergo I didn’t come to pick the car up and learn firsthand about the work done or not done…

I’m replacing both the air filter and vacuum hose, hoping these are the major culprits for the poor performance. The other strong belief I have is that I need to change out the 600 CFM carburetor. According to my old school background this motor (5,500 RPM) can’t use more than 400CFM…

I hope to pull the tranny this weekend and gather the information to sort out the clutch problem. If I can I’ll completely disassemble the calipers to inspect them for corrosion or rust, etc. I got replacement parts on order…. Sorry for the bi^ching. I feel better now.

Onward! Dave K.