Strange Acceleration Surge

confusednewbie · Jun 11, 2007

New to the mustang world, I have a 98 mustang 3.8L V6 w/ 87,000 miles on the clock. when i accelerate, my car surges periodically until I let off the gas. First thing I did was add Heet into two fuel tanks, didn't fix it. Then I used Fuel Injector Cleaner to two tanks, still no remedy. A buddy of mine says I need to check the MAF, but I was wondering if it could be anything else? I live in Alaska, so moisture and cold was a factor, also the fact that it wasnt used all winter? Any info or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

ripper · Jun 11, 2007

With this new ethanol fuel we are stuck with using this problem is gona happen alot. It seems that the ethanol will atract water and gum up when it sits for a long period of time. Those of us who dont use our cars threw the winter are probubly going to have to do a winterizing like I do with my boat. Shut off the fuel supply (i guess pull the fuel pump fuse) while fogging the engine. Running till it stalls out. This will ensure that all that ethanol is out of the injectors and it is coated with the fogging lubricant. Then in spring you change the fuel filter which is hopefully your problem now before you start it back up. You will also have to add a fuel stabilizer for the down period. This ehtanol has been a big problem with our high performance bass boats for 2 yrs now. Just another pita we are going to have to deal with i guess.

CanaryGT · Jun 12, 2007

Mine did that and it was the 02 Sensors.... Check it out.

GREG@SN95 · Jun 12, 2007

Check timing

Check cap and rotor, plugs, wires, injectors, IAC, TPS...

Try this http://sn95forums.com/Tech/Idle_Fix/

Its either yer timing or A/F ratio

White 96GT · Jun 18, 2007

I"m a mecahnic at a local small engine repair shop And even though I'm 16 I do know some shizz. Anyway I live in Iowa so we have a lot of ethanol fuel and we have ungodly amounts of fuel system probblems come in the door, the only real link to them all is that when the fuel is tested in a tube they all have ethanol gas in the tanks.

Ethanol absorbs water, softens rubber, and causes gross gummy build up.

We even did an experiment in front of a local biodesiel board member. We simply pored some 2 week old E85 fuel on a steel work bench and poored some sort of fuel stabilizer on it and it seperated the water and the fuel into 2 seperate groups of liquid. About a fifth of the liquid was water!

So moral of the story don't use ethanol fuel untell its better formulated! and That could be your problem.