Auto Parts: 1978 volvo 240, fuel injection systems, vacuum advance


Question
car has been sitting for a while replaced gas tank and fuelpumps and all of the fuel lines car runs great untill warm and then stars running rough and want start back if you turn it offf please help

Answer
    If it starts fine when cold, but doesn't want to start when hot, then it sounds like the mixture is too rich, or the timing is too advanced.  I would look first at the cold-start injector, which is a separate injector in the end of the manifold that gives an extra bit of gas when cold.  If it is leaking, or its controller is malfunctioning, then that would cause this problem.  Another place to look would be the vacuum advance for the distributor.  Cars of this vintage use a temperature-controlled valve to regulate the amount of advance when cold.  This "ported vacuum switch" may be malfunctioning as well.  To check this, you could bypass the PVS and let the distributor run on regular ported vacuum.  These old fuel injection systems can eat up a lot of money if you just fiddle with them.  You need to find an older mechanic who's familiar with them and get him to look it over.  I met a guy with an old Jaguar (same basic system) who spent several thousand on his fuel system before finding a good mechanic who fixed his ignition problem.  Fact is, even with carburetted cars, the problem is almost always in the ignition.