97 cobra is dying "HELP"
 

First of all my mods are o/r h-pipe, w/ flowmaster 1 chambers, steeda pulleys & T/A set a 16, and 4:10 gears with 102,600 on the odometer. Here's the story I was driving home from work and my car all of a sudden start to make a puttering (back pressure) noise and didn't want to accelerate when I give it some gas. I pulled over and popped the hood, everything looked good but it had a really bad idle and then it shut off. I started it back, drove it around some more and it still mad the noise and wouldn't accel. Does anyone have any ideas on what could be going on with my car?

thanks

Sounds like an air leak in the inlet piping. Check all the clamps and connections up to your throttle body. If a clamp comes a little loose and the system isnt 100% air tight your car will stumble put and die due to the different MAF readings. It will constantly search for an idle too. If you do have a leak and fix it the car will continue to stumble and search for an idle for a few minutes so dont worry. It just takes the cpu a while to re-adjust.

check your oil and coolant. 100k is a long time for your head gaskets and it sounds like my escort did when the headgasket went bad.

It could be worse, but pull the plugs, check the fluids and let us know what kind of stuff you find. A bad idle and dying is too broad to make a blind guess.

Might want to check the fuel filter!

Good one! Thats an excellent idea.

Now what ???
 

First off, I changed the fuel filter and it still would spudder really bad, so I had went ahead and changed the sparks plugs and it didn't spudder when I would get on it but if I was cruising down the street in the lowest gear (4th or 5th) and press on the accell. it would still do it. The car would spudder so bad it would shake. I checked the check engine light and it said something "4 missfired", throttle body sensor, and no cats. I couldn't get the high priced spark plugs because autozone was out so I had to settle with champion which total where $12.99. You guys woulnd't think I have a fucked up pistons or bad fuel injectors???
Please let me know
thanks

how fast were you going in 4th or 5th? the car will stutter in those gears under about 1300 rpms.

i was going about 40 MPH
 

i was going about 40 MPH

Re: i was going about 40 MPH
 

you shouldn't be in more than third at that speed. look at the rpms and try to keep it above 1500 unless you're starting in first.

no, he should be fine at that speed. He has 4.10 gears. I drive mine around at 35 in Atl. in 5th gear and stay well above 1000 rpm's w/ 3.73's.

When was the last time you had a good tune-up? I just had mine worked on (similar problems to yours) and they said my EFI sensor (I think) went bad, common problem in mustangs. Mine would stall all the time and the auto-choke was busted. I turned the car on and it went straight to 700 rpm's and stayed, if I was lucky. My sparkplugs were horrible, though...70 thousanths gap

on a side note, we suck at football...

First off, you don't want those "expensive" sparkplugs. The copper champions will work very well, and since they are cheap you can replace them every spring (or whenever.)
I would go along with Titans advice and do a full tune up. Replace the ignition wires, PCV valve, clean the TB with Ford TB cleaner, run some injector cleaner through your tank, etc.
If you run a K&N, you might want to clean the MAF too, as the wires can accumulate dirt/oil and throw things off. But you must be VERY careful. To find how to do this,
Click Here. Then click on "Cleaning MAF's wires."
Start with the cheap stuff first, then worry about trouble shooting more expensive parts.

BTW - Titan: your sig is almost a full page long. It's slightly annoying.

I always was good at pissin people off ;)