Motor dies after startup.

mattmatthew said

it's coming from the engine compartment.

the motor doesn't smooth out when driving. i notice a little bit lack of power. the noise / vibration is the worst in reverse and drive. it smooths out in park and neutral.

i will smell check the gas.

a buddy of mine that's a mechanic also suggested checking the distributor for water. it's been raining a ton lately, and the car pretty much sits outside. he said to pull the distributor cap, spray it with some brake cleaner and make sure the contacts are clean. and to check the rotor for water as well. he thinks one or a few cylinders may not be firing.

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After you spray under distributor cap, clean the underside of the cap throughly with a clean dry rag; don't spray anything under the cap after that. Moisture can combine with carbon dust under the cap to form 'carbon tracks' that can short out the spark or cause crossfiring between cylinders. Never heard of using brake cleaner but seems reasonable as long as you only get it on the cap.

While there, check that sucking a vacuum on the vacuum line to the distributor moves the advance plate. The sensor for the MSD system should move many degrees of rotation around the distributor shaft with the suction.

Edit to add: Once done with the cleaning under the distributor; test how good the spark is. Take on plug wire off of a plug, put a #2 phillps screwdriver in the end of the wire and set the metal blade on the block but not touching. Start the car and see if the spark jumps the gap to the block; with that MSD it ought to jump 1/4" to 1/2" with a good blue spark. If this is good then you can pretty much rule out bad spark.