A while back my 02 SS had some high rpm power loss, usually when driving onto the interstate trying to accelerate quickly. I would give it enough gas to kick down to a lower gear, but once it kicked down it would bog down and not thrust like it used to. I read some threads, most of which pointed to the cat conv, but I eventually found one that suggested cleaning the MAF sensor. Of course, I tried that with some cleaner from Advance and had immediate results. The car seemed to run better than ever. That lasted about a week or two until the same problems surfaced only cleaning it this time didn't net the same results. I assumed I needed to replace it, but I had an extra car at the time and didn't feel like spending the $100+ and waited for one to show up in my local jy. A month goes by, I sell my extra car and decide to splurge on a brand new MAF. The car has never been the same since. Same issues, just way worse. It has no power at all, I even have a hard time getting up to 50. After seeing the initial results from the MAF cleaning, I can't imagine the CC was also clogged by some coincidence. I have 20,000miles on the current plugs and wires, but again, initial results all pointed to the MAF. Is this caused by the car sitting for a month??? Thanks for any help. --BTW, it has since set for aonther 6 months or so. I tried to sell it to get a newer one, but no one wants to roll the dice on a car with problems that I can't explain. It has about 90,000 miles on it and I was only asking $4500, but no dice. So I need to fix this thing so I can decide if I should keep it or upgrade (possibly on another '86)...

 

Is it throwing any codes ? Is your check engine light on ?
Did you check your `cat or replace it ? A bad `cat can clog `up a new MAF

I hope one of our expert tech's can give you some advice..Good Luck 4-Sure

 

No, that was something I forgot to mention. The CEL never came on at any point until I tried running with no MAF for a trip around the block. That was something else that made me hopeful that it wasn't the CC. Thanks.

 

I just had similar issues with my car (03 SS, 130K miles) and it was the cat. It seems to me that there's a relationship between parts like MAF, O2 sensors, and the cat (and maybe others) that changes to one affects another and they can mask each other to a certain extent. The loss of power (hi rpm first, then all the time) is exactly the same in my car, especially after it warmed up for just a minute or two, and it got worse quickly to the point where I almost couldn't get it to the shop two miles away. One thing I noticed early on was that if I unplugged the MAF the car ran better so I thought it was the MAF. Actually, I think now that the MAF was just doing it's job and limiting the mixture which also limited the power I could get. Anyway, it soon didn't matter if the MAF was plugged in or not, I got almost no power from the car, and I ONLY got a CEL if the MAF was unplugged. I'd bite the bullet for the cat if it were me.

 

I had the same problem. There were no codes thrown during the 500 miles I drove with a bad cat. I replaced it with a ZZP downpipe, high flow cat, and ubend delete. Instant power and problem solved!