No power, rich running, smooth idle....

[Xenon]

I am now back in Oregon and have the money and time to work on my 1988 T-bird. As Mentioned, it hass little power after replacing the fuel pump and filter. I now have a pressure gauge set and this is what I get at the injector fuel rail:
Turn key to on = 40 psi
Start car, car idles = 32-33 psi
Try to drive the car = 31-35 psi
Now I don't know what the psi should be, but it seems that the car is running VERY rich. I ran a simple code diagnostic and it says that the O2 sensor is bad, so I replaced that, but the code still shows. It says that the ECU might need to be cleared or reset to detect the good O2 sensor; but I have no idea on that part. Hopefully someone here has some good ideas on how to fix this rich running / no power issue. Thanks for any ideas.
~Shawn

PREVIOUS POST >>>My 1988 3.8L V6 automatic T-bird was doing just fine at about 200,000 miles when the fuel pump went out. I replaced the fuel pump and fuel filter and then the car started right back up, but now it has so little power that when going uphill, it can only reach about 10-15mph!?!? I had the fuel pressure tested right at the injector fuel rail and it is 33psi. It idles great and revs fine, but when there is a load, it just doesn't have any power to get up to speed. Since then I have replaced the O2(EGO) sensor, replaced all the injectors, replaced all filters, replaced all sparkplugs and wires, check the spark strength, check the timing, checked and extra cleaned the EGR valve and probably other things I can't remember. I just can't figure it out!!! it was running fine before the fuel pump failed and now it has no power, but the injectors have been replaced and there is 33psi at the injectors! so I am now clueless. Any ideas? <<<<<<

 

[nomadbird]

Had a similar experience many years (11+) with a high mileage '86 with the 3.8L.
The cure in that case was catalytic converter blocked.
Can't remember (or don't want to) too much about it now but it seemed like there were two converters or some fool thing that drove the repair cost past $800.00! See why I don't want to remember too much about it?
Tom

 

[Xenon]

Well it can't be the cats because not only wa the car running great the same day the fuel pump died, but I had just had all the exhast inspected, and cat-back replaced just 3-4 months earlier for DEQ emmissions testing in Oregon. So it is definately something else. Thanks for the idea though.
~Shawn

 

[Xenon]

Hmmmm..... I don't know what changed. But I went to check for the codes again, and the codes are gone and the engine has it's power back!!! So I don't know if the computer just needed to be reset or something, but now I have my power back and no 15-20mph max crap anymore. Thanks for all the ideas. I really don't know why or how the codes dissapeared, but things are great now. Thanks again.