The other night I took the car (85 vette, 4spd auto) to get some late supper. I let it idle itself down the driveway, and it had no issues. Turn onto the road and hit the gas, and it starts stumbling all over itself. Sounds like a few cylinders aren't even firing properly. I've accidentally ran the car out of gas before (turns out the digital dashes in these things tend to lie to you) and the way I was able to sort of get it running when it started sputtering the first time, was by flooring the thing, and it'd manage to find some gas in the tank, and fix itself to where I could make it to the gas station. The other night was a different story, I try gassing it up, and it responded a little to it, but promptly stumbled on itself again. I then decide to do what race car drivers do when they're running out of gas and start swinging the car left and right. Somehow that actually works, and the car catches itself, and I make it to the station without further issue. The next problem is that the car filled up on $8... Gas, where I live, isn't exactly cheap, and my previous car..... did not fill up on $8. I used 89 octane gas (the previous owner did the same, as he put a mild cam in. I don't what kind).
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Short Summary if you don't have the urge to read through the whole story (I don't blame you)
85 automatic corvette stumbles and acts like it's low/out of gas during a load
Fixes itself by flooring it, or shaking it around like a race car driver
Only filled up on $8 of shell station 89 octane gas.
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Any ideas on what the problem(s) is? My personal guess is a clogged injector or a spark plug, but I'm by no means a mechanic.... Trying to solve my problems by flooring a gas pedal probably makes that obvious...

 

Have you checked for fuel pressure? Before we go anywhere, that is the first thing to check.

Not sure what the $8 has to do with anything but I would also check spark quality.

 

Pedal to the metal = clear flood mode

 

I would start by verifying fuel pressure, check spark plug condition, check injector resistance.
If pressure drops when you hammer the accelerator, replace the fuel filter.
If plugs are carboned up replace them; verify gap is ~0.035".
Injectors should have ~16ohm resistance.

 

Only with the engine NOT running and before your crank it.

 

so true...

 

i have had to replace my fuel pump on my 1996,it was in the fuel tank on mine.