Hi folks,
Back a few months ago I picked my 1998 Buick Lesabre with only 48,000 miles in awesome condition. Of course it needed both lower and upper intake gaskets. Fixed those and they're working perfectly. I also did a tune-up (plugs, wires, air, & fuel filter) last week but I still can't pinpoint why my car has no get-up every now and then.

Example: I take off from a red-light pedal halfway down, the car accelerates slowly, almost like taking off in second gear in a manual transmission-equipped car. It'* hard to predict when this will happen other than sometimes after the car is warmed up. When this happens the engine will not increase RPMS but still runs smoothly. Someone mentioned TCC to me but doesn't that affect the car more at Highway speed? It will barely go up a hill when this happens unless I pull the shifter to "1," even then it still feels like there'* not much power.

Any help is truly appreciated!

Thinking aloud here. The most common things are catalytic converter being plugged and fuel pressure dropping off.

It would be nice to scan the car to see what'* going on when it doesn't behave.

I would start with testing the fuel pressure. Also test the coils. It'* either a weak spark, low fuel pressure, or restricted exhaust.

OK will check those when I get the chance. Thanks for the help!

To follow up, it turned out to be the MAF sensor. I took it out, sprayed it down with some contact cleaner, and the car is running fine again. This is after a tune-up, replacing a few vacuum lines, ANOTHER upper intake(my first one melted after 20K miles, I'm up past 65k miles now), and a few other things..

We tried to find another one at our local junkyard, every series II 3800'* MAF had already been snatched. It also seems that there was a redesign of the MAF sensor port in the throttle body in 99-up models. The hole is larger and the plastic housing of the MAF sensor is larger. Guess it'* a common problem?

I take out my MAF and clean it with MAF cleaner every time I change the oil. I heard through the grapevine that the MAF usually does not fail it just gets dirty. I am on my third car with a 3.8 the last two I ran over 250,000 miles and this one has 223,000 on it and I have never replaced a MAF yet. Maybe I am just lucky or cleaning it has helped. You decide.