Alright, this is the deal.

I have a 1994 Del Sol VTEC with a short ram intake and 4-1 header, and exhaust, all of which were on the car when I bought it. It that was GREAT til a few days ago. I bought the car a couple weeks ago and it had some shimmey in the front end that was fixed with new tires, new axles and a transmission mount.

While I was replacing the transmission mount, it started raining with the hood up. I didn't think much of it, but as the rain picked up, I closed the hood (which still has two large vents in it) and went inside. Came, out finshed the job and let the car down and planned to drive it the following day.

Once I drove it, I saw that all the vibration was gone and it was running smooth and strong. Then later in the day it seemed like the car developed a miss. I could even put the clutch in and rev it, only to hear a slight "hiccup" the second I gave it gas. I pulled all the plug wires and found that cylinder 1 (furthest to the right when standing in front of the vehicle and looking at the engine) was full of water. I must have used 10 paper towels soaking up all the water from around the spark plug. Once everything looked dry, tried again... same sputtering. I was told to try to some SeaFoam in the oil to displace any water that may have gotten into the oil through a loose plug, but that did nothing. So, I bought new plugs, tried again... same sputtering. Just bought a new cap and rotor, tried again... guess what, SAME DAMN SPUTTERING.

It happens throughout the ENTIRE rev range. I can have the pedal to the floor and it seems like the car is running on about 1/2 it's power, even though it sounds like it is TRYING to scream.

Anyone have ANY suggestions?

BTW, I have not gotten a CEL but I did buy the car used so perhaps something removed the bulb. Still have to pull the cluster to see.

Thank you!

 

You need 3 main ingredients for a cylinder to fire. Fuel spark and compression.

1. Check and make sure cyl 1 spark plug wire is sparking

2. Check and make sure fuel injector is working. You can put a long flatblade screwdriver on the injector and listen with your ear on the handle and hear if its clicking. Also pull the plug out and see if it smells like gas.

3. Compression, when all else fails, run a compression test on the engine. All cylinders should be within 10% of each other.

Timing is also a key ingredient but you can rule it out because the other 3 cylinders are working. Make sure you have the firing order right on the dist too. The correct order is 1,3,4,2 starting at the bottom left of the dizzy cap and going clockwise.

 

Well, I pulled the plug wire from the cylinder (all of them individially actually) and I can hear the cylinder "die" when I do it, so I know that they are all getting ignition and spark.

Just to be sure, I just did the screwdriver / injector check and they are all ticking so they appear to be working. The plug isn't filed out nor does it smell like gas.

I haven't checked the compression yet, but I will say this. Since it has started this it DID run like it was supposed to for about 5 minutes, then right back to this gutless sputtering.

Could there be a sensor of some sort be causing this? If so, which one(s)?

Thanks

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by vespid82 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Well, I pulled the plug wire from the cylinder (all of them individially actually) and I can hear the cylinder "die" when I do it, so I know that they are all getting ignition and spark.
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not true you can't tell if a cylinder is getting spark by just pulling the wire out. put a screwdriver in the wire and without shocking the shitout of yourself hold the screwdriver close toa ground i.e. valve cover nut. Have a friend crank the engine and see if you get a nice blue spark jumping from the screwdriver to the ground. You might want to unplug the injectors too so the engine won't start while you're doing the test.

Alsoif your injector is firing but there is no spark there will be risidual gasoline on the plug so you could either have a bad injector or low compression on that cylinder which could be caused by a burnt/bent valve, piston rings, or a blown headgasket.

 

check to make sure the valvelashisn't too tightly adjusted on cyl one too. If it is it might be holding a valveopen and cause compression loss.

 

But... if the plug wire was NOT sending a current through the plug and creating a spark, the cylinder wouldn't die the second I pulled the corresponding wire. It would just keep the same (bad) idle.

But it's all fixed now. I found ONE last drop of water that was right on the contact in the spark plug boot. Blew it out with an air gun and it is once again running GREAT!

Thanks for the help.

 

get new plugs and wires. thet got wet when it rained and developed a miss happened to me to