So here are my symptoms... my car runs perfectly fine on flat land. Even a minor increase in steepness up hills. But if I try to go over a steep grade mountain.. I will down shift to 4th as expected and usually be able to cruse right up. Well this has happened one time before and I was forced to downshift to 3rd gear. It would pull at 40mph but start rumbling and shaking and just loose power. CEL was flashing. So I took my car home and ran the codes. Had cylinder 1,3,4 misfire. P0300 misfire code and a p1399 code. I reset the codes this morning and came to work. Car was totally fine. Now this did happen about a month ago and I reset my CEL all was fine until this happened again.

1998 ex 200k on clock.

I do not think it is compression, compression would be a constant when engine is warm. The car pulls fine.

I also noticed 3 little puddles of oil on my intake manifold. Behind the fuel injectors. Couldnt see any visible leaks. I wiped it down clean and came to work. Poped my hood and those little puddles of oil were there again. Any suggestions?

Could these little puddles of oil be the culprit for my misfire. Seeing how it only does it on steep grade land.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Also going down hill on steep grade. Car is fine

 

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when was the last time you had a tuneup? that's where i would start first. compression test would probably come after.

 

x2, pull your plugs and see what they look like, post pics if you can. Never drive the car with flashing CEL, thats indicating catalyst damaging misfire events and you'll ruin the cat pretty fast if you haven't already. The 1399 code generally relates to an ignition issue so I'd start there and if the tune up hasn't been done in a while or your plugs are fouled I'd start there. Not sure about the oil build up without pics, could be a bad PVC (might as well change that if you haven't) or leaking valve cover gasket.

 

PVC I changed about 8 months ago when I did my head gasket. I have been doing extensive research on this topic. I know its not the igniter (car would not start).

Tune up wise I did spark plugs, wires, cap, rotor. Maybe it could be the ignition coil?

I will be able to do a compression test tomorrow in the afternoon. But I seriously don't think its compression because compression would be a constant, this is not. It is just going up a very very steep hill about 4 miles long. But I will do a compression test.



this is the oil I was talking about. I wipe it clean and it comes back, No visible leaks around the valve cover and car doesn't smoke at idle. I smell minor burning of oil.

 

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