I just bought this car and he told me it's probably spark plugs. Well I took the chance and bought it any ways. I went and bought new spark plugs and the car starts up better but still running on 3 cylinders. I know that because I pulled the spark plug wires off one by one and on the 2nd on starting from the driver side the motor didn't do anything. All the other ones the motor wanted to die. After I did spark plugs I did the wires and still nothing. I've heard it could be cap and rotter. I went and bought those last night and I'm going to change them out on my lunch break. I hope this fixes the problem. Does anyone else know what else it could be?

 

could be distributor, could be bad compression in that cylinder

 

yeah it's crazy because all the other cylinders work. I hope it just the cap and rotter. I guess I will know here in about an hr. I'll keep you posted.

 

yeah so I just swapped out my distributor cap and still nothing. I couldn't get the rotter off even after I unscrewed the screw for it. It's really on there. The rotter looks fine though but who knows. I bought the plugs, and wires from like an autozone type store so I wonder if the wires don't work. I can pull three wires off and the motor will want to die but when I pull the other one nothing. That's how I know that one cylinder doesn't work.

 

is there any oil down in the spark plug chamber? maybe causing it to not get spark?

 

I haven't checked yet. What would cause oil to go down in there if there is? Valve cover gasket?

 

I put new spark plug in it right at the shop and started it up and it didn't run at all. You think it would and then if it got oil on it then it wouldn't run. I'm going to check my spark plug wire with a volt meter and see what it reads out.

 

Stop pulling plug wires with the engine running before you blow the coil. I'm surprised you haven't already.

 

Compression test that thing

 

Check ur injectors .... If the spark plug U pulled out smells like gas or has oil all over it then u need a motor

 

not necessarily a new motor if its oil. the "o-ring" gaskets that come with the valve cover gasket for the spark plug chambers could be bad. but if it's not that, yeah that probably means it is coming from something worse/more expensive.

 

I Meant like burnt oil on the tip of the spark plug ... A dead cylinder usually has it all caked up on the spark plug tip

 

yeah I did a compression test. Cylinder 2 has 30 for compression so I need a new motor. Look like I'll just be driving this around till the motor actually goes. I'll probably just order a new home off jsmotors.com or something. I would like to order a gsr swap but I guess I'll just have to see when my motor blows and what I have for cash for it.