Craig King

iTrader: (11)

Last night I was almost home, did a quick 2nd gear pull, car felt fine, but as the RPMs were coming back down, the car stalled out. I had to crank the car a couple of times, and hold the gas pedal at WOT to get my car to fire. When it did fire, there was a terrible misfire, like at least 2 cylinders were not firing. It was sputtering really bad. I had to keep the car at WOT to keep it running and limp home. Once home, the car could barely idle. It was blowing tons of unburned fuel. All 4 spark plugs were covered in gas and carbon when I pulled them out

Today, I swapped in brand new BR8ES plugs, gapped to .026. I also am borrowing another set of OEM coil packs. Car fired right up and idled, but still sounded like the timing just wasn't quite right. I let it idle for 5-6 minutes, then tried to drive it. Under a light load, it started to miss again and had trouble idling. Still dumping fuel. Couldn't even make it out of my driveway.

I'm running a high flow cat, but no EGR system and have been burning a little bit of oil lately. My rear O2 sensor sometimes throws a code for being too lean. I'm wondering if the cat and/or rear O2 sensor is clogged from the unburned fuel + oil and messing up my ECU. Like a bad mixture.

Thoughts?

Craig King

iTrader: (11)

Are there any other sensors that could possibly cause these issues? I disconnected the battery when I swapped the plugs, so I wiped out the SES codes. During the time that the car ran yesterday, it did not throw any codes.

Craig King

iTrader: (11)

I have it idling right now. The idle sounds a little raspier than usual. I can give it a little gas at idle without any major issues. It's still blowing raw gas out of the exhaust. However, when I put it in gear and start pulling forward in my driveway, it almost sounds like there is a switch shutting off and on, coming from under the hood. Like something thinks the car is about to shut down, but catches itself.

Craig King

iTrader: (11)

After letting it idle for at least 10 minutes, I attempted a test drive. As soon as I started rolling down my driveway, literally rolling, clutch in, coasting down my driveway, the car stalled. I wasn't giving it any gas and it wasn't under any load.

I've checked to make sure all of the coils and wires are plugged in. I removed the MAF, cleaned it, and now it's back together again. I'm letting it idle again, then another try at a test drive.

Babs

iTrader: (26)

If I'm not mistaken, VIII plugs are supposed to be gapped less than .020" but I doubt that's causing your issue.

Check your intercooler piping and make sure a coupler didn't blow off and report back.

Craig King

iTrader: (11)

Sonofa!! I feel like a real dumbski now - sure enough, I apparently blew the coupler off of the j-pipe. That makes total sense now. I reconnected everything and fired it back up. It's idling now and sounds normal again. I'm sure it's going to take a while to blow all the crap out of the exhaust. I'm sure if my catalytic convertor wasn't already clogged, its got to be pretty close now. Not to mention, I'm sure I need to replace the plugs again. Thankfully the BR8ES are cheap - and I'll make sure to gap them closer to .02 this time.

Thanks Babs.... +2 internets to you!

Babs

iTrader: (26)

My pleasure

And you probably don't need new plugs...if it's just fuel, it'll burn off.

Craig King

iTrader: (11)

I put another new set of plugs in anyway, and reinstalled the coil packs. Reset the battery and it fired up. I put some new gas in it along with 1/2 a bottle of seafoam to help clean the cylinders and everything else out. Seems to be running well again.