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So have had this ongoing issue for about a week. The car wants to flood while idling in traffic. then when you try to accelerate at a light or in traffic it pops and crackles sputters and such then clears out and is fine while driving. Only does it at idle.

So I changed the plugs to the correct ones but laser iridiums, the plugs in it were just normal NGKs running 1 heat range colder 3 of the cylinders were washed out and 3 were burning nicely. I cleaned the corrosion off of the cap and rotor, then checked the HEI module and it had two wires wiggling in the crimps, I literally just pulled them out of the connectors with no effort. so I replaced the connectors. The car is A LOT smoother and seemed to be better, but it is still missing at idle. Not as much as it was at all but it is missing.

My thought now is that the HEI module is failing, but was told that they either work or do not work and dont typically have an in between.

The other is perhaps my internal coil is failing and starting to die and if that is the case I should just swap it to external as I have a Blaster2 sitting around and a MSD SCI.

Any one else have any thoughts?

I have checked the vacuum lines, but I guess there could be a check valve or something somewhere that is bad. Perhaps the PCV?

Usually a starting to misfire car would be failing distributor.

Josh wrote:So have had this ongoing issue for about a week. The car wants to flood while idling in traffic. then when you try to accelerate at a light or in traffic it pops and crackles sputters and such then clears out and is fine while driving. Only does it at idle.

So I changed the plugs to the correct ones but laser iridiums, the plugs in it were just normal NGKs running 1 heat range colder 3 of the cylinders were washed out and 3 were burning nicely. I cleaned the corrosion off of the cap and rotor, then checked the HEI module and it had two wires wiggling in the crimps, I literally just pulled them out of the connectors with no effort. so I replaced the connectors. The car is A LOT smoother and seemed to be better, but it is still missing at idle. Not as much as it was at all but it is missing.

My thought now is that the HEI module is failing, but was told that they either work or do not work and dont typically have an in between.

The other is perhaps my internal coil is failing and starting to die and if that is the case I should just swap it to external as I have a Blaster2 sitting around and a MSD SCI.

Any one else have any thoughts?

I have checked the vacuum lines, but I guess there could be a check valve or something somewhere that is bad. Perhaps the PCV?

In pretty sure you can ohm them out to see if they are in spec or not. If you are losing ignition it could could be flooding. I would also check belt timing to make sure its still on time. Hope this helps.

Yeah, I am going to order my new dizzy cap for external coil and just swap it the rest of the way out. I know I went through 3 dizzy's in my RS until I swapped it to external coil.

That is what I figured, just needed some reassurance. Thanks guys.

I am going to check the timing also as running colder plugs like it was it may be advanced some.

Josh did you bother jumping TEN and Gnd and resetting your idle screw. Turn it in until your motor starts to stall then out until your at 650 RPM. Don't use the tach in the car use an external one. Once you take it out of diag. mode the engine should return to 700rpm idle. I tried fooling with this screw on my 96 and found if it's too far out you will get a richer idle and stumbling on take off. My 5 cents.

Daninski wrote:Josh did you bother jumping TEN and Gnd and resetting your idle screw. Turn it in until your motor starts to stall then out until your at 650 RPM. Don't use the tach in the car use an external one. Once you take it out of diag. mode the engine should return to 700rpm idle. I tried fooling with this screw on my 96 and found if it's too far out you will get a richer idle and stumbling on take off. My 5 cents.

It'll have a rich problem at idle as well if your TPS isn't adjusted properly after you've adjusted your base idle set up... Anytime you adjust your base idle check your tps adjustments...

I remember my car when I first did the ZE swap, one of the senior members of the time (curtklze) was a mechanic, he could hear my car's rough idle and said it's the 02 sensors. Replaced those when I did my headers and it did go away.

You sure it'd flooding? My cousin's Protege had the typical cracked intake hose and it was stumbling and stalling at idle only (kinda proud of it cause apparently my mechanic cousin did some troubleshooting, they did like $1000 worth of work and replaced the fuel filter and it was still doing it. I put on her snow tires on and when I was done, that was the first thing I checked and had a huge rip in it and looks like it was previously taped up with electrical tape). Anyway, a vacuum leak is also more more evident at idle and low rpms because the leak (after the VAF) is letting in a much higher percentage of unmetered air than at under load and higher rpms. I wouldn't rule that out.

Thank's for the info guys.

yeah I went through all my intake and vac lines, everything is proper. I will have to reset the idle, that could very well be it. I am pretty sure my TPS is off just a smidge as if you hold the idle in neutral and hold the RPM between 1500 and 1800 it starts bouncing up and down. I have not had a chance to reset it just yet. I guess I should probably get to it before I replace the coil.

In all actuality I should just do it anyways as I cannot believe how cheap Blaster 2's have become... when I bought mine before it was around 100 bucks...

I wonder what the problem is, hopefully you;ll figure it out. You dont have spare disty you could throw on?

Well so far looks like it may have been the idle screw. Drove it around and seems to be resolved. Though I may need to raise it up just a tad bit more. I will be able to tell more tomorrow in traffic. No need to tell the girl yet, as a new coil is looking nice regardless

Edit: Update - So I think with the DE ECU that was in the car, it ran a lot leaner than when I swapped in the KL36 and why it only recently started IDK perhaps the coil is getting weaker. But readjusting the mixture at idle did solve it so far it is no longer missing and flooding out at idle.

Much Obliged Gents