SOLVED - Misfires + Sometimes Stalls. Also Timing Question

Slammed6 · Post by **Slammed6** » March 31st, 2006, 5:26 pm

I know this sound stupid, but how new are your Spark plug wires, and plugs for that matter??

The reason i ask is because the spark plug wires i had on my MX-3 when i swapped my ZE in were in great shape appearance wise, and the ZE was fast but kinda surged a lil here and there through out the RPM range, It was most noticable when the car was at a low RPM range and under a heavy load.

Long story short i changed the wires with known good ones and Damn! it was like night and day difference. Apparently the wires were arcing on the intake manifold...so new ones cured that problem quick.

RacerX · Post by **RacerX** » March 31st, 2006, 5:30 pm

im no guru or anything but after all the changes nd checks youve gone through could it possibly be something in the fuel delivery department ? such as bad grounding to the fuel pump and the heavy accel attempts cause to to engage/disengage ? or perhaps your fuel injectors have a bad continuity to them or a few may not be working at all ?

had a similar issue with another one of my past vehicles, took it in to the dealer ship ended up being bad ground to fuel pump and my injectors had no firing signals due to a bad ground there as well.

good luck man

Jutzi420 · Post by **Jutzi420** » March 31st, 2006, 7:43 pm

I knew I'd forget something important, I changed my plugs maybe 5 or 6 months ago, along with the wires, got the second best accel had to offer.

I'm gonna pull my plugs tommorow to check em out just in case, and I'll check my fuel pump ground, and the injector's resistance.

MrMX3 · Post by **MrMX3** » April 1st, 2006, 8:26 pm

I had the EXACT same problem. I had been running a ZE Disty with an MSD digital 6, baster 2 coil and HEI module. Started having the exact same symptoms after 2 weeks or so. 4100rpm and it would just start spitting and sputtering. After a few attempts it would jerk and stall. Turned out it was the HEI module itself that went bad. So I decided instead of going through that every 2 weeks, I wired in a 2N3055 transistor in it's place and it fired right up and pulls right to redline and has been running fine since.

Jutzi420 · Post by **Jutzi420** » April 2nd, 2006, 3:17 pm

I had considered the HEI module too. the original I used was an accel branded one I got at a local performance shop, got another of the same and it didn't clear anything up.

Could you explain how a 2N3055 transistor is wired up in place of the HEI? I don't know what that transistor is but I would have thought that the HEI module would go a little beyond a straight-up transistor.

Jutzi420 · Post by **Jutzi420** » April 3rd, 2006, 10:55 pm

This morning I had to use my car to jump start my work van (Gotta stop leaving the inverter on over the weekend, ha) and it stalled twice before it even warmed up, It started normally, and the high idle seemed fine, but it'd run for maybe 30 secs then just die. It did that twice then the third start it ran fine.

This shed anymore light on the situation?

Oh yeah, I also replaced the 1.8L TB I had with a 2.5 off of a millenia.

nightnic · Post by **nightnic** » July 7th, 2006, 11:14 am

Have you checked your TPS since then? I know it is not very likely the root, since the problem reproduces only under load, but I personally had one die on me on stock K8. The only symptom I noticed when it happened is bouncing idle. However after the swap I now experience similar thing with idle, but whats might be more important for you, it does surge at some points of tacho, first being about 2800, i'm not sure about others. This happens though not under load but on neutral or clutch off as well.
That being said I wouldn't throw off the possibility its being TPS. They actually wear out since it is in essence a variable resistor having a lever going back and forth, making it perfectly possible for conductor to wear out at one or more points.

cooper_9 · Post by **cooper_9** » July 12th, 2006, 11:51 pm

this exact problem happened to me today. it was absolutly pouring rain today so i figured i had got too much into the cai and was wondering why it hadnt gone back to normal after it dried out. I'm going to start with plugs and wires and see what works. hopefully we can solve the problem

hgallegos915 · Post by **hgallegos915** » July 13th, 2006, 12:44 am

HEI module... do it..

wyldside · Post by **wyldside** » July 5th, 2007, 5:45 pm

I know this posting is about a year old, but has a solution been found for this? I have the exact same problem. I have a KLZE disty with MSD 6A and Blaster2 coil, wired in with a 3055 NPN transistor. When accelerating, the car stutters at around 2600rpm and 4100rpm. I know it is ignition related because the tach drops slightly and then returns to where it was, indicating a power loss from the MSD unit. I hope that a solution has been found because this is driving me nuts. Plus I don't want to end up stuck on the side of a road somewhere when I go on road trip next week.

wyldside · Post by **wyldside** » July 9th, 2007, 1:18 pm

Well I fixed the problem. My Crank Shaft Position sensor was out by 30 Ohms and was causing the ECU to mess up the timing. Swapped a new one over from my old K8 engine and it's all good. My fuel consumption has gone back down to normal again too. I can get around 500km per tank again. Hopefully this simple fix will help the original poster of this topic.

Tunes67 · Post by **Tunes67** » July 9th, 2007, 2:04 pm

Good info James.. thanks for posting that up

Tunes67

Jutzi420 · Post by **Jutzi420** » August 10th, 2007, 7:27 am

Lets see, I've still got the problem. Only I had some major ignition failure a month or so back. Just before it happened I checked both the crank and cam position sensors... they were both within spec. Then, driving at highway speed my tach started bouncing up and down by around 300rpm both ways. If I took my foot off of the gas it'd go back where it should be, then when I put my foot back on the gas it'd start bouncing again... no noticable change in the engine note so I don't think the rpms were actually going up and down. After half a km of that it stalled and wouldn't start. After a lot of troubleshooting and some help from my local dealer I ended up replacing my blaster coil 2 (it was leaking oil), my spark wire from the coil to the disty (read open resistance), and hooked up my k8 ecu instead of my kl36 since it wasn't triggering my injectors anymore (that was a tough one).

So now it's running, extremely rich though, I always had very poor mileage with my stock ecu. Now, after a few short trips it's started with the bouncing tach again. I'm gonna check the crank pos. sensor again today just in case, but I'm not sure if it'll read any different. Oh yea, wyldside... what's that 3055 NPN transistor all about? Is it just somethin you need with the msd ignition or should I be looking into one for my hei setup? Also before all this started I was thinking about getting a 6A, any advantages compared to just using an HEI?

Jutzi420 · Post by **Jutzi420** » August 10th, 2007, 7:44 am

ok, tested the crank pos sensor before I went to work... 562, that's within spec.

timpronk · Post by **timpronk** » August 14th, 2007, 8:26 pm

I read your entire post and don't recall anything mentioned about changing your 02, so perhaps that could be tried. I think I read somewhere if you order a ford probe one it is cheaper than the mazda one.

Found this on probetalk. They say changing the 02 sensor solved their similar problem:

http://forums.probetalk.com/showthread.php?t=1701236482

"car doesn't miss at all till u get to 3K and then is done missing at 4K happens in every gear but only at wide open throttle........... any suggestions......... cap/rotor????........ it has stock ignition system"

"Mine did that It was the rear o2 sensor."