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[Richgm]

Hi People,

Just got back from work it's raining cats & dogs and dark so can't do a lot until daylight but thought I'd ask for ideas as to where to start looking.

Got in the car to come home and she fired OK but felt a bit rough. Started to drive and I have a judder and lack of power. Feels like a mis-fire but it's got to be 2 or 3 cylinders missing to be this bad.
Seems to be there when the engine is idling and under load but not noticeable when lifting off.
I do have a cam cover leak but the suddenness and severity of the fault kind of makes me think that it's not just the plug holes filling with oil.

Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated

Rich

[Richgm]

Tried the paperclip test. got 12 and 31 (Engine off)

[iainb]

Try to drain off any oil in the spark plug wells and clean the HT leads dont forget to clean the contact surface of the plugs as well.
 This may give you some time but the prognoses is your HT leads are breaking down due to oil ingress.

[Richgm]

I'll look in the morning but still find it strange for 3 to go at once.

[Darth Loo-knee]

It could be the oil in your plug wells which may have damaged your leads, but if you have two going down it could be your dispack

[CaptainZok]

Check no6 plug well for water, mine fills up occasionally and misfires.

[Richgm]

Well I've had a look and 3 & 5  1 & 3 had a reasonable amount of oil in them. I've cleaned them out and cleaned up the plugs and it seems a little better but still not right.
Any one got a easy way of finding out which are playing up. It seems to be a lot smoother on tick over so I don't know if just pulling the plug lead off will tell me which one/ones are playing up and I don't really want to try and drive it with a plug lead disconnected.

Rich.

*Edited: Because I can't tell the difference between number 1 and number 5 cylinder *

[Richgm]

Update while it's raining.
Looks like I'm now down to a faulty plug lead for Number 1 plug.
Have just been and brought some but it looks like it's going to be a bit of a mare to change.
I've removed the plenum and some of the pipe work and can just about see some of the leads on the DIS pack (I read Laidback66's guide for changing the DIS pack but post face-lift is a bit different and looks harder to get at). Feeling in there with my hands I've only counted 4 plugs so far and trying to work out which is which is going to be a bit of a pig.
Will post any more progress later.

Rich

[Richgm]

Moved a bit more of the pipework and can see all 6 plugs on the dis pack. Can't make enough room to get my hand in to them so I'll get the long pliers on them in the morning.
Anyone got any tips on how to route the leads round to the offside cylinder bank? I think I'm going to have to chop the old ones to get them out of the plastic tube that they run in as it's cable tied in a place thats impossible to get to.

[Grrrrrr]

On my old 2.5 it was easier to get to the DIS pack from beneath by taking off the exhaust manifold and sliding your hand up the back. You can't see what you're doing though!

Think my new (post-facelift) one doesn't have a DIS pack down the back as such but each bank has own unit (name escapes me for this.) Monaro has it but has little unit on top of each spark plug.

[doz]

Take the scuttle off it gives you plenty of room to get to the dis pack. The leads are number at the dis pack end and also the plug numbers are on the dispack. You do have to do a lot of it by feel. Also it's bolted on using tork bolts so your need them to remove it.

Of course if you have aftermarket leads fitted then they may not be numbered

[tmx]

I cut my old ones out!

if you want a dispack got a genuine used vx one here works perfectly though its the later Oval style

its called Coil Per Plug Ignition and yes the 2.2/2.6./3.2 all utilise this

[Richgm]

Thanks for the replies guys.
I've pretty much got it sorted now. Just that fact that I broke a pipe on the servo check valve while threading the new leads through so I've got to replace that.

[Richgm]

Thought I'd better add an update for this just in case anyone ever has the same problem.

The car seemed fine after I'd changed the plug leads but the very next day the mis returned again. I can only put it down to the fact that it was raining again  :-?(I put in my first post it was bucketing it down). Seems to me that the dis-pack was on it's way out and the rain was making it short out on a cylinder or two (Unless anyone has a better theory). Where the pack is sited I would have thought it would stay dry but saying that I did notice the sponge on the scuttle was saturated so maybe that was dripping onto the pack.
Anyway, New dis-pack installed and the cars back to it's normal self so I'm a happy bunny again.
Many thanks again to those who offered advice etc.

Rich