changed the dis eventually on another members car. He was out of work but needed the car for his hospital appointments. Money was very tight so we started with the cheapest first. The plugs, in changing those it was obvious the leads where shagged. One even fell apart, or was damaged by previous work, they had an oil tide mark from previous blown cam cover gaskits which had been repaired by someone. But the breathers where still partly blocked so did those.
So, to answer your q, with plugs and leads changed there was a slight improvement but the car still misfired. But it sounded like a subaru flat four and hardly any vibration. This was different to my old 2.5 that had buggerd leads, my car sounded terrible with a very bad vibration. It was leaping from side to side violently. Why?
Well my car had a missfire on 2 cylinders on the same bank causing a bad inbalance in the firing order, with the two opposite good cylinders throwing the engine to one side each time they fired and the two bab cylinders not firing to oppose or balance the good ones the engine was jumping to the left and right on its rubber engine mounts.
The failed dis did not give this bad vibration, and sounded and looked quite smooth although like a scooby as said. It was badly down on power and fuel consumption was through the roof. On removal of the dis pac, there was nothing else left to change on the ignition system, it was obvious on its base that it had split and the iron core had rusted badly. It and the rear area of the engine where covered in orange residue probably from the hbv which was cable tied on rather that sloted on to its post as normal . The scuttle also had a bit of a leak as the rain was dripping through the join in that area which probably didnt help the dis either. With the dis removed(had to remove the wiper motor as well as the scuttle and plenum, a long bendy screw driver helps or a quarter inch drive with extension and "woggle") it showed the firing order and correct plug connections printed on the top.
With help from the forum and going by the symptoms we realised that the dis fires two cylinders each from 3 cores. If one core fails, as in this case (the non plug end one), you loose two cylinders one on each bank. So the firing order is still balanced, no or little vibration. Thats my experience anyway.
Bit long winded but hth.
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Topic: symptoms and visual clue re fried dispack (Read 709 times)