Nick's WS6

It was a test motor at GM, never put in production.

Gtpguy

Is that what the guy told you? He also said it was from an 86. He was wrong about that too. And there were hundreds of thousands of 5.0 tpi cars from 85-92. I highly doubt you got anything more than a run of the mill speed density 5.0 TPI motor. At that time (90-92) GM was already running the LT1 through the paces on the testing track. So I don't think there attention was to test out TPI motors anymore. But anything is possible, albeit, highly unlikely.

That gas gone yet?

cars3

Well, I was kind of thinking the same thing that maybe he got taken for a ride, or the previous owner miss spoke.

Nick's WS6

So I ran 2 tanks through and pulled the plugs, some look ok some are ashy white and some are wet. I pulled the distributor cap off and the points in the cap had white flaky stuff on them, I sanded them and no change. I think I should buy a new cap but now I'm not sure which one to buy if there is a difference in years.

Nick's WS6

This is the best picture I have of the distrubutor.
https://i.imgur.com/qjwtN.jpg

Gtpguy

Its a pic of the spare tire....unless the previous owner of the motor gave you that "distributor". Just giving you a hard time.

Have you checked the timing? I reread everything and that wasn't brought up.

And again, are there any codes that popped up, that wasn't answered either.

Were the plugs different from bank to bank: like did one side have wet plugs and other had white/normal plugs? TPI is batch fire. So each side of injectors will fire at the same time, unlike newer motors that fire sequentially.

Nick's WS6

I only looked at one side, once I saw 2 wet plugs I stoped looking. I don't have a reader and when I stuck a paperclip in the socket the light didn't blink for me. The computer and light is behind the driver seat so it's hard to get to.
https://i.imgur.com/Xpd89.jpg

Nick's WS6

I went back and tried to get a code again. I got a 12 over and over again.

Gtpguy

Okay thats good. Theres no codes set. Now what about the timing, did you check that?

You pulled all the plugs on one side or just 2 plugs on one side? And all the wires are verified to be away from the headers/manifolds, right?

Nick's WS6

I pulled 3 plugs on 1 side only. 2 were wet and one was dry with a bit of white ash on it.
I have no way to check the timing.
Wires are away from any hot surface except where it's supposed to.

Gtpguy

A buddy can't let you borrow a timing light? Well, can you turn the distributor by hand as it sits right now? Its possible that the distributor hold down clip is loose and the engine vibrations turned the distributor to negative timing causing the bad performance and misses.

Timing guns are less than $50, I bet you can get one dirt cheap on Craigslist. To veryify timing, you need one.

Are you on Thirdgen.org? If not, you need to register over there, and its free. Its the biggest club/database for Tuned Port Injection motors. Tell them what you got, a Speed Density TPI motor swapped into a porsche with the harness intact. And tell them everything that you've said on here. They should be able to point the way to you, and maybe even a fellow TPI guy will live near you and lend you a hand.

I wish I could help more, but we've reached a part where you need tools to verify the next few items.

Nick's WS6

The distributor is held down by 2 screws so it cant be moved. I'm also not sure even if I had a timing gun if it would read correctly because the accessory drive only has a alternator on it with a very short belt.

I'll head over to 3rd gen and see if someone local can look at it for me.

Gtpguy

All thats needed is the EST be disconnected, and you point the gun at the timing cover-timing tab and you see where the line sits in accordance to it as it flashes. Its really easy.