after countless hours of searching the boards, here it goes...

A little background first: a few months ago after seafoaming the car, i noticed that the motor felt like it was surging ever so slightly under acceleration when stone cold, but I thought it could be my imagination too, so I didn't worry too much about it then. Then during the really hot summer months, when restarted after the engine had warmed up to operating temperature, it would just fall flat on its face under moderate acceleration like someone had killed the ignition. It did this a few times and then one day after I nearly ran out of gas, the fuel pump would not prime when I turned the key on. I had to wait a few minutes, presumably for the fuel pump to cool down, before it would prime again.

Fast forward a few months later, after a week of driving in the rain, the motor started missing under acceleration (mainly high load at low revs) but was fine otherwise. I could run it up to redline without any issues. at this point I thought my optispark which didn't get sealed properly when I replaced the cap & rotor a few months ago might have gotten moisture inside it. I continued to drive it for about another week and the problem got so bad that it felt like the motor was missing on random cylinders all the time, whether high load or low load, high revs or low revs. In fact under high load and high revs, the miss seemed to come from the same cylinder most of the time.

At this point, I was sure it was the opti, so I tore into it and found that the rotor had been hitting the cap ceiling so I cleaned it out, replaced the distributor base with a new one from O Reilly's since the bearing on the old one was wobbly, resealed and put it back together, only to find out the problem was just unbearable now. There was a constant miss at idle, let alone while driving.

Since the R&Ring the opti didn't help, I went ahead and changed the coil, plug wires (plugs are NGK TR55s about 6 months old, still look brand new), both O2 sensors, and fuel filter. That still didn't help - in fact the miss has been getting progressively worse.

I then spoke with a mechanic who suggested the maybe my ebay cap and rotor were to blame, possibly internal arcing due to poor build quality. So I took the opti apart yet again and put my old cap back on which had hardly had any problems. No change though, it's still getting worse everyday.

Now the only things that I haven't ruled out yet are bad plugs (they looked good, but could be bad possibly), bad ignition module and bad fuel system. The mechanic did pull the injectors off and said they were sparkling clean, which makes sense since I seafoamed it. He is checking for fuel pressure today as I write this. As far as the ignition module is concerned, if it was bad then the car shouldn't have started at all right?

To recap, the new parts so far are:
optispark
ignition coil
plug wires
O2 sensors
fuel filter

Although the symptoms seem like telltale signs of opti failure, it's obvious there's something else going on too. There was some arcing at the #7 plug boot between the protective metal boot after installing the new plug wires. Removing the metal boot solved the arcing but I can't tell if it's doing that again when there's a load on the motor.

What could possibly be going on here? I have exhausted pretty much all options as far as the ignition system is concerned. Do you think fueling issues could have similar symptoms? Help me please!!!!!

EDIT: Just saw this https://www.camaroz28.com/forums/sho...78#post4966178 and I thought should mention that the smell of gas is overwhelming for quite a while after a fill up. Maybe the fuel ventilation system is junk too

 

So much for this typing up this long *** post... it took me less time to change that #7 spark plug that was causing this whole mess. It looked fine just like all the others. What attracted my attention to it was the arcing between it and the protective metal boot that goes over the plug wire boot. An ancient autolite is serving in its place until I get a replacement NGK in the morning. Old TA runs like a top now, back to her usual self

Moral of the story: start with the simple, cheap stuff. A $2 plug just cost me over $300, two trips into the opti, countless hours of labor, lost sleep and worrying. I don't feel so good any more...

 

When you say (protective metal boot),do you mean the heat shield?They sometimes can cause arching I think.My02.

 

yup thats what i am talking about

 

First is joy and then all the stuff you bought that you didn't need runs through your head. I always look at the bright side, which is i have a lot of new parts and saved a ton over having to pay a mechanic to do it for me. A few WOT runs should ease the pain.

 

LOL, yeah that's what I am thinking. I got a complete tune-up out of this ordeal, and the car's running a hell of a lot better than it ever did.