after filling my car up with gas i drove home(~2 miles) i then drove about another half a mile from home and the car started to sputter and then died.

i then got the car towed home and did the following:
-started the car, seemed like it was running on 1 or 2 cylinders and sorta "pulsing" at ~100-150rpms regularly.
-pulled the entire intake assembly off, including mafs...same result
-checked spark at the coil and the plugs...good spark all around
-the engine smells like straight gasoline so i know there's fuel present
-i checked the injector fuses and they're both good
-i reset the computer, and still have the same result

you've been able to diagnose every problem with my car thus far...hopefully you can help me with this one too! thanks in advance.

 

sounds like optispark may be trashed, out of timing. or timing chain jumped. does it stay running if you hit the throttle off and on? does it rev up any? and how good? does it run better with MAF unplugged?

 

How did you verify ample spark? My friend's 96 TA died; we pulled a couple of plug wires off and demonstrated arcing to the block...spark's good right? Wrong! Turned out after we pulled off the opti and every other ignition part and didn't find anything, that it was a weak coil. Replace the coil and it ran like a champ! Buy a spark gap test tool ((around $10 from an auto store). The spark needs to be able to jump approximately a 3/4" gap to be a hot spark; a weak coil won't pass this test.

 

has a new opti in it as of ~6 months ago. stays running exactly the same regardless of the throttle. doesnt rev up or anything...runs the same with the maf plugged in or unplugged.

 

i arced em on the header bolt. also i replaced the coil and icm at the same time i did the opti...approximately 6 months ago...but i'll try that spark gap test tool and try it out anyway

also the car has brand new plugs as of august when i did the headers

any chance it could be bad gas? anyway to check for that?

 

Havin new plugs is not guarantee the plugs are any good. I have replaced the tr55's three times in less than a year due to one or two of them failed. This last time one spark plug had a resistant of over 40 killo ohms while the rest were at 4kilo ohms. That was 10 times more then the rest. I just finished replacing spark plugs again with bosh single plats. They all came with a 3kilo ohm resistance. Running good. Will make a post later next year with results of the swap

All my problems have been one or two bad plugs. I bought them all at the same autoparts... No one else here seems to have had my problem so I will keep you all posted.

Marvin

 

Did you ever find the problem?

 

just posted in your thread...no i decided to put together a new engine and have yet to pull the old one

 

Finally found the problem. Tore apart the optispark and the screws that hold the rotor had backed themselves out. I'm going to put em back on with some threadlocker and hope that it does the trick.