My car has developed this intermittent miss in the last week or so. It is very particular. For instance, I was leaving a stoplight today and it was missing badly, then all of a sudden it cleared up and I took off. Other times it has been missing while I was cruising for a few seconds then it just clears up all of a sudden. Then sometimes it will just miss for a split second and then clear up. what is my problem?

 

I had very same problem. It was burned spark plug boot.

 

How would I determine if a boot is bad? (Keep in mind I have Taylor 10mm wires)

 

I have same wires I observed very intense sparks from boot to header in the dark. If there is no arcing/etc. a faulty spark plug can produce same effect. It can foul itself on rich idle, open loop, etc., but can clean itself out enough to produce spark in different driving conditions.

 

What would I be experiencing if I actually burned a valve? I would assume that a burned valve would not produce an intermittent miss. Since it is physical damage, I just think that the misfire would remain constant. I just hope so. Someone please educate me.

 

Burnt valves are not very common. Your problem is probably ignition related.

 

My concern really is that I am not using header gaskets and there is carbon where the headers are leaking a little. I'm afraid that is a tell-tale sign that I sucked air in and burned the valves.