Unsolvable Slight Missfire.

mecevans

Supramania Contributor
Jan 18, 2009
1,295
0
0
M-bay, cali
I have struggled with a slight miss only at idle from one cylinder for about a year now. It has just recently become worse where it will show up when cruising at >1200 RPM. It only happened when hot and pulled great all the way to redline. There are quite a few threads where members have reported the same symptoms, but never really figured out the cause. Here's a little info about my car assuming everything not listed is a stock GTE....

Rebuilt 7MGE. NA-T.
3in DM DP.
Flow tested and cleaned 440's.
Extra coil pack and igniter grounds.
Rebuilt harness. Coax knock sensors.
MBC @12 psi
Full flow oiling system.

By power balance checking each cylinder I found #4 to be the weakest and source of miss. I swapped plugs and coils with a good cylinder and compression tested all cylinders. All at exactly 195. Miss was still there. Hose down ignition components to check for arching, including with hood down. Blocked off EGR. Miss still there.

Next I smoke checked intake. Fixed a few leaks and got it down to .003". At this point I ruled it down to primary ignition or fuel delivery. I scoped the primary ignition signal to each coil pack. All good, so that rules out everything in the ignition circuit. Now this left me with only fuel delivery. I ruled out fuel pressure as that would affect all cylinders. With a noid light I checked the pulse of each injector and found nothing odd. I also resistance checked them all. One thing I found odd was that the #4 injector had about 3 times the noise and vibration when I put my finger on it.

Swapped another injector with #4 and Walla! Miss gone. These were flow tested and clean injectors with less than 5k on them. A clogged injector will mimic a secondary ignition miss, so don't let it fool you!
 

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IndigoMKII

New Member
May 9, 2011
2,181
0
0
Madison, Virginia
mecevans;1909674 said:
I have struggled with a slight miss only at idle from one cylinder for about a year now. It has just recently become worse where it will show up when cruising at >1200 RPM. It only happened when hot and pulled great all the way to redline. There are quite a few threads where members have reported the same symptoms, but never really figured out the cause. Here's a little info about my car assuming everything not listed is a stock GTE....

Rebuilt 7MGE. NA-T.
3in DM DP.
Flow tested and cleaned 440's.
Extra coil pack and igniter grounds.
Rebuilt harness. Coax knock sensors.
MBC @12 psi
Full flow oiling system.

By power balance checking each cylinder I found #4 to be the weakest and source of miss. I swapped plugs and coils with a good cylinder and compression tested all cylinders. All at exactly 195. Miss was still there. Hose down ignition components to check for arching, including with hood down. Blocked off EGR. Miss still there.

Next I smoke checked intake. Fixed a few leaks and got it down to .003". At this point I ruled it down to primary ignition or fuel delivery. I scoped the primary ignition signal to each coil pack. All good, so that rules out everything in the ignition circuit. Now this left me with only fuel delivery. I ruled out fuel pressure as that would affect all cylinders. With a noid light I checked the pulse of each injector and found nothing odd. I also resistance checked them all. One thing I found odd was that the #4 injector had about 3 times the noise and vibration when I put my finger on it.

Swapped another injector with #4 and Walla! Miss gone. These were flow tested and clean injectors with less than 5k on them. A clogged injector will mimic a secondary ignition miss, so don't let it fool you!

That's pretty interesting, how long did the car sit? If any at all. An injector clogged with only 5k on them, have you thought about dropping the tank to see how the condition of it is?
 

mecevans

Supramania Contributor
Jan 18, 2009
1,295
0
0
M-bay, cali
New walbro and fuel filter was installed before the injectors. Tank was spotless. The injector screen was also completely clean. It most likely has a damaged pintle and seat.
 
Last edited:

AbsoluteSpeed

Member
Aug 8, 2007
735
0
16
Edmonton AB
I had a similar issue during the summer. I didn't go thru near the diagnostics you did but managed to track it down by checking the resistance on each injector.
When cold they were all within spec (~3.5 ohm IIRC) but when hot one was reading upwards of 20 ohm.

The same thing happened a few months later to another injector. I'll probably have to change them all soon.
 

jetjock

creepy-ass cracka
Jul 11, 2005
9,439
0
0
Redacted per Title 18 USC Section 798
Nothing is "unsolvable". It's just a matter of time and having the right tools make it happen quickly. You should get something to do secondary analysis. A low current probe would also be a good investment as would an injector pulser for doing pressure drop testing. An electronic stethoscope would be good too. Otherwise you have the right approach.
 

Brewhaha

New Member
Jul 12, 2010
38
0
0
Fort Lauderdale
I'm interested in seeing what the problem ends up being myself as my 91 NA has the same problem. When at idle and lower rpm's it stutters like that. I haven't even bothered trying to figure it out though as I have bigger problems.
 

Brewhaha

New Member
Jul 12, 2010
38
0
0
Fort Lauderdale
adampecush;1910273 said:
did....did you read his entire post?

Nevermind, I'm an idiot. I somehow just blanked over the last part of his post yet read the rest of the responses, my mistake. Looks like injectors are next on my list of things investigate.
 

mecevans

Supramania Contributor
Jan 18, 2009
1,295
0
0
M-bay, cali
jetjock;1909785 said:
Nothing is "unsolvable". It's just a matter of time and having the right tools make it happen quickly. You should get something to do secondary analysis. A low current probe would also be a good investment as would an injector pulser for doing pressure drop testing. An electronic stethoscope would be good too. Otherwise you have the right approach.

We actually just got a new Escope Pro with the COP, miss fire, and pressure tranducers. I used it for most of the diagnosis. Its pretty sweet.