- May 25, 2015
- 94
- 1
- 8
In the engine bay of my 94 Miata lies an 87 5.0 of unknown mileage. In the 2 months of owning it I have already encountered a number of (expected) issues.
It had been sitting for 3 years when I bought it. First I added oil & coolant and new fuel filter. It would turn over but not start. With a new TPS my buddy adjusted it and the distributor until it ran.
This worked for a few weeks until it started leaking coolant. Unfortunately it got up to 280 deg one day and blew rusty brown water all over the engine bay. The two front freeze plugs had rusted right through.
With the new freeze plugs in everything was great. However, the guys on v8miata.net rightfully suggested a full engine and radiator flush. Two weeks later on the Dragon we noticed the passenger tail pipe smoking white under acceleration (Exhaust has no x or h pipe).
Three days later it developed a severe misfire - wouldn't idle without stalling and had little power. Regrettably I had to drive it like this for a few days until I got my other car fixed. Sometimes I could feel a cylinder come on while accelerating. I recognized this had been happening for a while before the misfires started.
So now the car is parked. Spark plugs are out and compression checked (dry on cold engine). Before I started driving the car, cyl 5 plug looked perfect. Now it's the worst with signs of sever heat including chipped ceramic.
By removing wires from the distributor while running we determined that cyl 2 and 6 weren't firing.
I checked to see if all the plug wires were separated and found some of them zip tied together! However, fixing this didn't change anything.
Cyl 1
Cyl 2
Cyl 3
Cyl 4
Cyl 5
Cyl 6
Cyl 7
Cyl 8
This guide was helpful for troubleshooting BULLITT Archive Mustang Reading Your Spark Plugs
I have searched alot on google and this site. I believe a short list of things to check includes
timing (with a timing light)
injectors and o rings
spark plug wires
remove the heads and check valves
My biggest question is what (or what combination of things) could cause so much variation between the plugs. I noticed alot of spark plug questions on this forum don't include solutions so I plan to post whatever I find.
It had been sitting for 3 years when I bought it. First I added oil & coolant and new fuel filter. It would turn over but not start. With a new TPS my buddy adjusted it and the distributor until it ran.
This worked for a few weeks until it started leaking coolant. Unfortunately it got up to 280 deg one day and blew rusty brown water all over the engine bay. The two front freeze plugs had rusted right through.
With the new freeze plugs in everything was great. However, the guys on v8miata.net rightfully suggested a full engine and radiator flush. Two weeks later on the Dragon we noticed the passenger tail pipe smoking white under acceleration (Exhaust has no x or h pipe).
Three days later it developed a severe misfire - wouldn't idle without stalling and had little power. Regrettably I had to drive it like this for a few days until I got my other car fixed. Sometimes I could feel a cylinder come on while accelerating. I recognized this had been happening for a while before the misfires started.
So now the car is parked. Spark plugs are out and compression checked (dry on cold engine). Before I started driving the car, cyl 5 plug looked perfect. Now it's the worst with signs of sever heat including chipped ceramic.
By removing wires from the distributor while running we determined that cyl 2 and 6 weren't firing.
I checked to see if all the plug wires were separated and found some of them zip tied together! However, fixing this didn't change anything.
Cyl 1
Cyl 2
Cyl 3
Cyl 4
Cyl 5
Cyl 6
Cyl 7
Cyl 8
This guide was helpful for troubleshooting BULLITT Archive Mustang Reading Your Spark Plugs
I have searched alot on google and this site. I believe a short list of things to check includes
timing (with a timing light)
injectors and o rings
spark plug wires
remove the heads and check valves
My biggest question is what (or what combination of things) could cause so much variation between the plugs. I noticed alot of spark plug questions on this forum don't include solutions so I plan to post whatever I find.