"Plugs" plural sure made it sound like a multiple cylinder issue.

 

well to try and sum things up a bit...i will definately say i should have taken more time while testing and looking the car over before i bought it...the day i'm driving it home i decide to stretch her legs a bit and as soon as i called on her she stuttered and fell on her face...i was heartbroken, instantly...so i figure no prob, i'll just tune her up tomorrow.. well i ended up taking my new plugs and wires to a local garage and receive a whole ****list of thing they find wrong with the car...the "change" the plugs and inform me that i need to have my cat replaced or dropped immediately cuz it was completely clogged...so i go and drop the cat...well it all went downhill from there...the steaming problem started...i had to have it rollbacked to a different garage only to find out that i have 2 dead coils (i anticipated this so i had the new ones with me)...new ones are put on and the mechanic tells me that after i test drive it i will surely see the car run at its best...well i wasn't impressed at all...in fact i was more dissappointed... i was glad that she was at least running, but to me something still didn't sit right.. so i drive the car a couple weeks only for things to get worse...at the car's best, i could have hopped out and out ran her on foot... so i take it to another garage and when i go to pick it up the mechanic tells me that i have three burned out plugs and asked why i was running autolites AND AC Delco...i was like, huh? Apparently the shadetrees at the first garage were to sorry to change the hardest ones to get to. the mechanic pulls out the 3 he replaced and sure as **** enough their delco's..i took 6 brand new autolites to them, where were the other three? obviously i'm furious cuz in the meantime of what i thought was a tuneup, i have blown almost $800 up a hogs *** thinking i had other issues when all along it appeared to be 3 "forgotten" plugs. Well that was 2 weeks ago and yesterday as i went to leave work i started the care and was like WHAT THE HELL? It acted like it was flooded or something...then here comes the CEL and just keeps on flashing, i hotfoot it on over to the AutoZone to have it scanned and it threw P0306 so i went ahead and bought a new plug to take home and install....(this is the part where i said all kinds of pretty words trying to get the damn thing out)...i finally get it and it is wet and has black gunk all over the tip...i put in the new plug and start it up and it still sounded ****ty. Drove it to work today anyways and when i left work about 3 miles out on the road the CEL light goes off on its own and the car is packin her punch again...i pull into my drive and let it idle and it sounds like its trying to flood out but not enough to stall engine, still no CEL light. I am being told so many things by so many people, I honestly don't know where i should start. Oh did i mention that after i get the engine lined out i get to move onto maybe some drivetrain issues, that seem to get worse everyday i drive it....

 

....oh yeah, i was told that it might be an oil fouled plug...i installed a new PCV valve also...2 weeks ago..if that would have anything to do with the oil foul issue (if there is one)...

I just don't know....I'm so frustrated with this thing right now, I can't even stand it!

 

wow dude that sucks when i first got my camaro i was at my parents everynight for 2 weeks straight replaicng part after part that was going out and doing all kinds of seals so i know how you feel and it sucks hopefully you get it figured out but to me it sounds like timing and that its not firing so its not burning the fuel completely or at all

 

wow what a nightmare. can u get a dealer mechanic to put a analyzer on it while u drive him around so he can see whats going on. i had a short in my truck and it was running fine till i left the shop then would run bad. took it back and he hooked up a analyzer and off we went. sure enough a couple blocks away and it was running bad. he seen it, after some seaching, replaced the harness that was to the 02 sensor on that side. thats the best i can think of that is going to narrow the posibilities.

 

first of all...thank you for the advice...i'm going crazy trying to figure this thing out....

it actually drives good....but at a red light or stop is when it seems to be tryin to flood itself out...but the idling isn't bad enough to make it quit...it just sounds horrible and my gas milage sucks BAD right now...

the mysterious steam with cold starts is worrying me, i thought of head gasket, but why is it smelling like raw gas? I've got 2 brand new o2 sensors but have no idea where they go now that i've learned that there is really 4, but i think there is a code for bad o2 sensors isn't there?

 

you know, my 92 ford ranger i have now, was running rough ecspecially up hills. It kept fouling this one plug. It wound up being a head gasket. it was just letting water into the cylinder and fouling the plug. the was no water in oil or oil in water. It just leaking into the cylinder and fouled the plugs. I dont recommend you doing this because my old ranger is a work truck but, i put bars leak block and headgasket sealer in it and have put about another 4,000 miles on it so far. mine was steaming out the tailpipe when i would first start it up, also it smelled like gas because the plug wasnt firing. This sounds a whole lot like my truck. when you replace the plug does it run ok for a little bit? does the wet on the plug smell like antifreeze. I would definately have someone check the headgasket.

 

Did you lose a cat? That second 02 is sniffing to see if the kitty litter box is dry at the end of the peestream.

Why do you think they use the second cat is to check to see how dry the air is with a second burn to the cat box.

 

Pull the air cleaner and run it open to see if the stumble went away.

This way, you changed the limp mode that run rich to cool and ignition to retard.

I am going to MustankModder a video they removed from my air space is they think I am messing around.

Bet me I cannot match that passion you have for that car is the same blood stream.

It is too complex to tell you about that CEL flashing on the dash ING through the snow.

I think you are being snowed unless you can show me those 5 wire plants and who is reading 3 signals at what grid position at the wire harness.

So, are we down to 2 wires if:

1. Is Ground?
2. Is Hot to the unit?
3. To the O2 side is now at the main plug in side of the main harness?

Where does 4 and 5 wire go is, "back probe it" and you hurt no harness integrity is do not cut the harness IS.

 

Man, that ^ makes my head hurt!
A spark plug that is wet with gas and is black with soot tells you you are getting fuel and spark. But it's either too much fuel or too little (intermittent) spark, or even both on rare occasions. If you had an oil fouling problem, the plug would be crusty, not a black soot that wipes right off.
One of the things you haven't messed with is the injectors. I've been there before with a random misfire problem, and by process of elimination (replacing everything else) determined it was an injector. I knew which cylinder was running rich by the black spark plug. Running through three tanks of gas with injector cleaner added didn't do squat either. I finally yanked the injector, soaked (and swished) it in carb cleaner in a small container for at least an hour, put it back in, and problem was solved. The "swishing" is the most important step of the whole soak cycle!