Yeah, all thats left is the plug wires and icm. dang that was an expensive bath.

 

Don't feel bad, I caused my wife's car to go on fire by washing the engine, but don't tell her. She had a 1989 Renault Medallion wagon, which was always in trouble. I got tired of getting all greasy, so I washed the engine. The car started, but was misfiring like crazy. I figured if I let it run a while and warm up things would dry right up. That didn't happen, so a figured a ride around the neighborhood would air things out. That didn't happen either, but the cat was getting red hot and caused the sound deadening stuff under the floor to catch fire. Smoke was coming in through the shifter handle so I thought it would be a good idea to leave the car. I stopped in front of someones house, and an Asian person to answer the door bell. I asked him to call the fire department but apparently he did not understand English. He ran to the back of the house, and came back with a garden hose. That didn't help at all, and the fire got bigger and bigger till it set off the gas tank. That caused the neighbors to pay attention, and the fire truck showed up shortly after, but by then the car was gone. I can say the firemen really tried to help by completely filled the car with water up to the windows. lol
Fire and theft insurance paid for the car and my wife wound up with a much better car.

 

damn pete burning down the wifes carlol

 

I'm about to the point of taking a match to this thing.

 

If I didn't know better, I'd swear Pete was trying to send you a subliminal message with his story.

 

roger that!

Replaced the plug wires, plugs, optispark and coil. (still in denial about the icm, but thats all thats left to replace, besides the computer). Fired up, stumbled a bit, cut off once but restarted and I let it sit there and idle for about 15 minutes and it smoothed out and is purring like a kitten at idle. I can't get out to drive it at the moment, but will later to see if the high speed, under load miss is still there.

 

so you went with a third opti? wouldnt be the first time a new opti is bad. man your goin to town on this. use electrical grease on your connections and plug wires whenever you pull them apart. sooner or later youll have it on all.

 

yeah, oreilly's replaced it twice with no questions. And to beat it all, after all this, I still gotta get the ac working again.. (car has ac delete).

 

so, here's the deal. Got it all back together. Took it for a spin. Man, no missing, sputtering, skipping. running simply awesome. After about 30 minutes I start smelling antifreeze. I figure this is normal as many times as I drained the system doing all this distributor changing. but I decide I better get home and check, as soon as I shut it off, I hear the hiss, steam is coming out of the hood. I open the hood to find (what I thought) was a small hose split and spraying antifreeze RIGHT ON THE OPTISPARK!!! I quickly grabbed a towel and opened the radiator cap half way to vent the pressure and keep it from spraying. (I would not recommend doing this, but I was desperate to keep any water away from the optispark). I let it cool off and start pulling off hoses. Hmmm..no splits or holes anywhere. so I fill it back up and start it, water starts pouring out of the upper radiator hose. I shut it off, pull the hose off, it is perfectly fine. Then I see it...the little bleeder that I opened when I filled the radiator back up...I forgot to close it......and guess what....she wont start...I'm ready to self medicate at this point....so I go back under the hood and start poking around, moved some wires, etc. She starts....went back under the hood with it running and touch some wiring (the big bunch running along the passenger side of the manifold), she shuts off...hmmmm I say....a short! Poked the wires some more and she started up again. This time I took a screwdriver and tapped the connector for the distributor. She shuts off....I pulled the connector apart and took a very small screwdriver and lifted the metal tabs on the female side to make sure it was making good contact. Fired right up. Pulled and tugged on the connector, she kept running. Knock on wood but I THINK I FOUND IT! I know craby said to check the connector and I did, but not well enough. OMG the power this thing has. I can floor it up to redline and she just pulls like a beast! Now I wonder if this was the problem all along and I replaced all these parts to the tune of almost $500 and all it was was the connector the whole time. But, with 180k on the clock, it probably needed these things anyway. Thanks for all the help from everyone and I shoulda looked at that connector closer from the beginning...., now I can start the official modding. (though my modding budget took a hit).

 

That's precisely what I was thinking. But I'll keep it to myself, so as not to make you feel bad!