misfire? boost leak? vacuum leak? arrgghh NOW WITH VIDS! Options

[brianforster]

ok so today was the first road trip to be taken in my car, but i made it like 20 miles and it started feeling like it was misfiring.

the other day i spoke to art about this problem, he said it was probably the same boost leak that causes my car to stall out when i shift to nuetral after my blow off valve goes off.

well i found this hose that was loose and replaced it and the problem went away (i said it felt like the car was missing, but i wasnt sure and he said boost leak) then i took off the hose and the car acted the same, little stumbly, and at idle it does a little "pop pop pop pop pop pop" thing.

today that problem came back 20 miles into my trip, but worse, i could definitly diagnose this as a misfire, the car was very hesistant when the gas was pressed and even trying to maintain 65mph i got some misfire-esque symptoms.

im gonna look in the bgb on how to test the continuity of my plug wires because i really dont wanna replace them if its not necessary, money is really tight ATM.

i just replaced the plugs with ngkr7e's gapped at .028 or .28 im not sure which, i used one of those round spark plug gapper thigns to do this.

yesterday i ran the boost leak tester idea that art had and found one, my throttle body was leaking, but that didnt fix any problems, i could not find any more but it had been a long day and since i couldnt hear loud hissing anymore i gave up, im gonna do it again soon with the soapy water bit.

does anyone have any ideas as to what my problem is? can a vacuum leak cause me to misfire?

could bad plug wires cause me to misfire only sometimes, not 100% of the time?

This post has been edited by brianforster: Jun 6, 2006 - 7:37 PM

[brianforster]

well we cleaned off and regapped my spark plugs, after like 3 days they were already COVERED in black, i got my o2 sensor on, and the car still seemed to run like crap..

i boost leak tested boost leak tested boost leak tested till my friends were yelling at me for doing it too much, i had to leave my friends garage where the air compressor was but isprayed everything 100 times and found 2 leaks

1 the blow off valve screw
2 behind the distributor, like where it mounts to the block there seems to be a leak, not sure what to do about that...

BUT i have good news, i think it WAS my o2 sensor just causing my car to run rich as all hell, backfires, misfires, the whole 9 yards, once i replaced it the problem didnt go away but as art said it does need time to learn, so today after a frustrating and long day i was driving home and all of the sudden the problem went away, now it drives just like before!