instantly lost power and now has miss...

[jlowy]

Here is the scenario...

Driving today through a nice canyon road...while going up a small hill with some nice tight turns, suddenly, car lost power and developed a severe miss. Definately not firing on all cylinders now. I had good oil pressure and the car was not running hot. No serious noises now other then the sound of only 2 or 3 cylinders working and some slight backfiring...I was able to nurse it the few miles back to my house.

What are the likely causes that I should review before I take the plunge and tow to the mechanic?

What are the least severe to the most severe possibilities to consider?

If I can't get to the bottom of it myself...any recommendations on which shop in the mission viejo (south orange county) area will not abuse me?\

thx

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

You need three things to run: Fuel, Air (compression), and Spark. Which are you missing?

Does the starter sound like it is not cranking "evenly"? If so, you may have a compression problem, like a dropped valve seat or a valve way out of adjustment.

Get an extra spark plug; hook it up to each plug wire in turn and ground the outer electrode or threads. I recommend taping it in place because having it ground through your hand HURTS LIKE HECK! You should be able to see the spark in each case while the starter is cranking.

If you have carbs, you could have plugged idle jets or some other such. Hopefully someone who knows carbs better will speak up. If you have FI, you can stick each injector in a mayo jar or similar and see if any fuel winds up in the jar after cranking the starter; if you get someone else to work the key you can even check the spray pattern.

--DD

[RandyLok]

Check all the plug wires. Maybe you'll get lucky and find a loose wire or two.

[eki912]

Originally Posted by jlowy

What are the likely causes that I should review before I take the plunge and tow to the mechanic?

Not knowing any specs how your engine is put together, and with what equipment but :

- sparkplugs
- points
- dizzycover
- condenser
- sparkplugwires

All relatively easy to check and cheap to replace.
Altough I have no idea how to check the condenser....
But replacing is cheap.

[pohowie]

mine did this and it was the trigger points for fuel injection