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I'm back...
The army decided I needed to go to Cincinnati for the week. So I decided to drive the old girl, figured she would make it or die trying. Well, she made it, bucking and stuttering all the way. I did manage 20mpg, not bad for how she was running/missing.
I did buy a compression tester and other items a harbor freight while I was there. Interesting, the name brand is U.S.General... and made in China, figures.
I don't have any knowledge of the engine history, it had more or less been abandoned for 2-3yrs, but my daughter saw it and had to have her. I replaced the timing belt..., on purchase. The car ran fine for about 9 months and this started happening.
I'll do the compression tests this next week, not certain what the number should be, need to check the Bentley Bible. The miss isn't any specific cylinder though.
I don't have a CO tester but the tail pipe is sooty black and smell like she's runnin' rich.
She uses some oil but no smell of gas in the oil.
Plugs are black and smell of gas, I think; I'm beginning to even question my own nose.
I adjusted the valves when I did the timing belt, approx. 5k mi. ago.
I haven't messed with the head, no white smoke, blown gasket or the like, She does have the old hex head bolts.
Balsat resistor??? See below for coil.
No knowledge of over heating, hasn't done it while I've had it.
No vacuum advance, she has Motronics.
So this evening I replaced the coil and FPR with the know good ones from my 325is, replaced all the relays in the fuse box and the 3others (pump relay...). Took off the distributor cap just to have a look (no carbon tracks, practically brand new. No movement of the rotor or front of cam (a friend thought it could be a worn front cam bearing allowing the rotor to maliciously move about in the cap) all looks good, feels good.
So I washed her really good hoping this would do the trick. Took her out for a short drive and she up and died on the way back... I was gradually accelerating when she just cut out the tach. went to -0-... she restarted immediately and for the next 30-45 seconds dedn't seem to have any miss, but on the hill up to my house she started obviously missing again.
Took her down to my friends house to have him take a look at her. We had been revving her and listening for about 4-5 min. when she died again while idling. Restarted easily enough, but she died again about a minute later and this time refused to start. After about 20 min. of tinkering and allowing her to cool down she finally started up (still missing, I believe because she was still warm). I jumped in and drove her home, still missing but no more dying.
I'm just glad she didn't die on me on the way to or in Cincinnati. I was going to drive her to Columbus tomorrow, but I'm having second thoughts.
It seems like she's getting worse and I'm still clueless.
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