Just a little history on it. Ever since I bought the car it had a miss in it but overall seems to run find. So a couple of days ago decided to put my timing light on the plug wires to see if I was getting juice at the plugs and I found #2 on the front bank dead, good I found it. So I started pulling wires and plugs and alot more wrong. Same #2 had a large crack in extender, no burn marks because no juice. Then #3 on front bank had a badily burned and melted extender!! I continued pulling everything out and found plug #2 plug #3 on opposite terminals on cap!! Wow. And I thought is was running pretty good. I wonder how it will run when I get it sorted?? When I get home I'll take some pics of the extender. Bad Bad. Sent from my DROID RAZR
As noted in Allen Bishop's book, Ferrari engines have a way of being so fantastic that they can trick you into thinking they are running great even when they are terribly out of tune. I would also add the loudness of the engine (both exhaust and valvetrain) can make it difficult to detect issues that might be more easily noticed on a quieter engine. Good that you caught all that, at least it's all easy fixes. +1 to checking the wires if your other components were in that shape. The silicone sleeve over them can be misleading about what's happening underneath.
So, from now on, whenever you say my ___ modification is so good it feels so much faster than ____, we can safely assume that you butt dynamometer is ... worthless... --)
Looks familiar! Had a similar issue with my car. It ran very well but always had a slight stumble at idle. Then one day I lost a cylinder, driving home on 7 in the driving rain. One of my extenders looked like yours (source of the dropped cylinder), and a couple others had pinholes. I also tested my wires and they weren't consistent. Finally I pulled the distributor caps and found the caps worn and the rotors badly pitted. New plugs, wires, rotors, caps and extenders, and the car runs beautifully and the idle is perfect. I also took the chance to replace the distributor shaft seals, curing an oil leak that was filling the boots. All in all, a relatively inexpensive fix that made a big difference. Take care of everything and you will not believe the difference.
Great reminder to not overlook basics. My car went in for belt service (first of its entire life!). Tech pulls wires for load test: First one is at 60% Second one is at 40% Need I go on? Plus, fuel hoses had turned to oatmeal A quick call to Dave Helms and I have new plug wires, fuel lines, coolant hoses. I'll sleep better, I'll wake better.
whow man, pretty good find, LOL, good find ! Electrogunner (is that the name of an Arcade Game ) hehe cool pic
This area is the simplest to check and unless there is history that the wires , rotors , extenders and plugs been changed it is an inexpensive fix.
I replaced Wires Taylor spiro- core 8mm 350 ohm / ft Plugs NGK BPR 7 eix Extenders. 0 ohm model Cleaned up rotor and cap contacts Metered new wires through cap to plug ends. All good before install New cap gaskets Now I have a miss at about 5000 rpms and at idel the tach jumps a bit from 1000 to 2000 and back intermittently. Never did that before. I have searched for possibilities and grounded the digiplexes with a second ground with no change. Last night I started it up and turned out the lights looking for arcs or crosstalk between wires. All looks good. I'm not sure if the miss is associated with the tach jumping or not. I will probably pull the new plugs and wires and extenders to recheck it tonight. I do not like the new extenders with the small clip. Also I did verify with a timing light I was getting spark to at least the top of extender. Any ideas from you guys would be appreciated. I was also thinking flywheel sensors since the tach needle was jumping and its just a coincidence with the wires and such ??????? Thanks Sent from my DROID RAZR
Don't be offended.. but check your wiring again, VERY easy even being meticulous, to wire it wrong.. and it will make the "slow down" light come on.. huh.. or so I hear..
I'm not offended. Everyone has a brainfart every now and then I have a 85 euro qv so no slow down light. I do plan on checking all the plug wiring tonight but I don't think that would effect the tach needle but I have been wrong before. Once Sent from my DROID RAZR
Plugs gapped to .30 straight out of box. I checked all of them. I will check generator output while running before I pull anything. Thanks Sent from my DROID RAZR
I will be troubleshooting an irratic misfire on my '83 QV this weekend. My timing light says its my rear bank. Here is an thread regarding an alternative to OEM cables: http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/308-328/298179-blue-fire-spark-plug-wires.html I got some trouble shooting advice from a factory trained technician (I hope I got this right): - If the wires are actually grounding, they will have burn hole somewhere on their length. Look for burn marks. (I suppose this is true of the extenders too, although I have new ones on order.) - If there are no burns, then check their resistance which should be a fixed ohms per foot. - My misfire started shortly after I replaced the rear distributor boot so this is the smoking gun for me. Something I didn't do when I reconnected the ignition wires back to the rear distributer, was to have nipped off 1/4" from the end of each wire to removed the old pierced section so that the new piercing entered a fresh piece of wire. - I have new-ish Iridium plugs. My plan is to pull the plugs, gap them to 0.028" (NKG website says to gap Iridium plugs to manufacture spec just like any other plug)(NGK Spark Plugs USA - Gapping Spark Plugs), remove the rear wires from the distributor, test their resistance and either reinstall or replace. If the rear wires pass, I won't mess with the front wires.
Thanks Brian. My next plan of action also includes pulling the new wires,plugs and extenders and re metering them. I have the original ohm readings recorded, if any of them are drastically different it could be caused by a slow burn through. Joe Sent from my DROID RAZR
