hey guys,
ive bin searching the forum for the last couple of days, trying to figure out what may be causing my problems.
i bought the car recently, not running.
swapped out the distributor with a secondhand one, and it now runs.
so far i have put in new leads,spark plugs, dizzy cap, rotor button, and fuel filter.
i have also cleaned the throttle body and air flow meter.
the issue im having is, under load (even flooring it at idle in neutral)
the engine stutters, bogs down and feels like its about to stall, then chugs along and slowly builds up revs and smooths out.
at one stage i removed the dizzy, made sure it was all clean and tidy inside and out, put it back in and it ran beautifully, pulled hard even from low revs.
then it gradually (over about 20min) started playing up again till it was just as bad as before.
anyone got any idea whats up?
cheers,
John

I can make my car do this by unplugging the brake booster line and pumping the inlet full of injector cleaner. I know that sounded like a tangent, but essentially if your ignition checks out start checking fueling and vacuum leaks.

Check the easy stuff first - vacuum leaks.

ok so,
cant find any vacuum leaks,
i hooked up a timing light and its showing that the timing isnt even on the scale :eek2:
as in way before 20 degrees btdc
also when i open the throttle suddenly and the engine bogs down the timing light stops firing until the revs pick up (usually about 10-20 sec if i hold the throttle wide open.
got me stumped ...
unless its the ignition coil breaking down under load?
but that doesnt explain the timing being waaayyy out

How can i adjust the timing?

Can't adjust ignition timing, its mapped in the ECU, but the fact the light cuts out shows you lose the spark - look for weak coil, breakdown of ignition leads, bad connectors etc. I'd say your replacement distributor is not happy.

as far as i know the dissy cant be adjusted for timing, maybe, sice the dissy is secondhand it still could be a dissy problem, dosent explain the timing being out though, try resetting the ecu by dissconecting the battery for 10mins and go from there, to me, it sounds like a coil issue, which is still part of the dissy

ECU problem? Where should the ignition timing be at idle, any way?
Check the crank pickup/crank angle sensor wiring too, and its plug in connector on the side of the intake manifold.

i have tried resetting the ecu.
left the battery dissconnected last night.
the only part of the ignition system that isnt new is the distributor/ignition coil itself (second hand from a wrecker), all other parts have been replaced with brand new parts.
is it worth sourcing another second hand dizzy?
i would rather test with a known working unit, but i dont know anyone with a TE :doh:

i dont know if a maf sensor can do this, but simple check, just unplug it, and see if it makes a difference, as someone here has said, crank angle sensor as well, it could even be a fuel problem as well

yeh mate,
tried with the maf unplugged, still the same problem.
i had thought about it being fuel related, but the way that it bogs down for sooo long at wot i dont think it would take that long for fuel pressure to catch up?
how would i go about checking fuel pressure?
also i have changed the fuel filter.

ok so i just pulled apart the dizzy, cleaned up the coil and all contacts with some fine sandpaper.
put it all back together and she runs a little better, but the problem is very much still there.
i might just go ahead and buy a new coil ($88 on ebay) as i dont like my chances of finding a working one to test with.

all sorted guys.
turned out it was the igniton coil.
runs fine now :woot:
thanks for your input

glad you got it sorted , thats difficult to find without a spare to swap / test with.

Sure is!
Thankfully the local wrecker lest me test out a new dizzy before I bought it.