In both January and February the 305 tpi decided take a day off and not start (made a post in the general forum about it at the time). First time, it was flooded and ran rough when finally started until giving plenty of revs for a while to clear it out. Second time around, it started and died, then when trying later it started and died. Breakdown guy checked and no spark. Narrowed it down to ICM (Ignition Control Module). Which we believed was a cause of flooding - bad spark. It's been getting rougher and rougher. The other day after driving home, went to start the car after about 30 minutes and i had to keep revving it as i could feel it wanted to die out.
Ordered a new ICM, coil, spark plugs, leads, rotor and PCV valve (just in case). Waiting for the delivery, was hoping it would turn up today. Decided to pull the spark plugs and they sure needed a clean (will post pics). Also, a lot easier to get to the plugs without the AIR system in the way. Used a wire brush and carb cleaner and they looked almost new afterwards (about 1.5 years they've been in). Closed the gap on them to 0.035 thou as they were a bit wider than that, so hopefully that's helped a bit. Also took out the intake pipe and used MAF cleaner to clean the sensor, just incase the air intake was misreading.
Started up straight away (which it always does from cold) and seemed to run a bit smoother, but still has hesitation. You can hear and feel it jump every now and then, kind of like a misfire (probably is a misfire). Doesn't seem to settle at idle, goes up a bit, then down, then up a bit, then down. Never settles to a smooth idle though. Interesting when i took the spark plugs out, on the drivers side i could smell fuel vapour when removing them, but not on the passenger side. Car had been sitting about 15 hours.
Fingers crossed having cleaned the spark plugs will get me through another few weeks as it was starting to get a bit sketchy especially in stop start traffic. Then fingers really crossed that changing the ICM, rotor, leads and coil will make the difference. Leads look original, they've definitely got a few years on them. Disti cap - contacts are clean. Rotor was looking worn. Coil is original. ICM has been changed before, and i've read that people have had issues with non AC Delco ones.
Other than that, gave it a well needed wash today and got some wax on half of it before it got too dark.
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