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Date:         Mon, 7 Nov 2005 16:33:12 -0500
Reply-To:     Dennis Haynes <dhaynes@OPTONLINE.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Dennis Haynes <dhaynes@OPTONLINE.NET>
Subject:      Re: Help diagnose Cinco
Comments: To: Michael Diehr <md03@XOCHI.COM>
In-Reply-To:  <AB224588-31C1-4134-B684-1F94F623D12C@xochi.com>
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII

This was caused by pre-ignition. Ping, knock, whatever some wish to call it. Most likely cause is over-advanced ignition timing and maybe a lean fuel mixture. Overheated engine (or that head) could contribute. If you melted a spark plug, what condition is the piston and valves in.

Dennis

-----Original Message----- From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of Michael Diehr Sent: Monday, November 07, 2005 1:32 PM To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM Subject: Re: Help diagnose Cinco

Aha! The smoking gun has been found.

Step right up folks, it's "test your knowledge" time.

To recap: Old van with 150k miles, was running fine, suddenly lost power and wouldn't start again, about 10 miles after a fillup. After towing to a gas station started once, then immediately died after about 1 second. Sounded normal when it cranked. Wouldn't start again.

At first, thought a hall sender problem, replaced distributor and re- aligned the distributor gear which was installed improperly by the PO. This turned out to be a red herring.

Afterwards, still no spark on the #1 plug (as measured by a timing light on the #1 spark plug wire). Spark observed, however, when connected to the wire between the coil and the distributor.

So here is today's super stumper question:

Why would there be spark at the coil wire, but not on the #1 spark plug?

20 points if you get it here.

Hint 1: It's NOT one of the obvious answers: The Distributor, coil, hall generator, hall sender, and all wiring is new and functional. 10 points if you get it now.

Hint 2: Although the #3 spark plug looked a bit black, it was in otherwise good condition. I had not as of yet pulled the #1 plug. 5 points if you guess it now.

See here for the smoking gun: http://xochi.com/vanagon/Plug1.jpg

So for the next question, what happened to cause this?


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