Dead Cylinder

Swigg

Member
Joined
Mar 9, 2009
so all of the sudden i got a dead cylinder. After some checking im getting no spark of the coil pack for Cylinder number 4. My question is: Is there anything other than jsut a bad Coil Pack that would cause this. Is till have the 84-85 coil pack in there, prob the original one. I have an 86-87 ecm to evetually do the change over but money is tight right now and I would rather just get the car back running correctly. Is it ok to do the 86-87 ecm conversion w/o changing over to the 86-87 coil pack. I have heard it both ways. Anyway, any feedback or suggestions would be great. Thanks everyone.
 
so all of the sudden i got a dead cylinder. After some checking im getting no spark of the coil pack for Cylinder number 4. My question is: Is there anything other than jsut a bad Coil Pack that would cause this. Is till have the 84-85 coil pack in there, prob the original one.

I have an 86-87 ecm to evetually do the change over but money is tight right now and I would rather just get the car back running correctly. Is it ok to do the 86-87 ecm conversion w/o changing over to the 86-87 coil pack. I have heard it both ways. Anyway, any feedback or suggestions would be great. Thanks everyone.

Each coil fires two cylinders, so it is unlikely the coil is bad if only one cylinder does not fire.
Check plug wires and plugs if the plug is wet. "Ohm out" the coil pack and wires. Resistance for the coil should be 11-13K and wires should be within 10%. Make sure the plug wires are installed correctly. See HA sticky for some of this info. :)

Check injector fire if the plug is dry.
Regarding ECM;
You can plug the ECM without replacing the coil/ignition module.
The car will throw a code for the IAT. You can resolve this by installing one, or remove that feature/input when you order the chip. The chip for the 84-85 will not plug into the 87 ECM. The HA chip is smaller in size. See HA sticky for some of this info. ;)
 
yeah i haven't ohm out anything yet. All i have done is pulled plug wires off the coil one by one. Pulled each one off the coil one by one and they all shocked the tar out of me except one. Each one i pulled off also gave a lil bt if idle shutter too except that one didn't change a thing. Ill do a lil more messing with and ohm it out.
 
yeah i haven't ohm out anything yet. All i have done is pulled plug wires off the coil one by one. Pulled each one off the coil one by one and they all shocked the tar out of me except one. Each one i pulled off also gave a lil bt if idle shutter too except that one didn't change a thing. Ill do a lil more messing with and ohm it out.

Thinking out loud . . .
The electric charge takes the path of least resistance. If the coil in question fires two plugs . . . .and one cylinder is dead . . . . the charge is more than likely going to the "good cylinder/side" and the plug or wires on the "dead beat" :eek: may be bad.

Let us know what you find.
 
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