Missing, again

Seems to be a recurring problem over the past few years.

This time...
Engine was running well, smoothly in Tioga. Brought it home all still good. Started it a few times to move it in or out of the garage, no probs... didn't run it more than a minute or two at a time for oh, maybe 6 starts all together. Moved it in/out of the driveway Monday nite to wash it. I did wash the engine area. Tried to be relatively careful about not getting the dist wet(even though it was still taped from the Tioga run... I removed the tape later), and water puddling at the air cleaner center bolt, I dabbed that away. After I washed it, and it was mostly dry, started it up, it had a miss. I wan't too surprised. tached it up to about 2K, let it warm up, to burn off any water. No good. It started popping in the passenger side exhaust... clearly one cylinder wasn't firing. I was out of time, so I put it away. Got it out again last night. Starts plenty easy, but clearly has a miss on the right side. Again I tached it up, 2K, 2.5K.... again it begins to backfire in the exhaust, one cylinder must not be firing. I drove it a couple blocks, it didn't get any better. Put it away again for an hour or so. Went back later , sprayed the dist interior with Amp Guard, similar to WD-40, made for electrical connectors and motors... no improvement. Checked all wires again, none loose. Now I'm out of time again for the next full week

Since it's popping in the exhaust I'm thinking ignition. I had this problem once before... #4 cylinder wasn't hitting... IIRc it was a stuck lifter, because afgter running some MMO in the oil, it cleared up. It hasn't really recurred, except hat dist cap issue I had ahile back,,, but I checked the cap and hold down lugs, and it's firmly seated.

This is really gonna bug me for the next week since I'll be unable to even try anything again until a week from tonight
I think next Friday I'll drain a quart, add some MMO and fire it up, let it idle for 20 minutes or so, see if I get any improvement.

 

Careful Lynn, sounds like you may have a monster thread in the making like mine.