Small problem, don't you think?

What you see here is the reason for a lot of problems. A vibration caused by what I thought was a driveline imbalance; lower than expected power; crappy fuel mileage...

All from one bad plug wire.

 

What you see on the left if MY plug wire. On the right is a new plug wire. Notice a difference? It wasn't pushed all the way down on the plug, and melted against the header. The kicker was I have these little fiberglass things over the plug wire ends to protect them from the heat, so I couldn't see the melted plug wire end. My Dad found it, indirectly.

You see, I had a coloscopy today, so I wasn't supposed to drive. So, my Dad drove me home in my car. He noticed the vibration and since he's older and smarter than I am, he said, "That feels like a miss, do you have new plug wires on this thing?"

Of course I didn't. They were the plug wires that came with the car, which the previous owner had recently replaced.

"How do you find a bad plug wire?" I inquired.

"Start the engine in the dark and look for sparks." answered. Duh.

So I did, and there it was, bigger than shit. Ventured to the Autozone that doesn't close until midnight, got a new set of wires, and replaced the burned up wire. Car idles smooth as glass now, and I pulled it in first all the way to 5000 rpm on the way back home from the gas station.

The real kicker is gas milage. Adding the vacuum advance bumped it from 9.5 to 10.8 miles per gallon. Fixing a cylinder that isn't firing at all, into which gas is pouring and then simply being pushed out into the exhaust manifold, will have a HUGE impact on that.

I'm so happy, I could do a little dance or something... but I won't.