I would redo the compression test and also verify a spark at each plug.  After that, test each cylinder head.  I saw Edd China do this on an old Wheeler Dealers: remove the head and rocker arm assembly so all the valves are pulled tight into the head, turn it over with the head level and fill each combustion chamber with gasoline.  If any of the valves are bad, the gas in that chamber will trickle out.

Crate engine?  I have a ZZ4 engine.  It runs great and gives me no problems.  But it would have been nice to have the original engine due to the numbers matching craze.

Jim

Before you start ripping into this thing, let's do some basic checks.
Did you Ohm out the plug wires? Just looking at them(or the plugs) will not tell you if they are capable of carrying the spark. Use an ohm meter, and check the resistance of all of the wires. You're looking for consistency here, not specifics. If you have one(or two) wires that ohm far differently than the others, those wires are suspect.
Use a spark tester if you have one....test each wire to see if they will all fire across the same gap.
If you have a dead miss on one cylinder, check the wires first, then move the spark plug to another cylinder and see if the miss moves with it, or just install a new(or different) plug in that hole to see if the miss goes away. If it doesn't, check compression again on all cylinders, ignition unplugged, throttle held wide open. If that one cylinder is down on compression more than 10-15% of the others, then it's time to dig into it deeper.

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Joel Adams
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On the plug wires, yes it was visual only, no VOM yet, but that's easily done and i'll do that next. I dont have a spark checker but was planning a trip to tool store and will get one (good to have for many other reasons). I also saw a digital inspection camera that will fit in the spark plug hole on sale and with a 20% off coupon puts it under $70 so i'll get one of those at the same time. On the compression test, they all came back at 125psi except cylinder 1 and 3 at 120psi, but i can certainly perform that again as well. 

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I'd definately FIRST verify that plug wires are NOT reversed on 1&3 plug connections..

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Those readings are fine, but...was it missing when you took those readings? I think you're really looking at an ignition related issue here, not a mechanical one. I've had new plug wires fail within months of installing them, so new(or new-ish...or even high dollar) don't mean diddly.



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Joel Adams
C3VR Lifetime Member #56    
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"Money can't buy happiness -- but somehow it's more comforting to cry in a CORVETTE than in a Kia"

You know, that's a great point. No it wasn't missing when i ran compression test. This did come on very quickly so i certainly could be ignition related !

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I purchased a carb once to fix a miss.  Turned out to be a spark plug with "crud" in the gap!!!!

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Yep..ALWAYS check-doublecheck the most likely offenders first....:)Jim

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Thanks All, i'll have a new set of wires, cap/rotor and more diagnostic tools which i'll do this weekend. I'll report back my findings !

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Well, good news. Good news is a new set of plug wires, distributor cap and rotor fixed the problem ! Runs very smooth now. The set of taylor wires that was on it was routed under the headers and around the motor mount etc. I put a new sire of DUI Firewires over the valve covers and all is good now !

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 Glad to hear that fixed it, but sure sorry you weren't able to spend all that money on new heads and stuff....


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Joel Adams
C3VR Lifetime Member #56    
My Link


(click for Texas-sized view!)             NCRS

"Money can't buy happiness -- but somehow it's more comforting to cry in a CORVETTE than in a Kia"