misfire? boost leak? vacuum leak? arrgghh NOW WITH VIDS! Options

[brianforster]

ok so today was the first road trip to be taken in my car, but i made it like 20 miles and it started feeling like it was misfiring.

the other day i spoke to art about this problem, he said it was probably the same boost leak that causes my car to stall out when i shift to nuetral after my blow off valve goes off.

well i found this hose that was loose and replaced it and the problem went away (i said it felt like the car was missing, but i wasnt sure and he said boost leak) then i took off the hose and the car acted the same, little stumbly, and at idle it does a little "pop pop pop pop pop pop" thing.

today that problem came back 20 miles into my trip, but worse, i could definitly diagnose this as a misfire, the car was very hesistant when the gas was pressed and even trying to maintain 65mph i got some misfire-esque symptoms.

im gonna look in the bgb on how to test the continuity of my plug wires because i really dont wanna replace them if its not necessary, money is really tight ATM.

i just replaced the plugs with ngkr7e's gapped at .028 or .28 im not sure which, i used one of those round spark plug gapper thigns to do this.

yesterday i ran the boost leak tester idea that art had and found one, my throttle body was leaking, but that didnt fix any problems, i could not find any more but it had been a long day and since i couldnt hear loud hissing anymore i gave up, im gonna do it again soon with the soapy water bit.

does anyone have any ideas as to what my problem is? can a vacuum leak cause me to misfire?

could bad plug wires cause me to misfire only sometimes, not 100% of the time?

This post has been edited by brianforster: Jun 6, 2006 - 7:37 PM

[brianforster]

give me some credit dan, i know i have to unbolt the turbo from the manifold to get the manifold out, that is ALREADY DONE, even though you yourself said "i have to remove the turbo" to do it, but i guess thats something you would know if you worked on the 3sgte instead of just reading about it.

im down to one bolt, its pretty much impossible to get to from every angle, its RIGHT up against one of the runners and you cant fit a socket over it and the other runners get in the way to get a wrench on it.. i cant even see how i would access it with the turbo/downpipe removed..

it seems the person who put the manifold on had trouble with this one too because its not even tightened all the way, but i still cant get it off