Dead Cylinder

[Gun Doc]

I have had this car for going on three years now and it took me most of that time to get my Webers running right! After a long winter here in Middle Tennessee I took the car to work a few weeks ago and promptly fouled a plug. I had to drive the thing about forty miles back home with it popping and backfiring.

A couple of days ago I put some fresh plugs in and cranked it up, but still had the miss. Using my flow meter I quickly determined it to be the rear left (driver’s) cylinder that was not firing. It was reading around 5 while the others cylinders were right at 10. I played with the carb a little, but soon figured it was not the problem.

I changer the plug again and noticed a slight amount of oil on the electrode…Not wet, but slightly discolored. I changed the plug and swapped the plug wires with the plug next to it. No change.

Right after I changed the plug the first time, I dove the car about 10 miles and it seemed that the offending cylinder would fire every once in a while, as the RPMs would climb some and the engine would smooth out.

This engine only has about 5000 miles on it and was professionally built by Performance Engineering, so it is hard for me to believe it is a serious engine problem (At least I am keeping my fingers crossed!) that is causing this problem.

I am running an MSD ignition and distributor/cap with Taylor wires and Autolite Platinum Plugs (AP3924) . I am somewhat concerned about the oil film on the plug.

Any thoughts??

Thanks,

Gun Doc