A bad cat and dirty MAF cause performance decrease, but they don't cause cylinders not to fire. From your description, you confirmed that two cylinders are not firing, so that confirms that the cat and MAFS aren't the problem.

I would think that since the coil is fine, that there is a problem with your distributor.

I am not surprised the spark plugs are wet with gas. Since there is no spark, the injectors are doing their job, but since there is not spark, there is no explosion....hence the soaked plugs.

Do you still have your old dist. cap, rotor, plugs, and wires to put back on the car to see if they resolve the problem?

Can you check to see if you are throwing any check engine codes?

What year if your car? I am guessing 89-90.....the KA24E is so problematic!!:crazyrant

 

ouch.
it's never good news to learn that you are only running on 2 cyllinders

 

FYI: Firing order is 1342 i belive, donno if that will help at all

 

1243 on DE's, I thought the singles were the same

 

one is towards the front right?

 

ok, did you accually check for spark on the last two, non-fire cylinders? This is how...

start her up, pull the spark plug wires one by one. pull untill you feel that the wire is not physicly not clipped to the plug any more; then slowly pull untill you hear something. not all the way off, but partially, you should hear a "ticking or tapping" sound. you may also see a spark jumping accross if it is dark enough. if you do not see or hear anything. you are not getting spark, so you must check your wires (but you aready did that) by switching the known good firing ones with one of the bad ones, and you should check your distributer cap for cracks or anything else. the next step would be to switch and inspect your spark plugs just like you did with the wires. known fire plugs with misfire cyl. ones.

but before you do that, first remove your spark plugs from the non firing cylinders, and if you have compressed air, blow them out for a while untill the cylinder is dry from all gas, or whatever. then put the plugs back in, and inspect them first lol. then fire it up. if it works runs on all 4, this will help with trouble shooting.

well, just make sure your spark plug wires did not come undone, and yes, # 1 cylinder is the front most, towards the radiator. DID YOU GAP THE PLUGS CORRECTLY?

if you do have spark, make sure your spark plugs are screwed in all the way, then wiggle your fuel injector wires around when the car is running, or physically tap on them with something like a screw driver. your injectors may be stuck open. very odd that both would do it at the same exact time though.

do exactly what suggested and let me know what happens, and i'll try to help you get your car running right again.:heyhey

 

It's 1342 counter-clockwise and 1243 if you're going clockwise.

 

On a KA24e the distributor rotates counter-clockwise.

 

im not sure the plugs would be if... the car is flooded wat im thinking is that either ur dist. cap or rotor is not working... or somewhere in that line that ur not recieving spark....i wouldnt recommend dat u start th car and start pulling wires to check for spark....especially plug wires theres better ways like spark plug testers....and were misfiring by any chance??

 

in the manual is says that when cylinders are not firing either u have a cracked dist. cap, shorted wires, spark plugs fouled or defective also u may have some engine mechanical problem.....

 

Cap is fine, so are the wires and plugs. I've traded them out between cylinders and the last two cylinders still wont fire. It might pe possible that the injectors are stuck open, but as was stated, chances of two doing that at the same time are minimal. When I started I was getting arc jump when I pulled my wires, and I was getting visible but minimal arc on my plugs. Now I'm barely getting visible arc. I'm really starting to wonder if my distributor is the problem.

SUBTLE - I've done everything you said already except for checking my injectors. I'm going to try that and see if maybe they are stuck open. I'm also going to recheck my gapping and adjust it if necessary.

Keep the ideas coming please.

 

When I started I was getting arc jump when I pulled my wires, and I was getting visible but minimal arc on my plugs. "Now I'm barely getting visible arc. I'm really starting to wonder if my distributor is the problem."

i am confused about this part. so you were getting a spark that progressively got worse?

you distributer cannot be the problem. if it was, it would work, or not work at all. as stated before, you could switch your cap with your old one. that would be the best way to check for cracks.

hmmm, so you already did the flooded check right? you can switch the injectors around pretty easily too. it only takes me about 10-15 minutes to change all 4 on my car. just make sure you are careful when removing them, and make sure the seals are clean and the hole is clean when you re-insert. LOL!

I'll think about it tomorrow at work. FYI don't tell anyone I am a mechanic....

 

sorry for the confusing part. yes my arc has gotten weaker. I'll try checking my injectors tomorrow afternoon. Here's a detail I forgot to relate. When I pulled my first spark plug to swap it over to the fourth cylinder, it was way black. Heavy carbon deposits on it. I haven't checked the second one, so i'll have to do that. My cap looked clean, but on the assumption that I can't see the damage, I'll buy a new one tomorrow and try it. If it works, great, if not, I can take the thing back anyway. Thanks again for your help.

And fear not, your secret is safe with me...

 

okay, update. I did the flooded check as best I could and I think that that might be the problem. I swapped injector 4 with injector 1 and the car started once and then wouldn't start again. So I swapped injector 4 to position 2 and injector 2 to position 1, leaving injector 1 in position 4. The engine turned over aqain then once again refused to start. I'm waiting for a little while to try it again.

 

just tell me if your injector works or not... lol!!! dab some white out on the ones that are on hte flooded cylinders. then swap them with the good ones, 1 and 2 swap to 3 and 4. then if the first two get flooded, you know you have bad injectors. but also, you must make sure your cylinders are totaly dry before trying to start. or it wont work.

 

i had the same problem...we checked all possible things that could result to that from the fuel pump, spark plugs, tension cable, etc...and found out that my cylinder head and head gasket were damaged...it affects the air compression or something not sure though....the engine shakes or hesitates when u start it right?...yeah here are some pics...gud luck fixing ur car dude!!

 

Thanks man.

AZ240 - Did you have to replace your head or was it okay? Did you guys just goober the hell out of that damage with some sealer or what?

Someone else I know just suggested that it might be the head gasket as well, so that is going to be my next step. I'm going get a compression tester and find out what i'm looking at. That will tell me if that is my problem. If not the head gasket, then i've gotta be looking at timing. Last two options I can think of. Keep the ideas coming though guys.

 

we threw the head since its useless...
i just went to the auto recyclers "junkyard"....and bought a cylinder head and block from a 95 s14 since my 92 s13 had already more than 150,000miles in it.....and on that s14 it only has like 55000 miles on it...w/c kinda guarantees me that the engine is still in pretty good shape...hehe
i bought the whole thing for $350....i think its pretty cheap!

 

it can only be 2 leaky injectors, 2 spark plug wires, cracked cap, or head gasket failure. if the other cylinders are firing just fine, it can;t be anything else.

so just focus on trouble shooting these....

good point on the head gasket...:thumbsup

i was wondering.... was it gas that you saw on the plugs, or was it anti-freeze or water? give it a whiff

 

okay, compression test is done. I've got almost no compression on the rear two cylinders. only a few PSI in each. I'm pretty sure that I'm looking at the same problem as AZ. Now for a new question.

Should I invest in a cherry picker and pull the whole engine in order to do the head gasket? Or should I go for it still in the car? Get me some opinions please. Ease vs. time and cost type stuff. Thanks.

 

well wats ur mileage for dat engine?

 

do the HG in car. just remember where everything (vaccum) goes and you should be fine if you have some mechanical skills.

 

yeah do it in the car u save time and i guess money from not buying the picker but also dont forget the looseing sequence u can crak the valve cover so i was told...ehh but good luck