Engine STILL Misses, and ARC-2 is taking a walk AGAIN

[NightRider97]

Alright guys, Im getting to the point where Im ready to just take this thing into my Mitsu stealership and have them put it on a diagnostic machine.

To give a little history on the situation though, my car has had a miss that I could hear when listening to the exhaust. I wrote it off as it simply being worn out ignition coils, and decided to convert to a COP setup. First thing I noticed was that didnt solve the audible miss, and after discussing the CEL I got after the COP setup, I purchased an ARC-2 ignition amplifier. After installing the amp the miss was gone, and the car purred like a kitten. Even had a noticeable bottom end power increase. But long story short (if you want the long version read here Serious engine problem, related to NEW Dynatek ARC-2) the car gradually started having issues again, ending with the ARC-2 completely failing.
I sent the amp to Dynatec to have it diagnosed, and after 2 months they sent me a new one without any explanation of the problem. I called them and they said the ARC-2 was gradually affecting my engine timing, and eventually caused the unit to burn out, or something like that. They said they "reflashed the unit to run my engines timing curve" and said I shouldnt have anymore problems with it.

So I installed the new unit a few weeks ago and after driving it a couple days I can tell its starting to do the same stuff again. The car is starting to miss at idle again, and under full boost it will actually pop and backfire some until I let off the throttle. Its not at the point where it was when I canned the last ARC-2 unit, but I know it will be there soon.

I need some serious help here guys, as Im at a loss. i've replaced every ignition component short of the ECU, and it still had that audible miss at idle. And it keeps trashing my ARC-2 units.

 

[dmc]

Does it have a 6 bolt swap? If so did you swap the spark trigger wire? What are your plugs gaped at?

 

[NightRider97]

Its not a 6 bolt swap, but it is not the original engine to the car either. It had crank walk under warranty and mitsubishi had to replace the engine because of it. It has about 45k on the new engine, but was installed before I bought the car, and its had the miss since I've had it.
My spark plugs are new NGK BPR6ES gaped to what they come out of the box set at.

 

[dmc]

At this stage i would say disconect the arc, and try to get a loner ecu. Did you buy the cop plug an play or did you wire it yourself?

 

[NightRider97]

The COP is plug and play, and is one of the nicest plug and play one's I've seen.
If we conclude the ECU is the problem I will just buy an Eprom one and have it over with.
I have a hard time believing that Im the only person thats had this problem.
I'd really like to get this figured out without having to drop the $150 to have the dealer put it on a diagnostic machine.

 

[NightRider97]

I guess I should just take it in and have it put on a diagnostic machine?
Thanks to the one person who tried helping me, I appreciate your input. I'll try finding a loaner ECU like you said as well.
I just dont have time to wait around a few weeks for a couple responses here. I'd figured with as many of these cars are out there someone would have had similar problems and more people would have chimed in. Thanks though.

 

[dmc]

Sorry i couldnt help more, im pretty stumped as to what it is, besides the ecu, but let me know when you finally get her fixed.

 

[VETTE_50_TH]

Wait wait wait wait. You said the gap of the plugs is what they come out of the box. I got one that was .035. They must be gapped properly. Secondly, how is the wiring COP wired. You have no idea it its properly wired. It may look nice but that means nothing. Go regap your plugs and come back.

James

 

[NightRider97]

dmc, not a problem man. My moms driving the car right now and its like every time she drives the thing she breaks something. So Im trying to figure it out this time before she breaks something I dont want to fix.
I'll pull the plugs and check the gap. And no I honestly dont know how the COP setup is wired. But the point is the COP setup has no issues without the ignition amp, minus the normal random cylinder misfire caused by a COP setup without an amp. Its only after the amp is plugged in that everything goes to heck.
The way it behaves when it goes completely south, its almost like the amp causes the timing curve to gradually change until the engine simply wont run with it anymore. But thats just my observation.

 

[VETTE_50_TH]

Ok. But the point of the COP is to provide better spark quality with low impedance when used with a AMP. So to say the cylinder misfire is normal, isnt something to alright with. But, it is interesting to say the least that the AMP makes things worse. It doesnt change anything in the ecu, its a plug and play system. It receives the message from teh ecu to charge, fire. Thats really all it does. So, i can't see how this is caking your car run worse. I would honestly take apart the COP to see how its wired because you have to wire it for the AMP.

This is how it should be wired.

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/art...5-coil-plug-wiring-install-pics-part-1-a.html

James

 

[NightRider97]

Okay, finally got around to working on the thing again, and WOW those plugs were shot! They looked clean and everything, but they had opened up to over .060! The car runs awesome right now. But I still dont have the AMP hooked back up. I installed BPR6ES plugs that I regapped to .026 since Im running the COP without the AMP. I drove it around a while and got on it pretty good a couple times, and it maxed the factory boost gauge out. Which as lame as it sounds, is pretty good for this car lately. I couldnt hardly make the gauge go over half way up before the car would start missing.

Now the question is, what would cause those plugs to open up like that? I had hardly 4,000 miles on those plugs. Is it possible that the AMP caused the gaps to open up when it was plugged into the system?