no sputter, its a sudden shut down just like shutting the key off.
it is definitely odd.
when cold or hot , the idle is smooth, and the throttle response is good, power is good.
I'm wondering if it can have anything to do with the butchered fan wiring.

please post some pictures of the engine bay.
are you still useing the repaired ecu?
i would blame that for all the random problems you are having.
only persons i would trust with repairing a dsm ecu is the dsmlink guys.
try a new ecu before you try too much else, it's obviously had some issues in the past that someone spent money on. but did they fix it correctly?

I will get some pics of the engine bay.
I'm still using the repaired ecu because I can't find another one. Really hard to find one for the same year, car, engine, etc.
who exactly are the dsmlink guys. when I do a google search I get results for ecmtuning.

here is a video that pans around the engine compartment.
My god it sounds awful in the video, . In person the engine is actually kinda quiet. In the video the exhaust leak sounds kinda like a valvetrain rattle (at least on my speakers), but in real life the valve train is silent.

Congrats on being a member of the CSM club...
My family owns a 1st gen colt vista wagon, parts are available from time to time, but I daily drive mine with no issues great on gas never spent over $40 to fully fill the tank up, and I have to do that about once or twice a month [maybe more if I drive all over or in the fast lane].

It would be wise to give all the relays, and the fuses a once over do this with the battery disconnected the mpi relay could be Partially burnt out and when it heats up from driving the car dies out.

Check Out the wire harness for any damaged,cracked, or corroded wires.
could be the ECU... or a handful of other things these cars are not really hard to diagnose, if you've done it a few times you know where to look for issues.

My Money is on It being a bad, or partially bad distributor or it's wiring, the dizzy fitted on the colt wagons were known to have issues with age so might be worth it to inspect it.

Did you check out the ignition switch and it's wires
[the one located under the dash]
And if you have not already, get the factory service manuals [IIRC its a two book set]for the colt, they sell them on ebay for cheep.

also inspected the Ignition control module it is similar in shape as a dsms power transistor also inspect its wires and connector too.

And I think the 4wd colt wagon you own, Is known as, A Dodge/Plymouth Colt they came in both E and DL trim.

it was offered with the 1.5 4G15 and the 4G37 1.8 liter motors...it looks like yours is the 1.8 [if I'm not mistaken]

thanks kid,
I've been scouring the wiring harness, so far, in addition to the butchered fan wiring, all I've found is a broken wire on the condenser on the dizzy. Odd thing is I'm not finding the relays, they are not where one would expect them to be, . But then again, neither was the odb1 port. it was actually in the middle of the car, about 2 inches from the ecu, sitting on the driveshaft tunnel.
Other than obvious physical damage to the distributor, what should I be inspecting? is there a way to test it?
Still looking for the ignition module.
I will check the ignition switch. I'd really like to do away with it. I would like to have a gauge and switch anel in the center of the dash where the stereo is.
I like toggle switches and push buttons. I had my baja bug set up with toggles for ignition and fuel with a push button for starting.
I'd like to do that with this, but I'm a little nervous about it being so complicated. The baja didn't have a computer.
Is it ok to run the fuel pump hot whenever the car is running? I know that when the key is on, and the car is not running, the pump won't stay running until you start the car. But you could bypass the fuel pump relay and just "hard wire" the pump right?
Anything complicated about running toggles for the ignition switch?
If I would eventually like to have everything on a separate switch panel anyway, may as well do it now and start eliminating things that may be causing my problem.

You may find the relays beside the Drivers headlight. That is where they are located on the 3g CSM's, I bet they are there for the 2g csm that you have. YOu should keep the FP relay, you can still bypass the starter switch with a push-button. Just turn the key to on and push-to-start.

this might help you find the ignition module, it looks like this
[see image in link below] https://www.rockauto.com/catalog/moreinfo.php?pk=1949696&cc=1081123
mine is bolted to a small bracket on the intake manifold I would guess yours would not be too far away.

thanks thom, nothing behind the headlights :\
Thanks kid, I will look for it tomorrow.
I just got home, had to tow the colt home. cleaned some connections under the hood, took it for a test drive, got 2 miles down the road and it died, restarted it, it ran a couple seconds then died again, did that a couple more times while I was looking for a place to turn around, then it died and wouldn't restart.
So now I have NO spark. I have power to the coil, I pulled the coil wire from the distributor cap and hooked a spark tester to the coil wire, grounded the tester to the head, no spark.
I bypassed the ignition switch, still no spark. So, I lost either the ignition module, ignition relay, distributor, ecu, or who knows what else.
fun fun.

coil resitance is within spec

I'm wonderin' on those wildcat red wires running off of the battery posts going everywhere but who knows and who doesn't want to know.

I get terribly nervous on wires that doesn't belong under the hood and wonder if that's causing issues with the motor thing dying on you at a certain MPH.

When I got this Laser of mine, it had so many patched in wires looking like a spider's web coming from the battery and what not (had a cheap-ass and half assed alarm system installed along with power for a sound system), that I yanked it all out and returned the vehicle back to all stock.

Those pinch clamp negative post connectors was a bad idea to begin with in the first place being not lead to ensure strong current flow.

-DSM

yeah, that mess of wires is pretty scary looking. I traced them all, they go from the battery to a switch under the dash, then to the radiator fan.

The interior on-off switch will overrides the stock radiator fan circuit, if the switch is turned on the cars fan will stay on until the driver shuts it off, it comes in handy on hot days or if the stock fan switch blows on you.

I think you should leave that setup alone. but hide the mess of wires by neatly using zip ties and connect them to the stock wire loom.

yeah, it was a good idea, its the implementation that I don't like. I will be re-wiring it with solder and heat shrink and what not, I'm not a fan of crimping. and then , like you said, hiding the wires

coil pack is not firing is most likely.
1. bad coil pack test/inspect it.
2. bad distributor test/inspect it.
3. Ignition control module test/inspect it.
4. a bad E.C.U.
5 a Faulty MPI relay. [on the colt dl the relay should be located under the dash center console behind the stereo much like on the dsms]
I found this pdf document that might help you locate some of the sensors, it is for a 1.5 liter colt but maybe your sensors might be in similar locations.

thank you, the pdf was greatly appreciated.
The coil is getting current to it. I checked primary and secondary resistance, both within spec.
changed distributor cap and rotor, don't know how to test it
three wires in the ICM plug, supposed to be +, ground, and negative terminal on coil, + is hot, ground is grounded, continuity between the coil terminal on the ICM plug and the coil.
highly suspecting the ECU
Still need to find the MPI relay. Just found the ignition relay but can't really get to it, it's clicking when the key is turned on but I don't know how exactly to test it.
I bought an ICM online since they are cheap, it should be here by thursday

highly suspecting the ECU
Still need to find the MPI relay.

Click to expand...

I'm inserting these two statements since they're related.

For a bad cap on the ECU board can cause the MPI relay to keep resetting, and that one cap that was in that earlier pict which was replaced, wouldn't be the one related to the MPI relay circuit.

Still might have some ECU issues... - DSM

thomcasey said:

Thanks!. You would just need a 1g turbo harness and maybe some motor mounts. You would definitely need to trace your wires for the dash and tach. Would be a way-cool and unique swap! Think about it when you are looking to rebuild that thing. http://www.4g61t.org would have all the info you need. Shoot, you could even go with a N/A harness and a stock N/A 4g63. That would be a power bump by about 30-40hp.

Click to expand...

Hey Thom, which way did the engine sit in the 91 engine bay.
I've noticed that most of the cars I look at with 4g63's have the timing belt to the passenger side. mine is on the driver side.

The 2G NT vehicles used a DODGE Neon 420 A motor and Chrysler Tranny, which was constructed with the belt side being on the passenger side.
This design required an extra gear in the tranny for the crank and output shaft to both rotate clockwise.

Mitsu knew better than to waste power by adding that extra gear, thus had the crank and output shaft to rotate opposite directions.

The 2G turbos used the Japanese designed 4G63 setup (as with the 4G37) on the driver's side.

Now, the later Lancer EVOS that used the newer 4G63, but was designed for the motor/tranny setup to be turned around with belt side on passenger side.

im not sure if this would be related but on an old honda I used to have, I had an issue where the car would randomly not get fuel when cranking. Come to find out, the fuel pump relay had bad solder joints which under certain temperatures/humidities wouldnt make a good enough connection. All I did was heat the joints and add a bit more solder to them and it worked flawlessly after that. Perhaps this is happening to you? Another culprit may be ignition dying at a certain point, or a sensor input. I.e. if you lose a crank sensor the car just would act as if it was dead. Maybe it vibrates enough after a certain rpm to just break the connection on you. Possibly unplug/test that wiring?

Whenever I run into a problem like this I just pull the engine and swap it to a 4G63T. Much easier.

poomwah said:

Hey Thom, which way did the engine sit in the 91 engine bay.
I've noticed that most of the cars I look at with 4g63's have the timing belt to the passenger side. mine is on the driver side.

Click to expand...

All the colts/summits/mirages had the belt on the drivers side until the 5g (97 and later) or 6g versions. There are a couple people that have performed the swap into your model, just not the 4wd wagon. That is why you gotta do it!!

Had a 1982 Dodge Colt with the 4GG32B (1.6L) motor in it .. and belt was on the driver's side. Did the belt on that motor when it had over 100K miles on it. Definitely quieted the motor down since the belt had some slop causing noisy lifters due to the lack of smooth operation with the cam.

thomcasey said:

All the colts/summits/mirages had the belt on the drivers side until the 5g (97 and later) or 6g versions. There are a couple people that have performed the swap into your model, just not the 4wd wagon. That is why you gotta do it!!

Click to expand...

Actually someone did attempt the 4G63T swap into a Colt 4wd wagon, only they never finished it... which is more reason why you should do it .

to see the unfinished swap, check out the link below.
http://www.4g61t.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=287562&sid=6c4bded45a15c2df0dc2ccc24fee3682

if I can get the money together to buy a donor car and an engine hoist, I will go for it.
my ICM should be here tomorrow so hopefully that will get this engine running in the mean time.
I got a palm today, was going to set it up for mmcd, but that's a whole different nightmare, [DOUBLEPOST=1407439882][/DOUBLEPOST]the good news is that I have a brand new ignition control module

the bad news is I still have no spark