How are the coils changed? I've yet to try it for fear of breaking them... I talked to another local gear head, he mentioned closing the plug gap to .025 or so, making a reference to his various SR20DET projects... He said that the narrower gap would be easier to bridge, and if performance improved, my coils are to blame...

He also advised me to check my MAF sensor, certain vehicles are particularly sensitive to a dirty MAF... It gave me a little fresh perspective, as I was just focused on the injectors and coils... Btw, the 80# injectors I supposedly have seem to be overkill for no smaller a pulley than I have... If I end up needing injectors, I'm gonna buy a set of 60s... There is no E85 anywhere near me, and I don't plan on increasing the boost any further...

 

You didn't answer my question. What color is your spark? If it's not a nice, blue/white color, then you've got an ignition problem somewhere. I don't know how to replace the coils on your car, as I'm not at all familiar with an Ion. Billy will have to help you on that one.

 

Yes, these cars are extremely sensitive. I don't see the MAF causing a misfire though. But worth a shot.
And yes, 80s are an extreme overkill. You can get a set of 60s used for under 100.


Coils are pretty simple, basic plug-n-play if I remember correctly.

 

The spark looked blue/white between the screwdriver and the valve cover, but that's the only spark I seen, and I was more concerned with presence of spark than the color of it...

I let the car idle for approx. 30 minutes in the driveway with the cleaners, and the pending P0301 changed to a pending P0300, and the car would take longer to idle down if I gave it a good rev... Tracking the TPS percentage, it would hang up at 10-11%(2500RPM) for about three seconds before going the rest of the way back down to idle, and 3-4%TPS... It didn't do this before, leading me to think of a dirty MAF sensor... After all, I was running without a hydro-shield and we all know the water splashing off the road isn't clean...

 

Well, pull the intake out, throttle body out, and maf off, and scrub everything til you would eat off it.

 

What, other than the MAF cleaner, can I use to clean my MAF? I don't have any, or any cash, and I go to work tonight for 12 hours...

 

Rubbing alcohol. Pour a little on a paper towel, and pat the sensor

 

So, I cleaned the MAF, cleaned the TB, cleaned and re-gapped the plugs, and still a miss...

The other gear head suggested removing my improvised hydro-shield, and driving the car some and maybe the issue would work out... I drove the car, a little hard as he advised...

It would cut out badly if I tried getting on it under 5k, but if I got it up there and then opened it up, it would pull almost decently... After a mile or two I heard a noise, it stumbled, and the misfire turned from a P0300 back to a P0301... I think this is fuel related, but can't diagnose further... Probably gonna try cleaning the injectors with one of those systems that hook up to the fuel rail and run directly through the car... But will have to wait until I have more cash... Getting the car legal and inspected cleaned me out pretty good, lol...

 

Hopefully its just bad gas going through the system. Unless the tune is just that off. I guess cleaning the injectors would be a good first step.

 

If you can afford it, grab a bottle of Techron. That's some good stuff. I think it's about six bucks at Walmart.