engine misfire

[tbaerg]

Ahoy everyone,
My beloved 95 240sx has become ill. It was running fine until I was driving home from work this morning. I was on a flat stretch of empty road so I decided to drive somewhat quickly. Everything was ok. I got home and decided to change the oil, and filters (air, oil, and fuel). I started the car back up and now the engine is misfiring, I think. My obd reader give me a p0325 error. Which I believe is a knock sensor error. Now the car idles very rough and there is almost no power from the engine. It is very difficult to accelerate. Please send all suggestions to me asap

[Jappbox]

sounds like your not running on all cylinders. check all electronic plugs

[tbaerg]

are there any you had in mind specifically or should I just bust out my factory service manual and start going through them all? thanks for the tip by the way.

[tbaerg]

I forgot to mention that when I try to accelerate there are brief moments where the car has a little extra power: so I think the missing cylinder is the correct diagnosis.

[DragonUSMC]

check for spark on each cylinder, check compression on each cylinder, and wait for 240sx guru JJ240 to log on.

and i'm assuming you are running a stock KA24DE?

[tbaerg]

yes it is a stock ka24. If I rev the car to 1000 rpm, then it seems to smooth out. If I let it idle at 750-800 then its very rough and the engine vibrates badly. If i start to give it some gas to accelerate then its struggles badly with little bursts of irregular power. Hope that helps a little.

[tbaerg]

ok i just started checking spark plugs and wires and found that the second spark plug and wire is very flooded with oil. I don't know how yet, maybe a bad gasket or seal, but I need to check the others and then maybe take off the valve cover and see what else is in there. Also the spark plug, besides being covered in oil, looked like it was just covered in dirt, crap, and gunk. that looks like the culprit so far. Please keep the suggestions coming.

THanks again for the help everyone,

TOm Baerg

[DragonUSMC]

Was the plug in there loose? if it was then dont worry about checking seals and such. Just get a new plug, clean it out, and make sure you get the new one in there tight... That just happened to my brothers KA.

[tbaerg]

I cleaned everything out and even cleaned a lot of the grime and crap off the spark plug. It works for now. I know i need to get a new plug in there, but this will at least get me over to autozone. Everything is running fine right now. THanks for the help Dragon, I really appreciate it.

[JJ240]

Was the oil on the cylinder side of the plug, or the plug wire side? I'm assuming from what you said plug wire side. You need to replace your valve cover gasket, and pick up some fresh NGK plugs. Probably wouldn't hurt to replace the cap, rotor, and plug wires if you haven't done it in awhile too.