As Willwren told somebody, "Wait long enough and it will completely die.. then you can figure out what the problem is." ... or something like that.

The missing symptom that should go with Missing Under Load (and acceleration) suddenly appeared w/starting up RedSled today. "Missing and Sputtering at Idle"

2 Coils finally died on one cylinder each - I used the test procedure in the FSM, which is

I did this at the coil end and noticed something that I should share. The Bad side of the coil would NOT arc over to coil body when one wire was pulled. But the other side WOULD arc back to the coil body with the wire off.
2 cylinders on the coils were not arcing back... #2 & #6. The other 4 would arc like a lightning storm (the latter is a GOOD thing). I figured that if a coil died, BOTH cylinders would quit firing. But that is not true, at least in my case. Each of the 2 bad coils had a good cylinder and a bad cylinder.

Even though all the coils had passed the resistance test days previously, both the 2-5 and the 3-6 secondaries are now OPEN/infinity
Fortunately I still had those 2 used coils from the yard. Something tells me the 3rd coil may not be far behind. So a replacement is in line for that on.

Also, Willwren'* statement that stumbling/shuttering in OD/Lockup is usually ignition has proven correct.
I'm happier than a pig in mud. RedSled can finally spin her tires again! AND the exhaust now smells normal and not running rich. Ought to be good for 5 or 10 more miles to the gallon, if I can keep my foot out of it. I have lots more, non-motor stuff to work on, so "I'll be bach."

WooHoo! Success! Congratulations on getting it fixed and thanks for sharing the good news!

BTW, pulling the plug wires at the coils can be done bare-handed as long as the other end is still connected to the plug. As you describe, what you should see and hear is a nice fat spark jumping between the coil post and the connector.

I wanted to be sure and kill the spark to the plug so I was pulling them all the off. Coming off was okay; but I was getting a good (fun?) jolt putting them back on. Nothing bad... just a little zap zap in the elbow and maybe the soles of my feet. Enough that it didn't take me long to get them plugged back on. What a trip this has been. I now know TOO much about RedSled!

Pst......

CHANGE THAT OIL.


This is what happened to my SSEi prior to me buying it. The kid drove around town with 4 out of the 6 cylinders for a long time. Eventually, the oil thinned out due to the fuel washdown, which in turn spun the bearings. And even with the limited runtime in pig rich condition after my OBD2 swap, the oil thinned and smelled of gas.

Good advice. I would have missed that, but it makes sense. I'm sure RedSled wants to celebrate by sipping some pureed, dead dinosaurs anyway.
Thanks for everybody'* help and routine reading of my "novel."
I really am going to shut up at some point.

A couple of days ago, my PCM was still lying on the floorboard (didn't trust it yet).
While testing the air mix fix, I happened to bump the 32 pin C/D harness to the PCM and the engine died. After much jiggling/wiggling of individual wires I was even able to get the Code 42 back. But it seemed like wiggling any wire in the vicinity would make it die, etc.

So, I used the smallest jeweler'* screwdriver (1/32") to act as a connector (male) pin to check for a loose (female) pin. All the good pins offered resistance. But not the trouble maker. it didn't.

So, since I just figured out how to get those pins out while working on the air mix problem. I released the loose pin and crimped it slightly. Reassembled everything, including the PCM in its proper place and everything is way cool, Beavis!
The wire? Yes, the purple/white one from the ICM ... the infamous ckt 430. Text book!