Hi, anyone please help.
The other day I changed oil, and replaced spark plugs on my car and now it has no power what so ever.. Taking off it seems kind of okay but accelerating is a BIG problem. Since then I replace coil, dist. cap and rotor, wires, and checked gap on plugs. When I pulled out the plugs again I did notice oil builup on the tips of just 2 of the 4... any ideas please let me know. Thanks~~ JOSH 1st gen 1985
broncoz52@hotmail.com

 

Welcome to the forum, Joshua.

If your car ran good b4 you did the oil and plug change, then you prolly switched the leading and trailing wires. Go out to your car and see if the L1 wire goes to the bottom of the front plug. The L2 wire should go to the top front plug. The rear rotor is the same config. If the wires from the cap to the plugs are right then check if the leads from the coil to the cap are correct. On my car, the leading coil is the one closest to the headlight. The cap will have a L and T next to the correct hole. Switch the leads and see if it runs better.


I hope you put NGK plugs in it. Don't use any other brand. They will be factory gapped, so don't worry about that. Cap and rotor should come from Mazda.....your post said you changed the coil. Did you mean both coils or just one?
How long have you had the car? What model?

 

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't it.... L1 goes to the bottom plug on front rotor (closest to nose of the car) and T1 goes to the top plug of the front rotor? so

Front Rotor (closest to nose of car)
Top = T1
Bottom = L1

Rear Rotor (closest to cockpit)
Top = T2
Bottom = L2

And just to add....

Leading Coil = closest to the nose of the car
Trailing Coil = closest to the cockpit

 

Thanks for the info... I have the wires set up
T1= Top front
T2= Top rear
L1= Bottom front
L2= Bottom rear
The coil wires I have the (L) going to the rear coil. How do I know for sure which coil is the Lead? 1985 GS

 

i drive a 84 gs and if you wipe of the side of the engine near the plugs it should be labeled L1, T1.....the dist. cap should be the same way, or at least it is on mine

 

Just went outside in the shop and looked.. Trailing coil is towards the front of the car, and leading behind it. Duh I should have known without going out there, cuz the tach is hooked to the leading coil and thats the one towards the back of the car.. Or at least mine is , its a 85 GSL

Good luck...

 

Yes, you are correct. I knew what I wanted to say, but it just didn't come out right.

Mike-P-28:
Shouldn't the tach be connected to the trailing coil?

 

someone should be definitive about this before we all change our coil / tack set up and blow our engines without getting out of first - Jimmyv is right - the tack is off the trailing coil

 

Now, you said that you found oil build up on 2 out of 4 plugs right? Were they both from the same rotor housing, or separate housings?

I'm thinking that may have something to do with your problem.

This is just a theory, but in my own experience with my '85 GSL. When I found oil coming from 2 plugs on the same rotor housing, It lead me to do some further investigating:

With all 4 plugs off of the housings and set in a place where they won't ignite any vapors, have someone turn the car over while you hold your hand over the plugs holes.

You should get a nice rythmic pulse of air (and occasional crud too) coming from the holes where the plugs were.

Now, if you can't feel any air coming from either holes of the housing that the "oiled" plugs came from, that means that it has no compression a.k.a. your seals are shot, and need to be replaced. That would explain the lack of power.

Now, I don't know if you already knew about this, but I figured my 2 cents might help a little.

If it doesn't, well, then I just told one of my many tales of bad fortune.