ok we all know my car burns gas like it's going out of style....well there may be light at the end of the tailpipe if this statement is true..."with a blown ignitor...you will only be firing on 2 of your 4 plugs. this causes the motor to run ULTRA rich and you'll foul a set of plugs in about 4 days." this was buried in a 1st gen post..

Is this true? My car is running super mega rich, and kinda sputters while idling like rrrrRrrrrrrrrr, it kinda skips a beat every once in a blue moon. Is this true? help me...

 

nothing easier than check if plugs are firing by pulling them all out, put them on good ground and watch for consistent spark while cranking....

 

It's pretty common for the ignitors (located on the sides of the distributor) on the 12As to fail. Then either the leading or trailing coil will not fire. Failing ignitors would work like this (for the 12A, I'd imagine similar results in the 13Bs EFI or no):

Trailing ignitor dead: No tach, little power loss.
Leading ignitor dead: Tach works, big power loss, like someone slipped a 1500cc VW 65HP engine while you weren't looking.