Running On 5 Cylinders?

[bakitup]

is there an easy way to check if all the cylinders are firing? latly (on my rb20e) the cars been idling lower than usual, 600rpm, somtimes as low as 500, and the low idle it causing the car to shake a little more. also the car seems sluggish. this only started happening yesterday.

when i popped the hood, i herd a strange ticking sound coming from the cylinders, it sounded like (if anyone has gas stove tops) the igniter to light the gas stoves. its just a constant, quick, ticking sound, i think possibly from the spark plugs. its consistent with the revs, i gave it a lil throttle and the speed of the ticking increased. I suspect that one of the cylinders isnt firing for what ever reasons but im unsure.

my car is due for a service wednesday so im thinking of just leaving it for the mechanic (i would do it myself but the headlights re-aimed and the car tuned up, its running rich). any ideas or thoughts?

[SKiT_R31]

I just got over a pretty painfull miss, which was a dog to find as it felt electrical, but anyway...

to start with, find the cylender you think is missing, by removing your ignition leads, if the idle doesnt change thats probably your cylender... While your at it, see if one plug in particular is charfed up... and that the gaps are correct with no cracks etc...

My miss turned out to be a bung injector (didnt have the pin thing in it!?) so it seemed to just poor petrol in, though it woudl and wouldnt intemittently fire, in mid-revs (2500-4000) the car ran smooth with all its power, then about ~ 4500rpm it just dropped a cylender completely and started pooring out black smoke...

at the same time, one of my leads had a slight hole in it and was shorting out on the head

to check/test/replace

Plugs, Leads, Coil Packs/distributer+coil, Injectors

the ticking is prob just your lifters, mine does/did it too from the area that my cylender wasnt firing, i dont know what made it louder though, i pulled the lifters and rails out because of it.

i replaced Coil, Leads, 2 injectors (another looked dodgy), clean 02 sensor, replaced FPR, Distributer (cas), AFM, ECU, dizzy cap/rotor, probably other things, it was a hard miss to find as i had recently replaced the injector so i blindly denied thats what it was, but it was in the back of my head the whole time.

this is on an RB30e

[bakitup]

thanks heaps. i just went through checking the leads and sure enough the 3rd cylinder wasnt firing. leads and plugs all looked good tho so ill check over the injectors and the spark plugs. if i cant find the prob ill let the mechanics take care of it on wednesday wen it gets serviced. thanks

[MBS206]

Could be your injectors ticking too...