bcashJMU

Hey guys,
I have been trying to improve the way my car has been running ever since my last autocross incident where I lost almost all of my power and torque. I have since regained a lot of it back but am still lacking a bit.
I have recently changed out plug wires and have verified good connections everywhere. However, I am still getting a low rpm miss. It sounds like the motor is being bogged down. I also have the symptoms of the overdrive bucking if that means anything.
Where do you all suggest that I start in diagnosing this issue?

ASE doc

The overdrive bucking? It sounds more likely that you have an ignition misfire. Have you looked at your cap and rotor. How about your wires? If they are older than 40,000 miles they may very well be leaking high voltage and causing a misfire under load. Did you use dielectric compound on your plug boots when you changed plugs?

Is your distributor original? The HEI distributors are notorious for falling off under pressure. Check it carefully for rust around the pole piece and timing core. Check the pick up coil for resistance. It should be between 800 and 1000 ohms. If the ignition module is older than you can remember, replace it. Even when they test okay, they can suffer heat failure.

What happened to the engine when you were autocrossing? BTW, just my two cents, but I strongly advise against autocrossing or any other abuse of a car unless it's been prepped.

bcashJMU

I just replaced the wires and I put dielectric grease in each boot. I haven't checked the plugs because I replaced those a year ago and because they are a b*tch to get to with the edelbrock headers.
The car has been prepped for autocross. It has performance parts in the motor and also the stiffest suspension many have told me they have never seen on a bird. On the last straight stretch of my last race, I flattened out the accelerator and with all the vibration, the connector on the dual connector coil popped off slightly and the car limped across the finish line and died. I have since replaced that connector with a new one so that it snaps down. Ever since, I can't seem to get the car to run the way it was before that day.
Today I dropped it off at a local shop that always treats me well. My buddy is going to go through the ignition system and possibly the fuel system if needed. I have gotten so frustrated that I needed to let someone else work on it for awhile so I don't break anything else lol. I will put up an update when I get it back from him. Thanks for the advice though, I will keep that stuff in mind next time I run into issues like this.

ASE doc

So basically, the ignition was shut down with the engine still running. More importantly, the secondary ignition system was cut off while, most likely, the primary ignition and the crank reference pulses continued. This would mean that the injectors continued to inject fuel into the cylinders. A couple of things could have happened due to this. If the car has catalytic converters, they may have been damaged by having a large amount of raw fuel poured into them. With or without cats, and this will suck for you, the rings were washed by raw fuel washing the oil out of them. This can cause scarring of the cylinder walls and a reduction in compression. That this happened at full throttle and I assume at high engine speed, the damage would be more severe.

You may get lucky and the cylinders are okay. First off, replace the engine oil if you haven't already. It's contaminated with raw fuel and will cause the engine to run rich. If the oil is thinned from the fuel, it will also cause reduced compression. If the car has cats, try disconnecting them and look for a return of the car's former performance. Good luck.

BTW, I am pleased to see another embrace the 3rd gen's road racing capabilities. If you look at my sig, assuming you can decipher my abbreviations, you'll see that I went the same direction in my build. My suspension is very stiff. It means that I have to slow way down over railroad tracks and speed bumps. Sometimes ignorant people get irritated and get right up on my bumper. But since I also built a bullet proof 450 HP engine for my beast, I just get on the throttle and leave them in my dust. In 13 years since the build, I have not gotten this car to break loose in a corner unless I used throttle steer. I can hit a 40MPH curve at 80 and exit at 100 and I may hear a little wail from the tires but no slip. These cars have amazing chassis and suspension.