TBI/TPI style distributor and coil, coming down a long hill, smell some unburnt fuel, shortly after, it dies.

Thought maybe it was flooded, which would be strange for EFI. Mash the pedal, crank for 10 seconds, flutters, dies.

Repeat this same scenario about 10 times. Pedal mashed or not, crank for 10 seconds, flutters, dies. Check under the hood. No obvious problems. Definitely getting fuel, just not lighting it up.

Unplug the coil/distributor high voltage wire, crank it for 20 seconds, re-attach. Starts right up and runs fine immediately.

Drive five miles, no longer on a hill, starts loosing power, pull over, barely running, throttle changes make no impact on rpm, dies. Crank 10 seconds, flutters, dies. Crank 10 seconds, flutters, dies.

Unplug the coil wire again, crank for 10 seconds, re-attach, starts up fine and runs perfect the rest of the way home.

Definitely seems ignition related. Distributor, coil, wires, and plugs are one year old. Taylor plug wires, everything else AC Delco. ECM: EBL.

Any ideas?

 

Torqued, that is Weird buddy .. I have no earthly clue what to tell you. Does your check engine light come on at least ?

 

No check engine/service engine soon light.

Unhooking the coil to distributor cable, then cranking it a bit, then reattaching it, seemed to "reset" and stop the problem both times.

 

Anyone have an idea what this might be?

If not, what would be some approaches to diagnosing this properly?

 

That sounds like a coil or ignition module that's getting too hot and breaking up. Does it do this when the car's cold?

 

I don't think it's a hot/cold thing. It only happened twice when the engine was warmed up, but it was not overly hot. In fact, the first time it happend I was coming down a long grade. The second time it was on level ground, but the engine was not overheating and the air temperature was only in the 70s. I drove it another 20 miles or so and parked it.

 

Ditto on the coil and module. If you have a shop manual or even (yes I am about to say it) a Chilton's/Hayne's manual, it will show you how to test the coil to see if it is in need of replacement. The ignition control modules are known for going out, but they are fairly cheap and pretty easy to replace. I had a problem with my Camaro not starting until starting fluid was sprayed into the intake. Once started, it would idle for a few minutes and die. I ended up replacing most of the ignition components (plugs, wires, cap, rotor, coil, and eventually the module). Eventually, I found that the module was the faulty piece in my ignition system.

I guess the point is if you haven't had your car tuned up in a while, maybe it's about time to do it. Good luck!

 

Unplugging the cable does not reset anything, there is no residual power in that cable to somehow reset. Once the motor is off all power ceases. It does sound like an ignition problem, how is the routing of your plug wires? I had a similiar problem and it was a shorted out wire against the headers, once replaced and booted w/ heat sheild, everything fine.