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Yeah, I have(had?) a bit of a driveability issue...in lean burn, under higher load, the engine felt rough or like it was missing. Not an issue at lighter loads in lean burn. And it would tend to give a decent jerk/miss if you punched the gas to get it out of lean burn.
So I jumped to the conclusion that it was the EGR passeges, but they were fine.
Then it came down to fuel - I assume what was in there is really old - or spark plugs. I had put what little fresh gas would fit in it as soon as I got it, and after checking the EGR I then went and filled it back up - a whopping quarter of a tank - with high octane. It seemed better, but not completely gone. Still could be fuel. Will take me forever to burn through the whole tank though...
So...spark plugs were next. Which I just finished screwing around with. They were a bit past maximum gap spec, so I regapped them. Of course, they weren't indexed. So I spent a couple of hours trying to index them...without proper indexing shims. Copper wire and extra crush washers from old spark plugs...
Don't waste your time trying to do it without proper shims...a second crush washer seemed to put it right back where it was with only one on there. I did, through much trial and error, get them close. First one only needed a bit of extra torque to get there (be careful, I gave myself a limit by setting my torque wrench, and got it lined up before hitting that limit) but the other two? Yeesh.
One was pointed straight back between the exhaust valves, the other was pointed past the "vtec" valve. They're supposed to point towards the non-vtec valve, apparently. They're both a bit past that now, and one is shimmed enough that I am concerned it will mess up the heat range, but...at least they're nowhere near out of whack as they were.
I drew a line on the end of the spark plug cap with a white grease pencil (pointing towards the open side of the electrode) to tell which way they were pointing, if that's any help to anyone else doing it.
Besides that...if I didn't say it already, I had adjusted the clips/slots that hold the rear wheel skirts on last weekend. I noticed as I was about to leave for work Saturday that one corner of the driver's skirt was not secured at the bottom...oh look, both retaining "screws" were missing. Pulled the skirt off before I lost it...Either I had not tightened them properly, or they were still sitting in my magnetic bolt tray.
They were in my bolt tray. Good thing I had tightened those clips down as well as I had, or it would have been lost days ago. I drove all week with it like that, until the last work day, anyway.
They needed adjusting in the first place cuz the skirts did not sit flush with the body. Both stuck out at different points around the perimeter. They're nice and flush now.
Brake rotors showed up while I was screwing around with the spark plugs. Guess I know what I'm doing tomorrow morning...
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