Yeah I had the head reco'd. with the bolts I was afraid I'd stuffed them cause the end bolts didn't feel as tight compared to the inner bolts when I torqued them. Checked them the other day but and they're even. Head seems to be all good! They didn't budge under 150nm of torque I think they're meant to be 160 max or something? (I did them as 40nm+90deg). No signs of coolant loss or mixed in oil!

check your intake gasket and basically any vac line around any area you were working.

nah there's no leaks besides that hose that I fixed. It was running normal again yesterday then today I put a timing light on it and found it was a tiny bit out so I advanced it like 1mm. Then I started the car and it started spluttering and missing like hell again, like it was the other day. Happened directly after I turned the dizzy (I barely moved it a mil lol), couldn't get it to start so had to take the dizzy cap off to check the timing, it was fine put it all back together and it started, ran terrible for the first few seconds then decided to pick up and run smooth... Maybe it's the tfi module??

We went up to hazelwood a month back and coolant was leaking all over the dizzy from the thermo housing. The car cut out cruising at 100k's and it would crank but not start.. we got it going by luck and kept it running by luck lol... managed to limp it there athen the next day it's completely fine :s This kind've feels like the same problem and with the timing light the flashes seem pretty inconsistent.. like it's very consistent but I'll get "misses" in the consistency, but doesn't seem normal, maybe the ignitions dropping out, is the light not meant to have any gaps in flashing whatsoever? Hopefully a new tfi solves it..

Well yesterday I got the new tfi/dizzy and it's fixed a s**t of problems Thanks for the help everyone! With this fixed I set the timing properly and was in business....for a day or so.

With the tfi fixed a new problem arises lol, unfortunately 2 weeks ago the car developed a rather specific surging/stuttering at idle like a sudden miss (more of a spasm/seizure than a miss) which sometimes gets a lot worse when warm and even cuts out at some points from the surging... the surging then reduced for like all of last week then went bad again yesterday.

Today I go to start the car and it barely ran for 2 seconds before cutting out sounded awful, thumping noises much like when the timings very out (but of course it isn't, I'm thinking this has to be the coil). difference with bad timing and this is it's sputtering and popping from the exhaust... it does this EVERY single time it surges which must mean something. The o2 sensor and plugs are covered in black, it's running rich as hell (but no smoke) and feels very strained when you rev it/revs drop fast (exactly like when the timing is retarded).

Now basically everything has been replaced on it besides the coil (and some sensors on the intake manifold but diagnostics is now showing me no fault codes ) I've replaced the cat converter too which is the first thing I'd blame in this case (or bad timing, but it's not out). I can only think it would be the coil or maybe a sensor still. Coil is only a year old but maybe the faulty tfi stuffed it.. So I put a timing light on the leads and the surging doesn't seem ignition related.
When it surges I still get a healthy stream of pulses with no misses... but the coil is the only logical thing I can think of, like it won't even run now. It's crossed my mind maybe it's flooding as it feels like it (but then it still surges on lpg so I doubt it).

There's so much black soot and crap all through the motor from it running so rich (and on the driveway lol) it wouldn't surprise me if that alone could cause it.. bloody car haha one thing after another.

Faulty TFI will stuff a coil. Check your MAP sensor, swap over if you have a spare.

I would look at the hall sensor in the dizzy. This can play up and do weird things. $100 from repco and easy to replace:
* remove dizzy
* remove rotor and sheild from dizzy
* remove pin from gear
*push (or press lightly) shaft out
* undo Hall sensor
*reverse above

Took me 1 hr to do this.

I buy brand new complete dizzy's for $99......and the local wreckers want $66 for a 2nd hand unit.

If you buy a new one, replace the gear on it with the gear from the old unit. If you look in previous posts, the gears on the "new" ones have a habit of failing and destroying the aux shaft.

I have spoken to the manufacturers of these dizzys and they recommend that the gears be changed

I have heard that too.....but...have a look at these pics....
No wear anywhere.....???.....I now have the 3rd elcheapo dizzy in now.

 

 

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if its any consolation, bosch are making aftermasrket dizzys again and they now run what looks like a bronze or copper gear...

Yeah after reading about the chinese dizzys and stripped gears I made sure I got the bosch (tfi was included) I can't get the car to go into base timing mode so I've just done it by the finish mark for now but it's running well.

SWC was bang on, turns out the map sensor hose had blown off again! I reconnected it the car returned to running rather well but still spluttered/missed just like before. I've put it on gas again and it still spluttered, so I turned it off after 10min start it the next day and the splutter has gone completely it's running fine now and has for days, makes no sense lol. I still need to pickup the new coil too, but for now touch wood!

It could still idle better i really need to get my hands on a spare map and isc it spits out codes 12 13 42 I've got 2 ISC's one spits out code 12, the other spits out code 13. One seems stuffed it idles higher on average every time I rev the motor and the revs fall, they fall to like 1000-1200rpm, sit there for a few seconds then finally drop to idle. The other one doesn't hang at 1000-1200rpm at all but it idle too low (at 700rpm or so), so maybe this ones stuffed too..
I'm thinking this is what's stopping the car going into base timing mode, if i goose the throttle I can eventually get it to do that thing where it almost stalls but the revs never go up to 1500 after 2min, had no luck it's not going to happen anytime soon unfortunately.

Started checking the car over again might have 3 possible vacuum leaks, the pcv valve hisses (the valve unit itself) if I turn it on a specific angle I can get it to stop. The other one was something interesting, the sprint gas mixer is a piece of plastic crap and just slots onto the throttle body unsealed... so I put some sealer around it hoping to fix any leaks if air was making it in to begin with (I could pull the entire mixer a good 1 inch away from the tb before the car almost stalled) doubt it would affect much really, but definitely a lot safer now.
I can hear a loud hissing sound around the power steering pump too, sounds like the mother of all vacuum leaks but there's nothing vacuum related around there besides maybe the exhaust gasket.

I'll try it on petrol again and see if the spluttering comes back, it won't start on gas when the fuel pump is connected, the injectors don't seem to be leaking so I don't know what's going on there, it was spluttering/missing on lpg before though, I usually flipped right back to petrol after 5min though so maybe it was all the carbon :S it still runs pretty mediocre but it's a perfectly drivable daily