Over the weekend, I decided to clean & hose down my engine a little bit. There was some grime built up on the top surface of the timing cover from when my intake manifold rubber seal split a bit and let some oil mist out. I re-sealed it with black RTV. After carefully spraying off the grime with water, keeping the distributor cap & coil dry, I started the engine & it ran like crap. I could not keep it idling at all. For a couple of days, I could not figure out what was wrong. Carb was feeding plenty of fuel, and nothing on the ignition system seemed to be damp or out of adjustment. Then I checked the electrical connections to the coil. The negative wire connection on the coil to the Ignitor III module was a bit loose. I tightened it, and presto: engine ran smooth again. Some moisture probably got into the connection...or some of that engine cleaner.
