Hi guys.

Not been on the forum for quite a long time, but I returned to the classic MR2 fold by purchasing a mk1b this weekend just gone.

She's got 85k on the clock, and apart from this misfire that's suddenly

(and worryingly) developed, she's a peach.

Basically, after having driven her for about 50 miles, she starting missing ever so slightly.

After thinking it would in all likelihood be an ignition problem, I changed the spark plugs last night.

This only served to make the problem worse.

She's now firing on just two cylinders.

Removal of the freshly fitted spark plugs revealed that it was cylinders 2 and 3

(i.e.

the centre two) weren't firing and were nicely coated in fuel.

Tonight, I've fitted a new set of HT leads

- no different.

Then it occurred to me that in my haste, I may have got the leads to 2 and 3 the wrong way round.

Swapping them, and double checking the firing order, the problem is still present.

The distributor cap looks pretty new, I've removed it and the contact points look fine, as does the rotor arm.

The leads I removed were of the blue magnecor variety, which leads me to believe that the car may have had ignition issues in the past.

I'm just really baffled by the fact that when the only things i've disturbed were the leads and plugs, the problem worsened, and the misfire went from being sporadic, to permanent.

Although there's no evidence of headgasket failure

(no overheating, no mayonnaise etc), I can't rule this out.

I've yet to get a compression tester on the engine, but I can't really think that this is the problem as it doesn't really explain the sudden change when all I've disturbed is the leads and plugs.

Hoping you guys can help me out on this one!

Neil