Hi, I've had my mk1 Escort laid up for 6 months of so and started to get it up and running again last week. It's a rebuilt 4x4 lump (running new 803's and a rebuilt 4x4 T3) on a T5 box with new MSD loom, MSD L8 Evo chip, MSD wasted spark driver, twin ignition amps, Zetec coilpack. All new sensors (literally every sensor on the engine and injectors has been replaced with new and has less than 5 miles on them - distance to the test station and back!). It has always had some on-road running problems (eager to stall, poor on-boost performance) and I was hoping to get it to someone who knew how to get it running properly - it would start and idle smoothly, rev cleanly while stationary etc... only when on-road did problems appear. You'd think it was a perfectly running cossie otherwise!

Anyway, I've pulled it out of storage, put new fuel in the tank and it started okay after getting the battery charged up again - ran just as it always did; smooth idle at ~900rpm, rev okay etc. This weekend I went to start it up again to make sure that brakes etc were still all okay before doing anything more serious on it and... and it just won't run right at all

It seems to only be running on 1-2 cylinders - spark on #1 and #2 is present, but not brilliant. Spark on #3 is good, #4 is non-existent. Swapping the two ignition amps doesn't change the spark performance. Swapping the coilpack doesn't change it either.

I can disconnect the injectors from 1, 2 and 4 with almost no impact on the engine. If #3 injector is pulled, then it will stall. I guess there's always the chance that I have an injector problem as well, but that would be a pretty unlucky coincidence.

The only things that I haven't been able to swap out with other, known-good parts are the plug leads, driver board and L8 ecu. Plugs (removed, cleaned, regapped), amps and coilpack have all been swapped and appear to make no difference.

My ECU/wasted spark driver install:



Can the wasted spark driver board go bad? Plug leads deteriorate while in storage? The fact it just spontaneously started running on 1-2 cylinders after starting cleanly last weekend has got me beat

Just to clarify, the wasted spark system has been on the car since the engine was rebuilt, and it has never ran like this. The engine probably has a few hundred hours in it, but only 5/6 miles.