How to spot a miss?

[karaoke_carlos]

My truck has a miss, as a result of which it won't pass smog. what's the most accurate way to identify a miss, with a coil pack?

 

[gotmudd]

easiest way for me, but then i have carbuerated, but it should work the same for for fuel injected, is to pre loosen all of your spark plug wires[make sure all the boots are able to spin freely] then start your engine and one at a time, whether you do it at the coil pac or the plug itself, pull each wire, and use a sparkplug boot remover for this and see if it changes the tune of the motor. and yes it will be noticable, whichever plug don't change that is your starting point. then you can pull the plug and check condition. either it will be a bad injector, bad plug wire, or bad plug. thats how i find where my misses come from. maybe someone here will tell ya how to do it by checking codes, myself i don't know codes but the proceedure that i outlined above should work to give you a starting point.

 

[KELLY88]

If you've got a misfire then you should be getting a check engine light. Get the code read and it will tell you where the miss is coming from.

 

[karaoke_carlos]

the sad part is that I'm not getting a check engine code at all. But you CAN smell the unburnt fuel in the back and FEEL the miss. This is really only an OBD1 car, so maybe it doesn't store in CHECK ENGINE?

C:>

 

[pillen140]

the sad part is that I'm not getting a check engine code at all. But you CAN smell the unburnt fuel in the back and FEEL the miss. This is really only an OBD1 car, so maybe it doesn't store in CHECK ENGINE?

C:>

give a year, might help

 

[Wicked_Sludge]

EEC-IV (OBD1) has on-board diagnostics and thus, trouble codes...but it isnt able to detect engine misfires like OBD2.

the method gotmudd suggested is the easiest way to figure out which hole is dead.