1.8 cabby not firing on 1 and 4

Ok, first some background…..

1.8 cabby, 1991 dx engine..

Head gasket went last year, mate did it and it's not ran properly since.

Dicked around with carb jets, stuff like that, new plugs leads etc.

Cam timing looked ok…..untill I saw a post about not using the "Diamond" on the flywheel and using the dot instead, re-timed to that and still no good!!

Pulled the leads off tonight and 1 and 4 seem to be doing very little(read nothing).  There is a spark, but pulling the leads off makes no difference to how it runs. 2 and 3 make a big difference.

I've put the carb jets back to standard.

Any thoughts?

 

Cap rotor and leads all come to mind, then do you have the coil pack, or the old timey round one. Coil Packs over here have issues all the time, some folks even go to carrying a spare.

I would start at the basics, replace the rotor, cap and wires. Verify that you have good Frame to engine and frame to battery grounds.

IF you open the hood and place a blanket over it, then have some one start it and look for sparking fairies about the HV leads. Seen Carbon tracks on a lot of machines over the years some run like snot, some don't run at all. Wouldn't hurt to use some sandy-paper on the inside of the cap to clean it.

Myself I had a bad set of new plugs and a bad lead..that caused me to fuss and cuss a bit.
It ran like garbage, and I had 2 plugs that didn't have any indication of fuel burn… I was lucky to have 2 identical Cabbies, and used one to diagnose the other.
 

How old are the HT leads, spark plugs, dissy cap and rotor arm?

Is the timing marks on the cam belt spot on?

Update on this…….

Car is now running better than ever…

I was being stupid(honestly)

I am more used to classic minis that have the same firing order(but in the wrong direction!!)

Swapped 1 and 4 and it now runs beautifully!!!