# KA24E 3/4 Cylinders Firing



## 91NissanTruckOwner (Aug 5, 2008)

Hi all,


A couple of questions... First off, what are common things that cause a cylinder not to fire? Particularly if the cylinder was firing fine the day before?

When I cold started the engine, it was very shaky, however once it warmed up it seemed less shaky. However, I could still tell a cylinder wasn't firing by observing the tailpipe.

When I went to drive it it definitely had lost some power. Had to get to 2000 RPM just to keep it from stalling when starting off from a stop, and slip the clutch more than usual.

Funnily enough it still got me places and didn't even have too much trouble with steep hills... Just took longer to get up to speed and needed 4k RPMs to get up some hills though...

Noticed that the engine was less shaky at higher RPMs, and at below 2k it was quite noticeable particularly upon acceleration.

After approx. 25 or so miles the 4th (I actually don't even know which cylinder it was) cylinder started firing. Man I never thought I'd appreciate how much power it has with all 4 firing before... Hah I thought it was pretty slow on 4 but after experiencing 3 cylinders I certainly felt like I had a lot of power  .

So the engine stopped being shaky from then on. I drove another 25 miles and it seemed okay...

So back to the original question... What are common causes of this, and what is the most common? I figured maybe fouled plug or maybe bad distributor or fuel injector...

Also... Could driving 25 miles on 3 cylinders damage anything?


TYIA


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## rogoman (Dec 16, 2004)

The problem may have been a dirty fuel injector. After driving some distance, the fuel injector may have started working OK. Most major brands of gasoline have injector cleaner additives but as an added tune-up aid, run some good injection cleaner, like Techron or Redline SL-1, through the system; Give the cleaner about a week or two to do it's job. Inspect the electrical connectors on each fuel injector.

Do a general tune-up by replacing the spark plugs, distributor rotor/cap; use OEM parts only. Inspect the ignition wires; if questionable, replace them all. Use only NGK wires; not some other aftermarket parts.


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## 91NissanTruckOwner (Aug 5, 2008)

Ah yes, that makes sense, I'm pretty sure of what the injectors sound like and it did sound as-if the injector for one cylinder wasn't working when under heavy load...

Thanks for your quick response, I will try techron first, inspect fuel injector electrical connections, check distributor cap, wires, plugs, should do the trick!


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