97 Mk8 stuttering

[98lincmk7lsc]

My 97 is stuttering a lot lately. It feels like a misfire. It's been doing it for about 2 months now. At first it was just really random, and only after I drove it for over an hour. I replaced the spark plugs a few weeks ago and one of the coil boots was hard and cracked right into 2 pieces, so I bought a new boot for it. I figured that this was the cause of the stuttering, and that it must have been a misfire. The resulting test drive showed no stuttering so I figured it was fixed but the next day, it was doing it again. I found a vacuum hose that was really loose and also collapsed on itself (one of the ones that comes off the top of the intake into a "T" and then goes to the PCV valve) and I replaced it. Also, the PCV valve does not seat well into the valve cover. It fits pretty loosely, and sometimes comes out. Could this be my problem? I'm not very familiar with the purpose of the PCV valve. How is the PCV valve supposed to fit into the valve cover? Am I missing an O-ring or something? Could I just wrap it with tape so it fits in snugly, or could that possibly contaminate the engine due to the heat on the tape?
I have an Xcal 2 for my 98, so I could try to datalog it, but I'm not really sure which parameters to log. Any help/insight would be great.
Thanks.

 

[XLRVIII]

See if you can log missfires, or missfire counter in the Xcal.

And.. does it have a MIL/Check Engine light lit up?

Chances are, it's the rubber coil boots

 

[Roadboss]

Simply amazing that you can spend the money for an XCal and not buy 7 more boots

 

[98lincmk7lsc]

Wow, you know it IS pretty amazing that someone could have $400 for an XCal over 2 years ago and then not have a spare $100 right now, especially with the economy and the gas prices currently. Man, that's just stupefying! How could that ever happen?!?! :shifty: I'm not saying that I don't have the money, but your choice of wording was just not necessary.
My 98 is my "nice" car that I've had for 5 years, while the 97 was just a car that I saved from going to the junkyard a couple months ago. I picked it up for only $900 with a disconnected ball joint. It was very uncared-for and as a result, it has many little things wrong with it that I've been slowly addressing as I get the chance.

Anyway, I inspected all of the boots at that time, and the one that I ended up replacing was the only one that looked bad, hence only replacing that one. I will tell you however, that I took them all out last night and reinspected them a little more harshly/thoroughly. None of them were cracked, but I did end up cracking 2 of them when I was bending them around looking for cracks. I wrapped them up with electrical tape for the time being, but I will buy some new boots to replace them (maybe even all of them! ).
On another note, I noticed that there is oil residue in the air intake tube from the hose that goes into it from the valve cover. The MAFS and the throttle body are both pretty dirty (I assume because of this oil). Could that also be a contributing factor to this condition? I'll try taking my MAFS out of my 98 and putting it in the 97 and see if it helps. Either way, I'll clean the MAFS when I get the chance.

I didn't have a CEL on (might be burnt out?), but I did have a code for bank 2 IMRC stuck closed. Would that cause this? It doesn't seem to have any problems in the higher RPM range.
Thanks.

 

[Jeffguy11]

I didn't have a CEL on (might be burnt out?), but I did have a code for bank 2 IMRC stuck closed. Would that cause this? It doesn't seem to have any problems in the higher RPM range.
Thanks.

When you first put the key in to start the car the CEL light should turn on briefly to let you know if its burnt out or not.

Def try cleaning the MAF- its cheap and its good to do anyway.

 

[Jeffguy11]

plus i know what you mean- last year i was doing 4.10s, Xcal, and cobra Rs, and this year i can barely afford to put wheel bearings on the front. Times change quickly!