I have various dis pack related questions and would much appreciate any help and advice people are able to give.
My 2.5 V6 has recently started to run really roughly, like its not firing on all cylinders. This began not long after I found loads of rainwater sitting around all the plug leads after the car had been left on a slope. As this has happened before I thought it would be ok after drying and running but its still running badly so today I started to have a closer look at things. I removed the easy to get to leads from the plugs on the drivers side and used an inline HT tester to check whether power was getting to the plugs - this showed the centre and rear plugs were receiving high tension spark potential, but the front one, no.1, wasn't. I took this front plug out and it was oily (or wet, though it seemed more oily), cleaned it, dried it, refitted it and tried again but the tester still wasn't flashing so no HT potential. I took the plug out and tested it on another vehicle and it was working fine, so I refitted it to the V6, tried the tester again and still no power. I haven't had a chance to look at the other side yet, but so far is it reasonable to conclude that the fault must lie with either the HT lead or Dis pack?
I've just looked at the Dis pack renewal guide in the maintenance section on here, which seems to show the same version of the pack as is fitted to my car so I assume the vehicle used for that is a 2.5 or 3.0 V6
http://www.omegaowners.com/forum/index.php?topic=109316.0, and I can see that it will be an absolute joy to replace! From what I can find out there seems to be three units inside the pack, each of which supply two cylinders - would I be right to think that if one of these units fails the supply to both cylinders will be affected, so if I find another cylinder not working on the passenger side the fault can only be with the dis pack and not the HT lead. If correct, looking at the diagram on the maintenance guide would I be right to assume that the centre, no. 4, cylinder is the one most likely to be not sparking?
I've removed the windscreen scuttle and had a nose down towards the dis pack but was horrified to find I could only see part of one of the four bolts that secure it (I assume all 4 bolt holes are used, not just the two on the bulkhead side which will be easiest to get at) - I can't even get my hand in and feel the others!
I was amazed that I could actually see and read a Bosch part number on one corner of the pack though some small consolation. When I refit a replacement unit, assuming this one is knackered, will just a couple of bolts be adequate to secure it? Also, I've seen people on here and another forum mention relocating their replacement dis pack, but is this possible without cutting into the wiring loom and will it require a set of longer HT leads?
Two final questions, for now at least. Firstly, my lovely Haynes manual and some of the posts on here indicate that the dis pack can be replaced after just removing the scuttle and wiper motor, but the maintenance guide say's to remove the scuttle and plenum - which is the easiest/ best method please. As I've yet to remove a plenum I'm a bit dubious of touching that. Secondly, its obviously not ideal, but how harmful is it to drive the car on 4 or 5 cylinders if I have to use it before I can get the job done - I'm thinking mainly about unburnt fuel getting to the cats, etc, but there may be other issues too.
May thanks for any help given.