my friend has a 98 3.9 4x4 5 speed. Sometimes when its cold it will crank over about 3-4 times before it will run then when it does it sounds like its running on 2-3 cylinders then after about 10-20 sec's of running(at idle) it will act normal. I dont no what would be causing it to do this. For example when it was 60 out at night and after it sat for a couple hours it it will act like that but this morning it was about 40 and rainy and windy it started right up and was fine. Its like a hit and miss type of thing sometimes it will do it and sometimes it wont. Got any ideas anyone????

 

what was the humidity? My guess is there's condensation in the distributer, and after it arcs a few hundred times, it evaporates the water and lights that hole.

 

nope its normaly kept in a garage but it hasnt been for awhile do to a project they are doing. sat it was 65 sunny all day sat for about 5hrs and when got in to move it i pushed the clutch in and started it and it did it let it do that for about 10 sec's then its fine.

 

i say moisture in the distributer too. just because its in the garage doesnt mean the humidity wont get to it *unless its climate controlled*.

 

sorry have been busy but what do you recommend I tell him to do to keep this from happening ?

 

could try replacing the distributor if its the moisture in it if you dried it all out that SHOULD solve it, but getting a new one is never a bad idea, especially if hes got 20-30k or more on that one

 

mine does that to. more or less like its missing in the morning. only when cold out though.

 

Thanks for the feedback guys.