A few days ago my car started making a really bad sound.. like a loose/wet belt only slower (kinda like a constant metal on metal sound). Later on, my CIL came on and stayed on. I popped the hood and listened for the noise -- it was clearly coming from the distributor. The rotor/cap was all brown (rust? i think). I replaced the rotor and cap, and not even 50 miles later it ran so bad that it actually couldnt make it up ANY inclines, even if i had it to the floor in 1st gear at 5 mph. I took off the new rotor/cap and it was shredded to pieces inside. There were little metal and plastic shavings everywhere.
Today i purchased a new distributor, rotor and cap and put them all on. My CIL no longer comes on, and the car runs. However, it feels extremely sluggish. It can not make it up hills really, and has no acceleration.. If i floor it, it will want to bog down and then at around 4-5k it will pick up and accellerate (but not nearly as much as it should when its floored.. it takes like 8 seconds for 0-20mph).
It almost feels like my timing is off or I am still having spark issues, however I dont see why or how i would just randomly start having timing issues. Would it act this bad if i had the distributor turned a little bit too much one way or the other?

Thanks in advance and sorry for the short story.

 

Did you use an OEM Cap & Rotor?

Replace your plugs.

 

They arent that old.. maybe a month n half. I am a poor college student and i dont have money for new plugs or wires for another week n a half, so i cant really test them. It doesnt seem like my plugs/wires would just go bad that quick and right when my distributor craps out as well.

 

check timing, positive you put the plug wires back on in the correct order?

 

100% on the plug order. I double checked even.

__________
_____3____
_1_______4
______2___

 

It's possible that with a failiing Rotor/Cap you flooded a cylinder causing it to foul the plug.

 

How possible? I drove the car on a decreasingly worse and worse distributor for a total of about 75 miles. The last 5 or so were when the car was running completely terrible.

Maybe ill go over on my credit card if thats what it is, because i need transportation.

 

Plugs cost like $8. I'm not saying that's the problem, but it could be.

 

alrighty.. i replaced the spark plugs (ngk) and the old ones were horrible. however, the car still isnt running right. its running better.. but it still has NO power below 4k rpm, and bogs out when its on a hill or accelerating (when the engines under load basically)

any ideas?

could the bad distributor screwed up my igintion timing when it went bad or something.. i dont know.. ugh..

 

Have you checked your timing since you replaced your distributor?