Reply to "Compression Depression"

On Saturday, December 14th I decided that I would take Rorncat (my Pantera as named by its previous California Owner) for a short drive. She was still running poorly but what could a short drive hurt. After I had been out for 20 minutes and the water temperature had reached about 210, I made a right turn, drove about 200 yards and she backfired out the exhaust and died.

I called the wrecker and I was not too pleased when they thought that this was a 1972 Pinto and had never heard of a Pantera. The second towing service knew what it was but the owner had never seen one. So, the owner arrived first to take photos and to help his driver load my prized possession on the rollback truck.

As I rode home in deep despair the driver claimed to be a former, long time garage owner and he offered to listen to me try to start the car. I turned the key and Rorncat came to life.

Sunday was a beautiful day and I took her out again. Within a mile of my house, the car backfired out the exhaust and died again.

I called a friend and we messed around with the electrical connections at the ballast resistor and the car immediately started.

Our youngest biological daughter was married on Dec 21st so I did not touch the car until yesterday. I started her up and I let her run for a few minutes to bring everything up to temperature before shutting her off. As the water temperature got to 160 degrees the car stopped. I turned off the ignition and let the car cool off for 90 minutes. Without adjusting anything, I turned the key and the car immediately started.

I have some failing component that is heat sensitive. Could a failing ballast resistor or voltage regulator cause this problem? I just installed a MSD Blaster II Coil. I noted that the Blaster required a resistor rated at a minimum of 0.8 ohms. I assumed that the existing ballast resistor was rated at this value but maybe I was incorrect. Could this coil be incompatible with the Pertronix ignition module I installed several months ago?

Any advice from the experienced among you would be appreciated. A good friend has renamed my car "Snorncat" and this has got to end.

Thanks Bruce 4236