A miss that I can\'t figure out

I am having a problem with a car I recently purchased. It has a miss that I can't place. Here is what I have checked and found out so far.
I have posted this on the regular ford muscle forum, but I was hoping to kill two birds with one stone here.

I drove the car in order to warm it up. It doesn't start to miss until the engine temperature increases.
-When the engine is cold, it has 15" of vacuum when
measured at the upper intake manifold
-When the engine is warm, it has 17" of vacuum at the same place
-With the engine warm, all spark plugs removed, and a battery charger on the battery, I checked the compression on all four cylinders
#1=112 #2=110 #3=105 #4=108
this is assuming that the #1 cylinder is towards the front of the car.
-When I was removing the spark plugs, the porcelian on the #3 was broken. I don't know if it was already that way or if I broke it while removing it. I don't think I did
anything that should have broken it.
-I measured the TPS with the key on and the engine off
it had .81-5.97 and the orange wire had 7.01
-I attempted to readjust the TPS and ,after messing with it
for a minute, I couldn't get the voltage to drop below
1.14. At WOT, it now had 7.56 volts
-I walked away and came back and, some how, the voltage on
the orange wire increased to 8.9 volts
Nothing was touched. I don't know why the voltage would be changing at the TPS for no apparent reason.
I disconnected the sensors one at a time, then checked the voltage at the orange wire again.
I removed the Oxygen, the sensor right by the TPS, distributor, 2 sensors on the lower intake manifold, and the 2 sensors on the ECM.
-After disconnecting the ECM, I had .05 volts at the TPS.

Unrelated---When I removed the intercooler, I noticed some oil residue on the intake side of it.

When I removed the spark plugs, they all looked a little "whitish", but not real bad. The spark plugs probably have about 300-500 miles on them.

I don't know if my problem is mechanical or electrical and I am getting pretty frustrated/confused!

What do you guys think? Just let me know and I'll check it.

Have a great day!



[addsig]

Does it miss just at idle or all the time?

For the TPS voltage, are you measuring it from the black wire to the orange at the the sensor/plug??? Also measure between black and the engine block(and orange to block) as well. This could be a ground issue.... Post your findings...
[addsig]

Whenever the engine is at or close to operating temperatures, it misses. It will miss if I'm accelerating quickly, leisurely, or just cruising along. It misses very little when the engine is cold.

I tested the TPS from the green wire to the negative post of the battery. I tried swapping in a new TPS and the measurements were the same. I was measuring the orange wire to see how much voltage I have going into it. It had almost 9 volts going into the TPS. Shouldn't there only be 5 volts going to it?

I am running to town to swap the spark plugs and wires. I will post the TPS reading and any changes that occured.

Have a good day!

_________________
1985 Bronco, 13" lift, 38.5" tires, 13.9 et

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: bigbronco on 1/2/04 12:31am ]</font>

I have run into a similar problem before. You should have only 5v +- at any of the sensors. The computer uses this voltage as a refrence for fuel mapping. I wouls check for a short some where. You are probably runnning very lean. I was running rich with 1.0v. Check the ground wire between ecc and all sensors for continunity. Email me if you have any Q.s I check that mor than I come here. No offence guys I just find I loose too much time having fun here!!!
[addsig]

Thanks for the response, but I have found the problem. It culprit turned out to be the spark plug wires. When I replaced the spark plug wires and spark plugs with the Ford parts, and changed nothing else, the problem went away. Even though I had high voltage going into the TPS, I had the correct range coming out of it. Besides, the injectors are leaking too bad for me to feel safe driving it. Soon I will be stealing the parts to make my 2.3 Mustang a turbo 2.3 Mustang!!!

Have a good day!
Michael
[addsig]