OT: sputtering problem in 99 ford taurus (3.0 OHV VULCAN)

[ryan roopnarine]

but only at startup.

lemme mention, this is my mother's car.
about a month ago, she complained that if it was wet outside, car would sputter at first start (with about 200 rpm drop)_. she also said that she would lose power assist on steering if it was wet out. there happens to be a big ass puddle near her house, so i figured it was, at worst, dead plug wires taking a drink, and water getting under the belt. (spark is from central coilpack, no rotor but wires are still there on this year).

drove it, and found that it would do it at any startup, not just the first of the day. decided to replace her 120k mile plugs (only good for 100k miles). they were worn down as hell, replaced them with conventional copper 30k mile plugs instead of the 100k platinum (only ones i could get right then). long story short, the problem went away for about 3 weeks....then

the problem comes right back, this time it happens at EVERY startup, and goes away with running (either it goes away or decreases in volume till you can't hear it anymore). the problem is categorized by a popping sound heard in the catalytic region, very low idle speed when D is engaged, and very high idle speed when park is engaged (1200 vs normal of about 800). as (cough cough) many women don't like to spend money on parts they might not need, i was able to swipe plug wires from the vulcan equipped 98 ranger that also lives in her driveway. same thing. im going to try to swap the coilpack today as it has the same PN# on it, and see if its any different. bill r showed me ford's tsb for pinging and the MAF wire. i will clean it again. i will also clean the Idle motor. any thoughts as to what it could be? im trying to logically narrow down the parts that would be working CHIEFLY at startup....i just hope it isn't a computer.

[632 Regal]

fuel pressure? Did you check the spark plug wires? Maybe with the correct plugs the resistance is different than with the other plugs.

the computer must go into some kind of limp mode at startup, monitering everything at once before it calibrates and runs clear. It unfortunatly might be the computer.

really doesnt make much sence at EVERY startup.

[ryan roopnarine]

update, i guess.

i swapped the coils between the truck and the car.....success! (not for long however).

my unkle, the mekanik, said that he rarely, if even ever, had to change the coil on a vulcan engine....that even if the coil fixed it, that the wires were likely dead as well. he told me to soak them with the garden hose, and see what developed. i put the old coil on, soaked it and started....same sputtering. put the old working one from the truck on.....same sputtering. i guess i need a coil and a set of wires.

one thing i noticed with the bosch wires i got for autozone was that they were waaay out of line with the resistance value in the hayes manual...about 7-8000 ohms per foot, when the spec was 5000 ohms per foot. i know that hayes can be kinda spotty, but the old defective motorcraft wires were below 5000 ohms per foot, in fact, the most un-estimatable length wire was just slightly under 5k ohms per foot. anyone have any opinions on what brand plug wires i should get? please limit yourself to something i can get from autozone or discount/advance/kragen tomorrow as i'd like to put the car back into right condition before i leave here.