After running thru a little "cocktail" comprised of Berryman's Chemtool, and Bardhal FI detergent, the engine actually did indeed run cleaner. The HC's dropped down to 380ppm at idle. Unfortunetly, that still means that it failed. Sooo, I tried adding in some denatured alcohol. Lo and behold, the emissions became worse than before!!!!! Dammit! Maybe I did something wrong, but I've had it up to here trying the "better living thru chemistry" route of automotive repairs. I'm not going to put my motor at any more risk by trying to run distillates and detergents thru it. So it's back to the drawing board, and doing what I refused to admit that I had to do before: actual repair work. I'll see about pulling the sparkplugs, and inspecting them for not just fouling, but variations between themslelves individually, as well as following the procedures for checking the equal output of the fuel injectors. I've no test tubes, nor baby food jars lying around, so I'll need to wrangle some up. Along with the regular testing for vacuum leaks on the rubber hoses. So far though, here is what I do know: I have NOT replaced anything on the system at all this year. All of that was done last year. The mechanic determined the problem to be caused by faulty sparkplug wires, that had bad shielding, and were arcing around a couple of plugs. While I didn't care for the plugs wires, and tend to agree they were a problem with a test light I used on them myself, I don't believe that this was the root cause of the problem. I firmly believe that the repairs made last year didn't fix the problem, so much as they simply reset the delay on it again, in order for it to remanifest. Since this had occured, all ignition components were replaced with BOSCH cap, rotor, spiral wires, and copper plugs. Now we know what symptoms this repair treated, but what in the hell is the cause of it? It's either a weak spark, a fuel system imbalance, or a vacuum leak somewere. I do know that I have a bad diaphram in my mode control switch that will hiss unless I bump the knob, and then it goes away. I'm unable to remove the Cold Start Valve, as the screws stripped themselves as I tried to remove them. However, I shoved some q-tips in the tube where the Idle Speed Regulator fits. I ran the fuel pump for 30 seconds, and all were dry when I pulled them out immediatly. The fuel injection system is 3 years old now, and was installed by Garden Grove (the final garage the car went to when the previous family decided to finally send the car to a specialist, and not just all the various hole-in-the-wall garages where it had been before). So if there is a descrepency with the injector output/spray pattern, is it better to clean them, or to replace them? John Hervey sells a remaned set for only $80 which is quite temping. In addition, I have these questions as well: 1. With the higher output ignition coil, it's was reccomended that I should increase the gap of the plugs. This I can handle, but would it be to my advantage to use BOSCH +4 plugs? And if so, which ones should I get to accomodate the new gap size? 2. How do I go about adjusting the ignition timing if nessisary? Has anyone done this without removing the intake manifold? And with the new coil, and variance in spark plug gap, is this something else that I should adjust as well? 3. At what point have all options been exhausted, and repairs/replacements been made that the mixture screw needs to be adjusted? I'm not trying to touch the thing, I just want to make sure that I can stay away from having to touch it as possible. 4. For performing the Valve adjustment, and/or if I had to remove the intake manifold to repair vacuum leaks, what are the approximate times/procedures involved? Since I've only one car, and I'm having to borrow garage space to boot, I need to budget time even stricter than my pocketbook. If anything good came out off all this today, I did end up finally meeting a fellow DeLorean owner in the wild as I left the smog check station! If it was indeed fate, then it sure had a funny way of manifesting itself! -Robert vin 6585 "X"