Hard Starting.

[DMCVegas@xxxx]

Recently I've been having a problem with hard starting with the D 
when hot. If the engine is cold it will turn over almost 
effortlessly. But when hot, it has difficulty starting. If I swap out 
plugs to force the cold start valve to fire the engine will start, 
but will immediatly start to flood. I've only had this problem 
recently start since the weather here hit the 90's. As a quick run 
thru, the entire fuel system on my car is less then a year old. This 
includes the accumulator as well. Another odd symptom is an 
intermidant "ticking" sound from under the intake manifold where the 
distributor is at. When I first had the car smogged last year, the 
tech heard the noise and thought it might be a bad spark plug wire 
causing an arc somewhere. I've since replaced the spark plugs, wires, 
distributor cap and rotor (without removal of the manifold or 
disconnection of the fuel lines, yes it is possible). Ticking never 
did go away, but the car ran ok after that. Now that it's hot again, 
I'm having this problem. The hot start relay will help, but not all 
the time. If I'm running errands and stop the engine frequently, the 
engine will flood sometimes with the relay in place.

I don't think the impluse coil is causing the issue, because if it 
was I wouldn't be able to start the car at all w/o jumping the fuel 
relay. Although I am curious if this is a sign that the coil may be 
on it's way out. The only remaining components of the ignition system 
that are original are the inpluse coil, the ballast resistors, and 
the ignition coil. Since these parts are now 20 years old, I would 
expect them to need replacing. So I was thinking that perhaps the 
ignition coil and/or the ballast resistors have become too weak to 
start the car once they've become hot. (as a side question, is the 
BOSCH red coil compatable with the DeLorean?). As a side note, my car 
now runs a bit rougher than it did before. When reving the engine I 
can see a little black smoke. Of course the LAMBDA light recently 
came on, so I know that I now have to replace the oxygen sensor.

Ideas?

-Robert
vin 6585