[mingoman]

Originally Posted by speedygonzales

Based on things you did and the way you describe the problem, it appears to be something breaking down when it gets hot. Which is typical of electrical components.

I think it's in the ignition circuit. There are three components in your ignition system that are prone to failure. They are the ICM which gets a signal from the PCM and sends it to the coil to fire. The pickup in the distributor which helps the PCM determine when to fire and the crank sensor (CKP) which basically does the same.

Failure of any one these three should give a CEL. So if the light comes on, you should be checking that first for the code.

Absence of a code then I would go for the ICM first. There is a few ways you could test it without having to just buy one. If it is a hot failure, you could warm it up with a blow dryer and start it up to see if it is having the problem.

Or you could do the opposite by driving it until it fails and then cooling it down with a can of freeze spray to see if it comes back.

You could also allow it to fail and then check for spark.

If it turns out it is one of the other 2 devices, you can basically do the same thing I described for the ICM to those as well.

One last thing, I'm unclear on your engine but on the others, the ICM is mounted with heatsink compound under it. Over time this dries out and should be cleaned and replaced. If you buy a new ICM, they come with the heatsink compound. It is very hard to find now that Radioshack is gone. Most auto parts stores don't have it. But it's worth a try to get.

Don't confuse dielectric grease for heatsink compound. They are vastly different.

Good luck

Thanks for the suggestions. I have a few more nights before I'll be able to check, but I'll post what I find.