I pulled the plugs and changed them this evening and the plug up front in the middle reaked of a un burnt, gas smell.
I have had some issues starting.......I wonder if I have a leaking injector?>

 

Was that plug carbon-fouled? Typrically if a cylinder is running rich, that plug will be coated in sooty/carbon deposits...

I guess you could have a leaky injector (but not run rich)... i.e. leaks while the car is sitting.... leading to hard cold starts.

 

ohm out your coil pack, maybe it wasnt sparking. check for codes. use 93 octane

 

I use 93 octane, the coil packs are nearly new........and yes I have hard starting.....but it was more of a black sooty buildup as you mentioned.

Would a bad cooolant temp sensor make it run rich?

 

If it was something like the ECTS - then all the cylinders would run rich...

Is the car still starting hard? (After you replaced the plugs - as stated in the other thread)... I know you said no ECU codes are posted now right?

 

Seems like the start time has decreased, it takes two trys now of normal length now. Before I would have to just hold it for at least 15 seconds before it would start.

Does seem shorter and the cel light went away, but I was used to one crank starts before all this started.

And there was black soot on all the plugs that one was just abnormally stinky.

But I dont have a cel for a bad temp sensor, so wasnt sure if I should replace it or not. Its only 22 bucks.

 

If the ECTS was faulty, it would affect all the cylinders, not just one. That one cylinder with the sooty plug was running rich - either because of a bad plug, bad coil, or maybe a bad injector. If the injector was not working, you would notice it right away (driveability, rough idle, etc.) - so I don't think thats the case.

You could replace the ECTS - its cheap and easy, but I don't think thats the problem in this case. I replaced mine at 90k hoping to resolve a longer cold-start time, but it didn't help...

I would definitely recommend further testing the coil on the cylinder that was running rich (as killcrap said)... you might have a flaky coil.

 

Yeah the others although sooty werent nearly as bad as this one.

I'll ohm that baby out this weekend and let you know the results.