I say try you say test, so did you test or try your dizzy problem dd?

If you dont have tools or access your TRY things before taking it to someone wtht hte necessary tools/means.

I have had a faulty ignition lead in the past from new and thats what made me think of it. The Spark arced when car hit boost, the boot from the ignitor was dodgey and spark was lost there.

No worries, it can be done either way. Buying a compression tester is not expensive, and I think it is a reasonable suggestion -- don't you?

If one has plenty of time, the "try this" method is plenty fine. I've been using that method for my carburetor problem lately. On the other hand if you don't have spare parts it can get expensive buying new cap, rotor, plugs, etc only to find they didn't fix the problem.

For spark plug wires, a visual inspection will often find the problem, and a simple voltmeter will usually find the rest. Look for signs of burning (white or black marks) along every mm of the wire. Also look for a corroded cap terminal or plug wire terminal which indicates a firing problem with that cylinder.

Thank you search button! I've been having troubles with the A14 over the past couple of weeks, I changed the plugs on a 9th of November (night before I had to travel 120km to a rallysprint) The no.1 plug looked terrible, the others seemed to have more normal signs of wear. It was like and oily sooty buildup on it and the plug was also built up like it was rusty? Put some older plugs in as I had nothing else and I knew they were reasonably fine. During the course of the trip the motor behaved like the one mentioned in the first post and whatnot.

just yesterday I pulled the plugs out to have a look and to my suprise no.1 2 and 3 looked like they have been in rusty water for ages and no. 4 was covered in oil and the plug had a gap of about .2 or something shocking!.

I did a compression test and cylenders 1& 4 were reading around 125psi while 2 & 3 were just over say 130 or the next little bar past 125. I also did a carbon clean for a few minutes to try and rid the cylenders of some of that crap aswell as a quick timing check.

Would any of this be the signs of broken oil rings or a broken headgasket? there is an airleak somewhere I must find on it too but I have a feeling it may be the carb or intake causing that one.