Ping-pop-stall-boink!

[vigman]

Last Tuesday my car would not run past 2,000 RPM

I limped it home
and found the center button on the distributer cap
has self destructed... I put a new cap & rotor in
Checked the timing.... 6 deg before TDC
and the car ran... better

Now it has a flat spot just off idle
so I changed the Throttle position sensor and set it to .550 Volts and cleaned the IAC valve ( boy what a mess in there YEECH!) I took the throttle body off & the plennum off... cleaning it off as I went ( found a lot of extra hardware while I was down there....Bubba musta been here)
Checked the EGR and it had been replaced not to long ago, that was all cool, I put it all back together.

Drove it around the block and things were not good!
The thing now pings like a bandit and still has the flat spot off idle.

Did I just get a bad load of gas and not know it???
( No chalupa jokes here...)

The car is running @ 225 deg ( Normal )
Oil is Castrol 20-50
Oil pressure 33-40 at idle
I run 92 Shell or Chevron
No codes ( cept 12 )
While I was doing the maint I had the battery off
and the computer did see the removal of the connector to check timing ( Service engine soon )
and I did clear it!

I am suspect of the spark timing control module
That should retard the timing if it hears a noise right? The milage is about 12 mpg not good!

Enging has 116K on it... and really well maintained since 104K when I bought it.

Any cosmic thought???
Mike