US /vs/ EU ignitor module, HELP PLEASE?

[Red]

"Have you run a diagnostics check on the ECU whilst the problem was occurring? " Diagnostics check how? On an 85 ECU, there's only ten codes, no diagnostic port, no OBDC. So...diagnostics how??

I'm working solo so the simple things like checking spark aren't always simple, but since it DOES fire up on the starter, not just turn over but stumble and fire up, there's some spark going on. Just not staying on.

Fuel is on my list to check, but I'm dead certain, like you say, that I'm overthinking this one. I just KNOW it is going to be "SOMETHING SIMPLE, STUPID" and a Homer Simpson "D'Oh!" moment if I ever do pin it down.

In the meantime, the car outweighs me. This is not a fair fight.

Either pulling a plug, or disconnecting a fuel line...yes, checking that the fuel pump and regulator are doing more than making a 'whirr' noise is on the short list to come. I just (over)think it can't be a fuel problem, since the car runs without stumbling even at 80mph for hours on end, and that means it sure is getting fuel from SOMEplace. Lots of fuel, without problems.

Which comes back to a starting-when-ambient-hot problem, which comes back to ignition, no? And since it starts just fine when the engine bay is at operating temperatures (way higher than ambient) that means it "must" be something that's not in the engine bay. Which comes back to ECU or COR (bypassed & tested AFM & COR & EFI relays) or fuel pump, but since the fuel pump normally sits in "hot" fuel returned from the engine when the car has been running all day...it comes back to "needs exorcism", right?

Come on, Ivan. I'll sponsor you for an H1B visa to work in the States as a "necessary skill that can't be found here".

Damned unreliable riceburner, only 26 years old and it won't start! <vbg>