Nissan 200SX Club - South Africa

Ok so, my car seems to be running off one less cylinder...

I was driving home the other night and stopped at the robots. I pulled away, changed gears and then my car just lost a lot of power and started sounding like a rally car (without the power unfortunately, lol). I took it to a workshop the other day and the guy says i bought the wrong spark plugs (BCPR6ES-11). This is the spark plug for a model without a catalytic converter and it is the correct one as I double checked in the 200sx service manual...The only other plugs i can put in the car are PFR6A-11 which are the plugs for a model with a catalytic converter...

How do i know if my car has a catalytic converter? I tried checking under the car myself but i have no lift so cant see much.

The car is pushing out black smoke which suggests its running rich right??

What do you guys suggest i do??

Thanks!!!

First change plugs BCPR7EZ i think then make sure the gap is 0.8mm check your injector plugs are on properly then if it still fires on three find which one is not firing swap the coil around with another cylinder and see if the fault moves

BCPR6ES are the correct spark plugs. If you want/need to replace them, replace them with the same.
Check the plug gap, FSM says 1.1mm IIRC, but the old coilpacks cannot sustain such a big gap under boost - so make it 0.8mm.
Check the ECU error codes, after that do the following:

Sudden problems suggest wiring or electical problems. Check which cylinder has the miss by pulling the coil connectors, if you find the dead cylinder - swop it with another one and see if the symptom follows the coil pack.
If it does, the coil pack is fubar (common problem on CA18s due to age)

If the problem does not change when you swop the coilpack, do the same test with the injector plugs. Similarly you can see if you perhaps have a stuck injector.

After that, clean the MAF and start checking the wiring from the ECU to the engine loom.

Sounds like a coil pack. Plugs are fine.