Well, kinda. You said it doesnt take much to fire that light. Since that vid only shows a flash once every couple of seconds (and I assume it should be far more frequent than that), doesnt that indicate an ignition issue?

Only as much as I have read online. Basically take out the fuel pump fuse, screw in the gauge, run the starter for a few secs or until the gauge stops going up?

 

Ok, finally rented a compression tester. Its a Lisle and the gauge looks pretty unscathed, so thats nice.

Started the rover up to get to temp. It its stumbling and vibrating very badly now and constantly flashing the SES, so I shut it down. Gonna have to test it cool.

Got all the crap out of the way to get the rear SAI pipe out so I could get to the coil packs. Before draining the coolant for heater hose removal, I figured I would take the plug out of #8 to just to see if anything obvious was going on.

The plug is wet, looks like its been cleaned and smells like gasoline.

Does this help with a diagnosis at all?

 

So, you can wedge the SAI pipe out without undoing the heater hoses.

Got the #8 wire out and, try as I might with the meter probes, all I could get was open loop.

I guess Ill be ordering a wire or eight.

Since everything is pretty much already out, should I do the compression test anyway for posterity sake?

 

I'd at least check #8 while you have the tester.
Not sure what you mean by "clean" but a coolant leak in to a cylinder will clean everything up very nicely. (see cylinder #7 below)


But it sounds like you found your problem.
Kingsborne Ignition Spark Plug Wires
$35 for 8mm wires.

 

Yeah, Ive got a couple days to kill before the new wires get in anyway, so Ill do a full test. Im curious what the compression is in #5 with the "fixed" crack will be.

This is the one with the cracked block, so my #5 was like that.

When I first pulled the plug, it looked pretty wet, so I thought I had somehow massively botched my head gasket job. However, since it reeked of gasoline, Im assuming that is the wetness and also the reason the black carbon is half cleaned off.

Oh damn, thats a good price for 8mm!

I ordered some NGKs off amazon last night. $33, NGK makes good stuff, and Ive had a set of theirs on my D1 for 2 years with no problems.

Even if they have issues, changing out the wires isnt nearly the nightmare I was expecting. Maybe its cause Im a sinewy 6'2" with longish fingers, but there is a decent amount of room back there once the SAI pipe is out.

 

Due to time constraints, I canceled the NGK order and got some Belden pros from NAPA. Dont buy these. They may work fine, but they are a major PITA to get on. Getting them to snap on the aftermarket coil pack was a nightmare. The boots on the spark plug ends are almost too long, very snug on the ceramic, and slip, making it very difficult to get the connectors to snap on. I ended up trimming a half centimeter off the ends of the boots and it still sucked.

Unless its an emergency, order a known good brand.

Anyway, as I said, the engine felt like it was gonna shake itself apart, so I had to do a cold test. The numbers seem good enough.

#8 : 155
#6: 140
#5:145

Thats all I did cause 5 & 8 were the only "problem" cylinders, and my wife (the cranker) was bitching about how much time it was taking.

After everything was back together I went for a drive to return the compression tester. No roughness and no codes Looks like it was the wire.

Thanks for everyones help!