1992 rodeo hesitation

[cutlasslove]

Hi all, and thanks in advance for your advice! I have a 1992 rodeo LS with 3.1 tbi. I recently bought it and it is the first car I have owned that is tbi. The car has a hesitation when starting from a dead stop.
When I purchased it the "brainiac" that sold it to me had cut the cat off, I have since fixed that, but there is still an exhaust leak where the drop downs meet the pipes. I say this because sometimes when you floor it, it sounds like it is about to backfire. it runs and drives fine but the hesitation and backfire is what I need help with. The guy I bought it from said a new dist. cap would fix it, it only made it less bad. it still does it. I replaced the dist. cap, rotor, and wires but not plugs yet. it looks like he went mudding before selling me the car and mud is caked all around the plugs and I cant get a socket on them, any ideas of how to fix hesitation, backfire and get plugs out?

[Cat Fuzz]

I'm not familiar with the early GM 3.1L Rodeos but check the emissions sticker under the hood to see if ignition timing is adjustable. If it is it will give a value like 5 degrees BTC or something. Follow the procedure spelled out on the sticker for adjusting timing and make sure that is correct. Backfires are almost always timing related. What it is is when you have the spark plug firing too soon or too late while either an intake or exhaust valve is open.

Take it to a car wash and wash the mud away from the spark plugs and then change them paying attention to the specified plug gap. Don't assume they are gapped already. They almost never are.