Thread: Misfires after having new spark plugs & cat put in.. *yay* (+ hard starts)

ive since had the front cover recall done, that plug wire holder still works on the new cover. it makes the wires look cleaner and keeps them away form things.


i made the dealer return it to me, they tossed it in the trash, mean while my wires were touching the fan blades. they used nothing to control the wires. just like yours all over the damn place.




top of the blower on the snout theres a small bracket bolted on with a hole in it, the plug wires should clip into it via the wire holders. ive got mine in order 2,4,6 so when i change or check plugs i lay the rear wires in place and they are in order already. in the back its one more wire holder thats holding the wires taunt so they cant touch anything back there.





found it, pic of new vc and plug wire holder. a load of mods added had to re route the rear wires so they didnt get pinched by the hood. ive ran out of room why the paints rubbed off some.

Yeah I'm pretty sure that one clicked, it just looks off to me...and I probably should have looked for leather gloves too, as I was wearing vinyl gloves and I think the manifold heat shield took a chunk of skin off my knuckle already :<

Gee I wish I had that haha..my wires also have been wanting to invade the fan.
So what I have accomplished with leather gloves and a pair oof pliers :



Nothing. Except breaking the spring off the heat shield. Still can't get the wire off, even twisting while yanking...

this might turn into a sacrificial event. you have a pick with a hard turn to it, or they sell a plug boot tool to reach down and it slides between the plug and boot to free it up.

twisting the boot tends to break em free most of the time. worst case cut the boot, buy new wires. and you need new so cut away right?

Well guess what Scotty, we need new wires now whether I like it or not XD



Is there anything other than AC Delco that would be trustworthy? Only because I can't afford $80 for a set right now

got advance auto local? if so go on line, buy on line, use discount code for some money off, (retailmenot) pick up 30 minutes later at your local store. buy their store brand wires, they work just fine. good time to buy some cheap stuff like rags brake cleaner ect to pump up the bill some to get a better discount too.

if not any parts store brand will work just fine as well. its all most of us use. whats in my pics. cheap wires, ran me 30 ish iirc a number of years ago now.

We've been at this for over 2 hours now...cannot get the damn boot off cylinder 2. It is seriously stuck on. The boot stretches a bit and you can feel it click as you pull but it will not click. No idea how to get this one off...

take a knife, cut the boot from the bottom up, stick screw driver in the cut to free it up. then rip it off.

OK, update (no I actually did not die from trying to remove that wire):

We just ended up driving a block down the street behind our house to the nearest shop we've been to before a couple of times. Asked them if they could do us the favor, lol. It even took the mechanic a couple of tries going back and forth to get things, and him laying across the engine like a small child. $20 worth spent in my opinion lol, we just couldn't anymore.
Anyways, he told us that it appears as though the rear plugs have never been changed...which I would not be surprised at all if that shifty dude pulled one like that on us. But.. my dad is quite unhappy to hear that and he says when we can we should have them replace all plugs again and make sure to give us all the old plugs so we can make sure they really don't match, before my dad calls that other mechanic and blows the speaker on his phone. (I kind of feel bad for what's coming for that guy if we find this is the case, but....he asked for it)
Dad's particularly angry because that guy (supposedly) did all of his plugs too the day before Pumpkin's, so he might've done the same thing to him. Except oddly enough Whiteout has no misfires that I know of.

Ah well... bye bye MSD wires! Hopefully tomorrow I can test drive Pumpkin better and see if that helped at all, if not then definitely going for the plug change again.

Originally Posted by GTPlove02

Yyour timing chain could be stretched and jump time. Hope that helps

Have you ever seen a case where this happened? I've been around these motors forever and have never found one that was able to jump. Kinda like an old chevy 350.. they do stretch, but will wear a hole in the bottom of the timing cover before it'll jump timing.

On those plug wires fighting that much, that should not have happened if the plugs were replaced in say the last year or so. Unless for some odd reason having the metal covers on helped them adhere or heat up etc. Seems very odd that it could be the case. As for them possibly not being replaced, many people feel that the rear plugs on these cars are tough. That's odd because it's actually not a bad job when you have done them a couple of times. Heck... Scott changed a set of plugs in a park while the engine was hot.

i've pulled and gaped and re installed and test driven, repeat 3 times in 30 minutes lol on a hot engine.

Well, update again and... he feels SO much better now just with new wires (and I guess also having the oem coils for a while). I would say the issue is about 97% resolved, only occasionally there is a slight hesitation when trying to accelerate from 30-50ish mph. So I think it is we are running with 3 new plugs and 3 old ones.... sooner or later I'm going to have them put the NGK plugs in and hopefully that'll be the end of this 5 month problem lol.

I forgot to mention, the two front wires that were giving us a bit of trouble (including the one that broke) I feel like the heat shields had to do with it as the spring wasn't moving and we had to break the spring off. For the back wires, we got cylinder 4 and 6 wires off pretty easily (and those actually did not have the heat shield on) but cylinder 2 did have the heat shield back there, and I'm pretty sure that one had to be broken too (the spring). Whenever I was pulling at it I could feel the rubber stretching and I could even feel it clicking as it wanted to come loose, but just never would. I was worried that plug was going to be damaged or something by the time the wire came off, but we will see when I get them all changed again. The mechanic did show me the metal piece from the inside of the boot did break off, so maybe it's also a case of really old/bad wires too.

you can unbolt the dog bones from the engine, then take the long bolt put it on the pass side dog bone now look back where it came from, theres another bolt hole a inch up in the coil bracket, put the bolt in that hole while pulling the engine forward, this will hold the engine forward and give you a bit more room to work with.

now he tells you???????

Second thought... you guys did the plug wires yourselves, any thought about doing the plugs? It takes a ratchet and plug socket. You know the plug wires aren't going to fight you this time and it's a straight forward thing since you know how to get to them.

And.. for the record, I've laid across the top of many motors to get at wires etc.

im huge, so my chest can lay over the engine and my feet are still on the ground lol

Yeah sasquatch.. some of us know you are tall and odd looking