Met a fella over the weekend with a flawless 89 IROC that he had just pulled out of the garage after 13 years. He was looking at my motor and noticed that it has a slight stumble/rattle/hesitation at idle and pointed out that I should keep the 5 and 7 plug wires as seperated as possible; that this is the cause of the stumble because I am getting arcing of the spark. Also noticed that the plug wires had slight melting where they had contacted the intake so I should replace them.

First: any tips on positioning of wires like his "seperate 5 and 7" tip?

Second: what brand wires do you recommend?

 

on v8 engines with odd cylinder on the drivers bank and even cylinders on the passengers bank, that have a firing order of 18436572,

there is a tendency to induce a voltage on the spark plug wire for cylinder number 5 from the number 7 wire

basically, when 7 wants to fire, it accidentally fires 5, because 5 has less resistance

its more common on big block chryslers because of the distributor up front, so the wires travel a longer distance to cyl 5 and 7

keep the wires for cyl 5 and 7 seperated and u shouldnt have a problem

 

I had this happen, headers that I had put in were sticking out and one of my wires was resting on it and melted open...exact same symptoms you had, rough idle and rough running. You are going to want to replace your wires. Why dont you look into some 40$ taylors or MSDs? They will be less prone to melting if on a hot spot. Just try to loom them around any hot spots and you will be A-Okay