so i'll post about this again, plug changes blow. i finished my plug change today after about 7 hours.

so it should feel good to be done with it right? wrong. i knew it wouldn't be that easy. after starting up, there was some smoke coming from around the oil fill cap it went away after a few minutes.

idle sounded like crap. lots of popping noise, almost backfire sounding, coming from exhaust (with cutout open). it didn't make this popping noise at idle before the plug change.

so i thought i might not have securely fastened all the wires. i did a test and unplugged one of the wires and started it up. sounded the same still lots of popping from the exhaust, and a ticking from the unplugged wire when the spark jumped the gap to the nearest metal part. plugged it back in, sounded the same, minus the ticking noise.

so do you guys think i may have one or more wires not securely fastened? i would imagine i would have ticking noise if that was the case.

tomorrow, i'm going to jump back in and pull all the wires and reconnect them. i replaced the gaskets on both AIR pipes, don't appear or sound like they're leaking. any other suggestions?

one other question, do i need to use the stock heat shields with the msd wires? it would be easier to tell if they have engaged onto the plugs if i don't put them on.

thanks, GM, for making this job so easy...

 

the smoke was from some grease or something you got on the manifold doing install.
But if your condition did not change(get worse) when you removed one plug wire makes me think there may be something not secure elsewhere not the plug wire you messed with either.

Try running the car in the dark and take a peak under the hood for arching.

If you did not do wires you may have broke one.Not the strongest buggers.Dont like pullin and jerkin

Hope this gives you some ideas,good luck
Tony

 

Like #7 said, you probably broke a wire or two. 7 hours wow, did you try to get all the plugs out from the top? Gm really didnt do any favors on this one.

 

thanks for the replies. the only thing is that i put new MSD wires on. i hope they're not that weak and can stand up to a little shoving, cos that's the only way i could get them on. is it possible that i broke the new MSD 8.5mm wires just putting them on?

#7, i took your advice and checked it out in the dark. saw some sparking around #2 plug, and heard some ticking from the passenger side. hopefully it's just loose connections and not broken wires.

also, anyone know if i HAVE to use the stock heat shields with the new MSD wires? it would look a lot better without them, and would make wire install a little easier...

thanks guys

 

I had the same problem, looked in the engine and noticed I forgot to plug something back in. I can't remember what it's called, but it's a plastic plug right by plug #1. I started the car with it unplugged and it did what you said your car did. Might wanna check it.

 

i doubt this is it but you never know. make sure you hooked the new wires up correctly as on my old truck about 10 years ago i installed new wires and accidently hooked the wire ment for cylinder 3 up to cylinder 6 or something like that and it missed and backfired a bit untill i figured out what i had done.

 

update, hopefully the last update:

today, pulled all wires off. checked for continuity on each wire using multi-meter to make sure no wires were broken. all wires checked good. put each wire back on very methodically, making sure i heard the "clilck" when it engaged over the plug and on the coil pack. started her up, and bingo, all good.

i guess i had a wire or 2 not completely engaged over the plug or coil connnection.

on a side note, all the stock plugs i pulled out looked VERY good, after 60k miles. biggest gap i found on the stockers was 0.065". not bad for 60k... makes me wonder if i really didn't need to change them until 100k... will the NGK's wear out faster than the delco's?

next change will definitely be NGK Iridium plugs, i use them in my bike and they hold up very well.