Well my car is misfiring just about all the time now after it has warmed up. it misfires throughout the whole rpm range as well as wont go past 4500 rpms, it just hesitates and bucks like crazy. i found arcing at the optispark. does that mean that my optispark is going out and i need a new one or does it mean i need new wires and plugs? if i need a new optispark where is the write up on it? how long would it take me? i might as well change the water pump as well right? also on the plugs and wires, it seems extremely difficult to remove the wires, they are ran very tightly in spots that i dont seem to be able to get to to remove and replace them. theres really no room at all. since it is arcing im thinking i just need new wires but since its arcing at the optispark i think it might be the optispark. which wires the msd 8.5mm wires and the ngk tr55 plugs are the best to go with? how much are these all together and will the 8.5mm wires fit in the stock routing locations? well help me out guys i cant drive hardly anywhere without it hesitating like crazy. it runs great when its cold up to about 4500 rpm then after it warms up it hesitates all the time and cant rev past 4500 rpm. i need to get this fixed and would like to do it all myself but i dont have a lot of time as well as i dont know if i will be able to do it. thanks for the help guys.

 

If the SES light is on, you need to get the codes pulled so you will know in what direction to look.

 

no ses light. no codes or anything weird at all. runs great. just when i drive it it hesitates pretty bad and there is arcing at the optispark where the wires are connected to it.

 

Wow... that's a lot of questions in one post. Hmm... just check your spark plug wires and make sure none of them have been burned. Worry about the Opti if changing the plugs/wires doesn't help.

 

Any help on changing the plugs/wires? i looked at it before and the wires look like they are hard as hell to pull them and reroute the new ones.

 

As far as the plugs go, not fun with stock manifolds. Gona have to pull at least one. Working from the bottom helps too. A lot of people have trouble with number 7 continually loosening up. After loosening them up, a piece of rubber hose can help you get some of them out. My suggestion is do one plug and wire at a time, too many get them crossed up. Use zip ties if needed and route the wires 180 degrees with ties to keep them off the manifolds. By that I mean, the wire does not have to go straight from the plug to the cap. It can go away from the cap and loop back around toward the cap and be zip tied to itself to keep it off the manifold. Look out for the metal cap that should be on number 5 plug boot. It is helpful. Use dielectric grease on all electrical ends. Use antisieze when putting metal into aluminum and start the plugs by hand and finish with a wrench.

By the way, most dealers charge upwards of $600.00 to do wires and plugs on LT1's.

 

thanks for the info. are you sure you have to pull one stock manifold? i have heard many people not have to do that. do i have to take the alternator off to give me some room on the passenger side? what else needs to be removed, moved out of the way to get room to all the plugs and wires.

also got another question. if i find that it is arcing/misfiring at the optispark at one particular cylinder, could i just replace taht particular wire and plug and it would possibly fix my misfire? i know its not best to do that but for time being until i can tget the money and time to cahnge all plugs/wires and maybe opti and water pump it would help me for now. will it hurt anything as well by driving it when misfiring? thanks let me know asap.

 

I had never changed my plugs/wires while I had stock manifolds on there, but I would assume the alternator has to be taken off. I got all of my plugs/wires changed out and rerouted with just removing the alternator and belt... also the valve cover on the passenger side, but that wasn't necessary since I was doing some other work. If you think it is just one bad plug wire, you can just change one. It won't hurt anything but you run the risk of that plug wire not being the bad one and having to redo everything for another plug wire. I would really recommend that you change them all at once. I doubt it is good to drive the car much while it is misfiring. I've been told it is bad for the car, and I assume that it is. But, of course, you probably *need* to drive your car until you have the time and money to fix it, which is what I had to do and I didn't have any resulting problems from that.

Steve

 

yea i think the alternator has to come off which shouldnt be too bad. so you rerouted your wires as well? i looked at the stock routing and it looked like it pretty much sucked and was in tight places to reroute them. what i had planned on doing is rerouting them as well to make it easier to get to next time they need to be changed. yea i dont think its good for the car either but i do need to drive the car. i try to drive it as least as possible only to and from work until i do have the time and money to fix it. it needs it bad. how long did it take you to do it? any special tools u needed? i am going to try to get a swivel head socket adapter so i can reach in those tight places for the plugs would that help some. how high off the ground did you get the car. i plan on doing it form underneath i have heard that is the easiest.

 

I'll get you a pic of the way mine is routed in a few. I do have Jet Hot LT's on mine, so I'm sure mine are easier to change and route. I installed the Taylor OTVC kit. It came with mounting brackets, valve cover bolts, the wires of course. a wire cutter/crimper, and the opti ends. I had to individually cut-to-fit each wire(which was a pain since it was dark outside when I got to that part and then crimp the ends onto the wires. I did the wires and my friend did 7 of 8 header bolts(replaced with Breslins). Only 7 because the bolt directly under the alternator was impossible to do without either a special small tool to get around the bolt and inside the primary or removing all the bolts from the header and putting that one on first. He didn't feel like doing all that work and I'm not very experienced with cars. So all in all, it was definately a bit more work than just replacing the wires, but looking back I feel it is worth it. The new routing keeps the wires from heat and looks better. I'll get a pic posted soon.

 

Ok, I put up the pictures on a site. Here's the link:

http://www.geocities.com/transamdude18/random.html

 

sweet thats what im talking about. where do i get the otvc kit. i was going to buy wires that were arlready precut to the right length. the pics are aweomse thanks. thats what i had planned on doing with the wires to reroute over the valve covers, away from manifolds so heat wont get to them and then to the opti. looks like it works out a lot better plus easier to change next time right? how much was the kit? how long did it take u to reroute and install the kit. sweet.

 

Try redoing the plug wires first. I put a set of pacesetter longtube headers on, and fried a couple plug wires on the passenger side because I was lazy and didn't route the wires right. One got cooked by the primary, and one got cut up by the AC pulley.

I got a new set of wires, removed the alternator, and ran the wires exactly in the same routes/whacky metal and plastic guides ultra tight up against the block that the stock wires ran in and have had no problems since.

 

There's definately no problem with rerouting them the stock way, you just have to be careful that they don't touch the header. The good thing about routing them over the valve cover is that the wires are pulled tighter away from the headers, so they don't have much, if any, room to move around.

EaC95Z28, I don't think you'll be able to find any wires that are precut to the proper length if you route them that way since it requires most of them to be longer. If you have a full day set aside for this, you should have no problem at all. If I did this again, I'd say I could knock it out within 3 hours or so. That includes pulling the old ones and cutting/crimping the new ones. Here's where you can buy the kit:

http://www.thunderracing.com/catalog...vid=4&pcid=104
*bottom of the page


Steve

 

Here's a few more kits that you could get:

http://www.thunderracing.com/catalog...vid=4&pcid=198


I'm not sure if the Aluminum Bracket kit would work very well, since it would be kind of close to the primaries.