You have all the wires for each side taped together without separators?

 

no. Each wire is seperately put into plastic wire loom, and then that individual loom has been gone around a million times with electrical tape. Each wire is very stiff, and just goes from the opti to the plug. If the wires do touch in a spot or two, the loom and tape is so think it can't possibly jump though into the next wire. They are not taped together in any way.

 

 

well, I regapped to .035, with no difference. Still has an erattic idle and generally seems to run pretty crappy at idle and lower rpms. I don't know what to do now. I wish I could say the smaller gap idea worked, but IT DIDN'T. Now what???

 

I fixed my problems just like you were having by putting a good set of wires on the car from elitesparkplugs.com. No more arching out of the boots anymore and the car runs nicely now. The "gap the plug to .035" thing doesn't work. Its the wires your having problems with.
oh, and boots are doused heavily with dielectric grease also, no problems there either.

 

Damn it! I checked all the grounds, cleaned them up, and I also threw a couple stock wires on there to see if they arced, and they did too. So, I am not sure what to do. What is so special about elitesparkplugs.com's wires? I thought MSD was top of the line? Yeah, the closing of the gap didn't do crap for me, it just made the idle worse and it seems sluggish now. I am glad I wasted that much time regapping! DOH!
But, at least now I know I guess. I will look into these spark plug wires you speak of. It can't hurt at this point!

 

well, I went out and bought two NGK TR55 spark plugs today. I put them in, and they still halo too! What gives here? Why can't I get rid of this annoying condition? Are MSD plug wires junk? Along with Taylors? Stock wires do it too! How do I get the spark into the combustion chamber?

 

The "Halo" that you refer to is probably corona effect. Read this.
Corona Effect : Corona Effect is a phenomenon which may be observed when viewing an engine running at night with the hood up. This phenomenon appears as a greenish blue halo around the wires. The amount of corona is dependent mainly on the humidity of the air and the amount of voltage pushing the electrons through the conductor. As the voltage and/or humidity increase, a more pronounced corona is observed. Be aware that it does not cause any problems. It is normal and there is absolutely nothing wrong with the wires. An actual arcing of a spark to ground does indicate a problem. A spark going to ground will make a noise, corona does not make noise.

That Help?

 

at the beginning of all this you mentioned the technician said to pull some fuel and that his eyes were burning.

Have you programmed the ecm? Have any additional mods? Have you datalogged to see exactly what's going on inside?

You may just be chasing your tail on the glowing plugs, pop the hood on some other vehicles and look to see if they are exhibiting the same behavior.

I usually take dielectric grease and run my finger around the ceramic of the plug, not getting any on the electrode, that way I have a good seal, good connection to the plug, and the boot won't stick.

how many miles on the motor? replaced o2s?

 

hmm, well it idles like azz, and it halos real bad until about 2 grand, then it seems to go bye bye. The motor has about 2000 miles on it since stroked, about 500 since last taken out and redone for the hub rotating on the crank issue. Can other people look at their cars to see if theirs does this crap too? I have never seen it before, but then again I have never stared at runnin engines in the dark. Also, I have had the car since 88xxx miles, and now it is clocked 102xxx. I have never replaced the oxygen sensors, as they still go back and forth quiet nicely, they are not lazy.

 

I was also told to get all the spark into the combustion chamber before I worry about tuning. It will run rich if its not sparking very good in the motor, ya know?

 

yea yea, well, high compression motors have much greater resistance in the combustion chamber at tdc than reg motors, lt1s start out @ 10:1, not sure if you changed that when you stroked it. I had an Lt4 conversion w/ crane cams fireball ignition setup, was running 10.8:1 (lt4s had 11:1 w/ flat top pistions, my stock LT1 pistons had valve reliefs), and never really noticed any arcing, but then again had a light on the hood. I had taylor spiro pro otc wires w/ made just for you wire looms. ran delco rapid fires.

anyway, greater resistance needs more voltage to jump the gap, therefore the hotter ignition is needed.

have you checked the grounds on your motor, one strap on pass side by a/c comp, other on pass side head going to firewall? I'm sure they're ok by the way you say it runs.

Maybe it's time to take it offline, call MSD or whoever the manufacturer of your system is and just ask them, couldn't hurt. When you're looking at the car, are you parked in a damp garage or something? Raining? have a digi cam and can take a pic?

 

well, It was dry out, parked outside, but it really doens't matter. There hasn't been one time when I haven't seen it doing it. I just checked the ground straps two nights ago. I found 5 wires total, and they all got cleaned up anyway. Didn't help. Well, I guess I will have to start calling around. I can't figure it out, and everyone here, at fbody.com and mnfbody.com are stumped. Damn, I just thought it would be easy to figure out.

 

Well, just got off the phone with TPIS in chaska, MN. They said they are stumped. Initially they pointed at the MSD's. But I told him Taylor and GM wires did it. Then he said coil, but my stocker does it too. Then said plugs, I said GM platnium, then rapidfire, then NGK TR55. He is stumped. I told him ground straps are all good. New opti. He said try putting electrical tape on the spark plug, see if it helps seal the boot and prevent it. If it does, which I won't know until tonight when it is dark, then I am getting new wires. Any and all suggestions will be accepted, but I won't know until tonight if it worked. If it didn't, WTF else can I do? Through away the car?

 

put electrical tape around the plugs so you can't see them glowing and call it good.

did you contact MSD?