Hey everyone. Back again, with another small issue somewhat plaguing my head. Just ordered new AC Delco iridium plugs and the red GMPP wires for my '97, and since I've dumped enough cash at shops doing work on my car recently, I figured that I'd save a few bucks and tackle the tune up myself. Everything was going incredibly smooth until I was double checking all of the wires and good ol' #7 cylinder wire would just not pop into place. After hours of fighting it, I grabbed one of the old wires and, boom, it popped in- in 3 seconds. After comparing and contrasting my new wires, I am convinced that I was sold a defective wire, as the inner metal sleeve appears to be recessed, so hence why I was unable to properly install it. Needless to say, I am bummed because I bought them online and although I sent a complaint and pictures to the seller in order to get a warranty set, I'm not waiting however long to drive my car. I picked the best old wire to temporarily use on #7 and the car fired right up, but is clearly missing and not running right. Went ahead and ordered some cheaper 8.5mm "performance" wires for the time being. Assuming the old wire is still functioning, could it be that my problem exists just because it's (I think) a 7mm wire and the rest are 8mm? I double and triple checked the rest of the new wires and anything else that might be giving me hell, and all seems good. Could I still run all of the 8mm GM wires and just one 8.5mm on #7 and be okay? Suppose I'll chime back in when I find out tomorrow. Also, ahem, I believe I wrote in regarding an oil leak that I mysteriously suffered after having my HB replaced, and after taking the car back to the same shop that did the work, we thought it was just the gasket on the drain plug, but now I have noticed that it's still leaking oil, albeit not as much. The fellas at the shop were cool about it and even invited me down to get underneath and have a look for myself. Have absolutely no clue where this leak is coming from, but damnit, the car is in excellent condition considering it's age and I want it clean. Then again, I need someone else to complain to about- so thank you all!

 

If you can tell which cylinder is missing, I would try replacing that coil.

 

Thank you for your input, Shark. I'll tell ya, I'm about over it at this point. Picked up all new wires, removed the other, more expensive new wires, checked all of the plugs, wiring around the area and installed the other wires- to no avail. The car still runs like crap and is severely sluggish. I really hate giving up, especially on something that I am familiar with, but now reading about plug gaps and coils, fuel issues etc, I've had it. The car ran great prior to my attempt at a simple tune up, which I have done on just about every vehicle I have ever owned- with no problems. Chose to do this tune up because I assumed it was OE parts that were 25 years old (the plugs would suggest that), and I screwed up somewhere. Live and learn, I suppose.

 

Assuming there are no codes displayed then I would go back over everything changed in the tune-up. You mentioned plug gap so I assume that you did that correctly.

 

Good evening, hopefully you are not pulling out your hair yet.
So do you have a dead miss or random misfire? Since you are discussing plug wires I will assume that you have a distributor. Start the car and let it warm up about 5 minutes. Use a set of heavily insulated pliers and pull one plug wire at e time off the distributor. When you get to one that has no effect from removal leave it off. You may find that two wires are crossed.

 

The iridium plugs are supposed to come pre-gapped @.040, and I've been told to not gap iridium plugs because you can damage them. That, and I am not really experienced in gapping plugs. I did notice that the #1 cyl. plug boot seems like it's looser than the rest. The only plug that I pulled was the #7- thinking that in all my fighting to get the wire on, I damaged the plug itself. It looked fine. I checked the remaining 7 to make sure they were tight. Made an appointment at a shop that has done work on a couple of my vehicles before- as I figured with their equipment, they'd diagnose my problem much quicker than I can. Maybe I did accidentally damage a coil pack!?

 

It's a good thing that I shave my head about once a month!🤣 But the car is a '97, so it has super short wires that run to coil packs.

 

Ok, I've seen those before. You can unplug the coils one at a time to find the miss.