Have had my motor installed for about a month. Been WOT tuned and then again figuring out a P0101. Car would hesitate under rolling acceleration from somewhere between 2100-2800+rpm. After the 2nd tuning it drove fine for a week. Well today it was happening again except no where near as brutal. Tuner told me to pull the plugs (only 1k mi) but they all look fantastic. HOWEVER, after removing the #6 plug, I noticed the plug looked a little brown, like a burn. I placed my fingers around the primary and found this. Could this cause a random misfire? Also what are the ranges for ohm's checking the coils?

 

I will also add that this is intermittent. Drove fine all last week. Today, it happened CONSISTANLY. I wonder if LG can help me on the Header side. Regardless if its causing the problem. That is a pretty serious crack.

 

That's a bummer. For all the work it takes to replace that header, I'd still ask LG to make it right, but in the interim I'd try to find someone who can TIG the crack to repair it. The burnt boot could certainly cause a misfire, if it were me I'd go to some quality OE wires with heat sleeves and lose the MSD wires. Never had much luck with the 'performance' plug wires personally.

 

Cracks and be caused by several problems. Metal stress, excessive heat, poor quality material.

If you have RANDON misfires or a single cylinder misfire, the first place I would go would be the wires and the plugs.

If your burning wires, I would get a wire that isn't as sensitive. I,, like "LateBreak " have NEVER been a fan of MSD wires. The boots are not all that hardy and tear easy. I know,,, I know,,, lots of people sware by them.

Another wire that I have used in the past and has worked flawlessly is MAGNACORES. The GM Wires are less and also work flawlessly.

I use the GM Performance RED wires and have NEVER had an issue with then. ANY wire or boot layed directly on the header will burn. If you have a wire that is making contact with the header pipe, you will need to correct that. If you want more wire protection, add come cool sox over the wiring. I also use the OEM stock metal cans over the boots.

GM PERFORMANCE RED WIRES:










The coil connectors fit like they are designed to and double click in place. There like $65 new from Gene Culley

BC

 

Even though LG would probably repair the crack,, unless you can drive the header there, its going to cost WAYYYYYYYY more to ship the header to LG and get it repaired than it would be to just have a good LOCAL sheet metal repair shop TIG weld the crack.

Who ever repairs the crack should drill stop the crack and then tig weld the damaged area.

If it were me, while the headers are off the car, I would ceramic coat them.

Bill

 

Before you replace the wires, remove them and inspect the boots and wires for burns and damage.

Use an OHM Meter and read the wire end to end and see what the wire resistance is.

I know the GM red wires are normally around 300-400 ohms. I believe the MSD are less. What ever they are, there should NOT be any excessively high resistance readings on any of the wires. They should all read very similar resistance readings.

Use dielectric grease on the boots (inside) and MAKE SURE that you get a good firm CLICK on the coil and the plug.

The ONLY time I ever let someone work on my engine, whenI got the car back, it had a MIS-FIRE!!!!

I had to troubleshoot it and this is what I found. It only missed under hard acceleration:



Just Saying......




Bill

 

Thank you guys!! Thank you Bill for all your information. I spoke with the shop who did the motor install and they informed me they would remove the header to do the job. I was hoping to avoid having to remove it for a repair. . With that said, it is what it is. If I have to, then ill have it done. May look at a muffler shop though. My shop charges a bit much. And id like to see if it can be done w/o removing it. As far as MSD goes....yeaaa im pretty much done with them. After doing some thinking and researching some nasty threads about MSD, I kept getting a misfire similar to this on my 99SS Camaro years ago, and just kept changing plugs....not the wires. On this motor, shortly after I made that purchase (TR6 MSD combo from Texas Speed), my gut was telling me to go with another wire or better yet just go buy GM Red wires and be done with it. I told myself when it comes time to change plugs, I was buying the GM wires anyway. Well looks like I will be doing this MUCH sooner(Even though these plugs and wires have 1k miles on them) At least wires anyway. May be just a little while for wires and the weld though. Just dropped $1000 today on Florida "use tax" and registration from the "Flood" incident exactly a year ago.. I will ohms check the wires today though for good measure. I pulled all plugs for inspection lastnite and they all look similar to this, some a tad darker...so I believe my plugs are fine. Hell they should be for 1k miles.

 

It is possible to weld anything in place but, you are more likely to have it repaired PROPERLY if the welder has proper access to the damaged area.

Remember,,, Its probably cracked further than you can see with the naked eye. The tube has to be SPOTLESS for a proper weld and like I stated, the crack should be drilled at the ends of the crack to prevent it from cracking further once its welded.

Bill

 

Arrrgghh. Being a Fuel systems specialist on 2 air frames for the USAF, I kind i saw this response coming and KNEW in my gut it would be the proper permanent repair, I cant help but to think about a quick fix first though as its also naturally part of my job because of potential massive downtimes Thanks Bill. (sigh) will get it fixed in due time.

 

It looks like there might even be an additional crack forming on the underside of the primary. Seems like there was something wrong with that tube bend from day 1, it might be worth having an experienced shop cut that section of tube out completely and replacing it with a new segment. Otherwise I'm worried you might be doing the same thing a year from now with another crack.

Not sure how old the headers are, but I'd call LG to at least get their opinion on how to best proceed. Lou and his team have a good reputation and I'm sure they'd love the opportunity to help you get it fixed.