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My buddy and I just did a lot of maintenance on my vette yesterday. Changed all fluids, air filters, oil change etc. We also changed the spark plugs and wires. I bought NGK TR55 and Hinsen wires. Riding home today the CEL started flashing and the car is kind of sputtering in 1st. Researching it it does sound like a misfire. I’m fairly certain we seated everything correctly, but my buddy pointed out that since we left the things off on the picture below one of the wires could have melted. It’s raining cats and dogs outside right now so I can’t really check. So are these things necessary? I’ve never seen them on any of my previous cars
I don't use them on mine.Never had a problem.I am sure they help with heat but don't think they are an absolute necessity.I am not a fan of the NGK plugs but many run them without issues.Make sure the wires click when they go on the coil and plug.
A flashing MIL is a cat damaging misfire so you want this fixed ASAP…if you have a “better” scan tool you can see which cylinder or cylinders are misfiring…make sure the plug wires are properly seated and if they are maybe you cracked a spark plug during installation…AC Delco Iridium plugs are the way to go…a mixture of baking soda and water sprayed on the plug wires may reveal the misfire…better to do it in a darkened garage and look for the lightning show…I see you are in Florida so you should be familiar with this…LOL !!
Thanks and yes I’m down here in the tropics lol. I’ll check the wires when it stops raining. I live about 45 minutes north of Miami and it’s rainy season 😒 I’m just hoping it’s a wire. I do all of my work on the car in a DIY garage in Miami and we made the trip back without any issues and I drove her to church this morning too. We ran over our time at the garage because the old wires basically snapped in half when we pulled on them. I don’t even know how it was running tbh.
I’m fairly certain we seated everything correctly, but my buddy pointed out that since we left the things off on the picture below one of the wires could have melted. It’s raining cats and dogs outside right now so I can’t really check. So are these things necessary? I’ve never seen them on any of my previous cars
Do yourself a favor and put the "things" (spark plug boot heat shields) back on.
The heat shields are not needed, i have headers and no issues with melted wires. Tr55s are copper core plugs and copper is a better conductor and are fine I have those also. They just don't last 100k like the iridium. Check for a cracked plug or a not seated plug wire.
Contrary to others' experience in here, I have nuked a plug wire boot. My dually with supercharged 454 Vortec uses these same boots at the plug. One of my exhaust manifold studs snapped and the heat shield that was bolted to it fell off and exposed the boot to manifold heat. It took a year or 2, but I managed to nuke a boot. Visibly, and yes the thing misfired terribly. All that to say, I really doubt you nuked a boot that quickly. More likely you didn't seat one of the boots correctly or cracked a porcelain on a plug. I will always run any form of heat protection I can for the boots.
If you don't snap the wire over the plug it will cause a mis-fire eventually. #4 cylinder in my car is tough to get seated with the oil dipstick in the way and it has happed to me once before.
I agree about using heat shields of some sort. GM engineers feel they were needed, and that's why they're there. I run Kool Sox on my non-OEM wires. Anything you can do to shield heat from electrical components is a good thing. Heat and electricity get along badly, and heat wins most every time. Even if the boot isn't melting, the heat could possibly reduce the electrical output and that would make for a weaker spark
Question about new plug wires
