HELP...changed the plugs wires...rough riding

[sedoriku]

Checked this afternoon (Damn, it is hot here 96 today) the wires to make sure they were in the good order, and well, they are all connected in the right order, so Im kind of clueless, why is the car running like crap?? Could the wires be bad even if they are brand new?? They are MSD wires 8.5mm and I would think they are going to work without a problem... I didn't check the coils, but why would they suddently be bad?? (may the cold water on an hot engine and hot coils break one of them??)
I think unfortunatelly Im probably gonna take the car tomorrow to a dealership to fix everything, and to change the plugs at the same time, because Im lost, I don't understand what I did wrong. Im probably gonna end up paying something like $300 to have it fix...Im pissed.

[Turbo V6 Camaro]

www.turbov6camaro.com/images/wires.jpg

[sedoriku]

Thank you for the little drawing viper04af, and I checked the wires to see if they were connected the same way, and they are! So unfortunatelly the problem is somewhere else... Maybe a bad spark plug or a bad coil somewhere. I'm giving up anyway, I think Im gonna take the car tomorrow to a dealership (he already managed to get almost $3000 from me on my first car here, a Chevy Z71), I have no luck with cars here in the US...

[Turbo V6 Camaro]

umm take out a plug and wire pull the fuel injector fuse under the hood

have a buddy in the car
put the plug in the wire and set the thread of the plugs on a ground (metal) have a buddy crank the car you should see a spark arch the gap

if not something is bad

it kinda sounds like you may have cracked plug or bad coil
my MSD coil was fine i park the car for 30 mins started it and wham!! 4 banger !!!

[SpeedingFirebird]

Something similar happened to me after changing wires. Turns out, one of the wires required a special shield to prevent it from arcing to the block (I know, strange, I had never heard of such a thing either).

Anyway, the way to check it is, watch the engine run in complete darkness and look for an arc to the block.

It may be a long shot, but it is easy to check.

Good luck.

[sedoriku]

mmm....I didn't think of the arching thing, and there was a plug boot which was touching the engine somewhere...that may have been the problem. I took the car to the dealership this morning, will see what they find out, after $300 at least... I gave up on working on the car, I just don't have enough tool, and I need to go to someone's place if I want to work on it. I know the dealership is gonna rip me off anyway, but at least I get a carwash when they work on my car...the most expensive carwash around town for sure...This dealership saw me so often with my previous car that they all know my name..lol

[sedoriku]

well, you were right, I managed to cross the wires when I changed them, even though I did them one by one. My friend was pretty sure he did connect the wires to the coils in the right order (I was under the car pulling the wires). Anyway, it was an easy fix and the dealership put the new plugs (NGK TR55) on, the car is running fine now, smoother than before.
Still, on my way back, as I was accelerating to pass a car, the SES light came on. I went back to the dealership, and unfortunatelly it is still the same, engine misfire on cylinders 1 and 3. I didn't even feel the engine misfiring, so I guess I won't even bother anymore if the SES light comes back. I thought MSD wires would fix it though. Anyway, they told me to put some injector cleaner in the gas tank, that may help. Will try it out, can't hurt anyway.
Thanks for your help guys.

[rye]

always the simple things first. Check again to make sure your wires are firing to the right cylinder!
You described what happen to me when I put my headers in. My friend switched two of the wires, so I was really only running on 4 cylinders and my idle was all crazy and was backfiring. So then I looked at the firing order and the wires, and sure enough two were switched, we laughed....ahaha then I switched the two wires and and it ran perfect!

[Dizturbed One]

never dump water on a hot motor

let it cool down on its own

not only can you warp all kinds of things (intake, exhaust manifolds, even the heads on occasion) but your car is controlled by a computer that have all sorts of electrical connections going on in there waiting to get shorted out.

that was not a smart move, and I can't believe no one has mentioned that...

[Turbo V6 Camaro]

if you got the motor wet take your coil pack off and make sure there is no corrotion under them

[sedoriku]

I knew putting water on the engine wasn't such a good idea, I had a bad experience once with my WV Golf, wanted to clean the engine and just put water everywhere with engine cleaner...The car wouldn't start anymore, it took quite a while to dry everything, water was everywhere and the car ran like crap for a while. So Saturday when I worked on my Firebird I didn't want to put water on the engine, I tried to let it cool down for a while, but the engine was still very hot, it was 96F that day. My friend decided to use the hose to cool the engine down... didn't really like the idea, but I let him do it (he told me he is doing it all the time on his Mercedes). The car smelled pretty bad for a while. Anyway, remind me not to work on my car again with this friend...lol

[Turbo V6 Camaro]

open the hood the car cools faster that way and put a fan in front of it or under it under the motor cools in about 20 mins [img]smile.gif[/img]

[sedoriku]

That's what we did at first...hood open, and the fan in front of the engine. We went for a beer or two for a little while, and when we came back the engine was still very hot (even though I only had a 15 minutes drive before). It was 96F that day, and the engine wouldn't cool down anyway (I mean the external parts). But I admit the water on the engine wasn't the smartest move. Luckily we didn't do anything bad to the engine...the error was human when we crossed the wires...lol.