Time for plug wires, what are you guys running?

My new, 182,000 mile '94 wagon is in desperate need of a tune-up to fix the random miss that it has. I plan to start with the plugs and wires, hoping I don't need to replace the Opti. I can replace just the cap, correct? Anyway, I don't need a Hi-Po set of wires, just a stock replacement. Should I go to the local parts store and get a $40 set of wires, order a $40 set from Jegs's or step up to a $60+set of wires. Tell me what you guys are using and/or what you like. Mike

I like AC Delco cap, rotor, wires and NGK plugs. Nothing fancy.

I was calling around today getting prices and the Delcos were nearly twice the price of the "house"brands. I realize you get what you pay for but does that really hold true in this case?

I'm running a set of Delcos right now but that is ONLY because I got a set from a former Impala owner for cheap. Truth be told though if I hadn't found them I would be running whatever Advance would have had on the shelf.

Once upon a time Delco meant something, now most all of it is the same import crap as the cheap stuff.

a/c plugs arent made buy delphi anymore(or who ever the old original mfg was ) i forget who makes them now

On a 94, I would do a coil and coil wire before doing wires...

jayoldschool wrote:

On a 94, I would do a coil and coil wire before doing wires...

What is this you speak of? The problem I have is a miss that just comes and goes, no pattern, no rhyme-or-reason to it at all. I thought with the miles it might be do for a tune-up but if the coil and or wire could be suspect I will try that first. Could that cause this miss?

water in the fuel????
egr sticky???
a random miss,. is an ugly thing to diagnose on the internet,. wet days make it worse?
a $40.00 msd blaster coil always helps these motors,. (inmho) and as jay said ,. the coil wire runnning so close to the water pump will leak spark easy,. I still lke to run a quart of water thru the motor thru one of the vacuum ports for a trip,.cleans stuff nicely,. but you need to have a small feed on it,. or you'll get large chunks thru the cats,.
You really need to drive it and pay close attention to when/what where/why the miss starts and ends,.hot/cold/ fast slow,. hard pull ,..light cruise,. rpm dependant,. speed dependant,.yada yada,.

Nick

The 94 coil isn't as good as the later one. Also, the connections are susceptible to corrosion. I've had an LT1 die on me twice: first was the coil wire on my 94 9C1, then it was a bad battery connection on my 95 SS.

Put it this way, you need to do coil and wire anyways for maintenance, so may as well do them first. If they don't smooth things out, they will still help anything you do after.

Plug wires would be up next. The nice 95 MacWoody bought from Fred at WF had a bad wire on the passenger side. The car would buck/stumble at cruise randomly. While poking around with the engine running, the wire shorted through my hand. Pretty easy way to find the bad wire! Made me jump a little I would suggest looking at the wires at night instead...

I have a bad EGR on my 94 wagon. Doesn't change the driveability, but it will occasionally light the CEL for a few seconds under steady speed high vacuum cruise at speeds around 25 mph. I have one to swap in.

Good luck,
Jason

phantom 309 wrote:

You really need to drive it and pay close attention to when/what where/why the miss starts and ends,.hot/cold/ fast slow,. hard pull ,..light cruise,. rpm dependant,. speed dependant,.yada yada,.

Nick

In the short time I've had the car I've found that the miss will just come and go regardless of engine speed, road speed, load. On my way home when I first noticed it I was coming through the mountains in Tennessee. Not much fun trying to chug up the hills on 7 cyl but she did ok. At that time I noticed it most between 70-80, you would be running along fine then, bam, a dropped piston. Nail the gas and sometimes it would smooth right out, other times not. Sometimes while going down the highway and I would feel it drop I would tap the brake, releasing the converter and smoothing it out making me think I had tranny issues. But other times, while sitting in the drive thru or at a red light, fine and dandy then drop. Chug along for a bit then hello all 8. Sometimes it won't do it at all. When I flushed the heater core I let the car run for a long time to open the t-stat and bleed all of the air out. After that I took it for a drive around the block, then out on the highway and boy was I surprised at how well it ran. Tons of power, no miss, yay. Came home, parked it and an hour or so later I had to run to the store. Head out on the main street cruising along, drop. What the....? Anyway, I know it's damn near impossible to diagnose this on the computer, just wondering where to begin. I feel it's spark related and with all the miles thought plugs and wires but I could start with the coil/wire.

That's another thing I forgot to say, not once has the CEL come on, if that helps.

use the cheapest wires you find with a lifetime warranty. I have magnecor wires and they're the only "special" wires I recommend but lately I've been putting so few miles on my b-bodies that you might as well save the $60 price difference and put it towards a new coil. The guys are right, ignition coils ought to be considered a maintenance item on these cars. Buy ACDelco for the coil.

I have found the wires only last a few years on these cars. I've been using the Taylor Spiral Pro wires on my cars and they fit great. Had them on one of the daily drivers now for about 3 years with no issues. They are quite a bit cheaper than the Delco wires:

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Summit also has a number of coils for these cars, an MSD Blaster for $43, and a Delco for $50:

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Duracrap coil is $38

any issues with those? I would not have thought of a coil as a "maintenance" item. Always replaced after failure. What is the maint. interval?

10 years or so.

My thoughts on coils are this:
1. As long as your plug gap is near spec and your motor is basically stock, going to a higher-output ignition coil isn't going to buy you anything over just installing a new factory-spec coil.
2. Based on some very knowledgeable GM tuners I know, I would stick with AC Delco parts for things like the ignition coil, O2 sensors, EGR, etc.

FWIW, I've had the Magnecor wires on my car since 2004. That said, they only have 18,000 miles on them since then, but they're still fine.

Hi Everyone,

I am new to this Forum. I thought I might mention this very simple test on how to diagnose bad spark plug wires.
I own a 93 Fleetwood with the TBI engine. My Caddy would sputter, miss and hesitate in the rain but run fine on a dry day. I could not figure out the problem until I brought it to a local shop. They simply started up the engine, opened the hood and sprayed a fine mist of water in the engine compartment. There was arcing all over the place from the spark plug wires. I drove the car home, replaced the plugs, wires, distributor cap and rotor (Love those 93 engines!) problem solved.

I am running delco plugs and wires. I got the wires from rockauto, hell of a lot less than anything local. My 95 caprice had a miss when I got it, turned out one of the passenger plugs was loose. That caused a poor ground because of all the gas on the threads, and random compression loss. I also noticed in the dark the cheap house brand plug wires the previous owner put in there was arching (mostly from the coil wire).

I have used Taylor wires and Magnacore (current wires) with great results. But they are pricey.

You want to get the best you can...because on only want to fool with changing those wires once or twice!

Chris

the cheapest OEM wires from Autozone. Trouble free for the last 50K or so....

getting around to doing a full tuneup on my 93 tbi - dist cap/wires/plugs, overhaul of TBI etc. I got a set of double platinum ac delcos from rockauto - 2 of the eight were a clearance special - but i didn't see or it didn't point out that the two were actually only single platinums... went online to find out if that matters or not and read a few posts on other forums that run 90s tbi 350s and several people stated that the plain ole acdelco coppers were ideal and wouldn't bother with fancier metals like platinum or iridium. At the very least i am prob going to get 2 more double plats so they all match.

The platinum plugs just last longer. Any good cap and rotor will be fine. I got a set of unfinished MSG wires, and cut them to the correct length, so I do not have them draped all over the engine. I have a crimping tool, if you want to come over and make your own. I have some extra low mileage (10K mi.) 8.5 mm MSD wires from my 454. They will be a little long, but that can be fixed. The ones from the parts store that are "for the engine" usually have one long, and one short wire in the pack. The one good thing about wires, plugs, cap, and rotor is that you do not have to mess with the timing. I have some other misc. ignition wire sets, used and new.