It sounds to me like you have a plug wire that is bad and shorting to ground somewhere. Your plug replacement moved it around and it was good until it either moved back to where it was before or developed a new path to ground. It could be a coil pack also, so I'd plan to replace your wires and do a thorough visual inspection and resistance test on your coils while you have them accessible.



Do yourself a favor and spend the money on some quality plug wires - they are such a pain to replace that it's just not worth buying the $30 Autozone Lifetime Warranty wires. I'm sure everybody has their preferences but I've been a fan of Magnecor wires for years - they are more expensive but they are the last set of wires you'll ever buy for your vehicle. I've got almost 80k on the set that I installed on my Montero 6 years ago and when I replaced my plugs a week ago they were still in great shape with no signs of aging at all - I could have cleaned them up and not been able to tell them from new. Keep in mind that the summer heat here in Phoenix tends to bake any soft, pliable rubber parts under the hood into hard, brittle rubber parts in a few years time.

I didn't use a new plenum gasket when I changed my plugs, I just cleaned the mating surfaces very thoroughly and used gasket sealer when I reassembled it.

Yep, repulling the plugs now. First one (that I photographed singularly with all the oil) on drivers side was oil free and looked fine.

To fill you guys in a bit, when I replaced the plugs the other day, I had the 3 on the driver's side bank covered in oil. Which was alarming to me.

OK fast forward. I pulled the plugs on drivers side again.... que Carlos Mencia.
http://www.comedycentral.com/videos/index.jhtml?title=dee-dee-dee-song&videoId=72779

So, two of the driver's side plugs were loose. Where I was able to unscrew them with just the extension and my fingers.

<img src="/forums/images/graemlins/shiner.gif" alt="" />

That would cause the trouble, huh?

So, i posted that I tested the coils and they were in spec. (then deleted post) Retested them, and they are 1.8. I'm hoping my multimeter is wrong, because I really don't want to buy coils. On the plus side they were ALL testing to 1.8 .

Yes loose plugs can be a big problem if not fixed. I would replace those wires. Unless you want to pull the intake again I would bite the bullet and do it right. Also with all the oil on top of the plugs on that one bank, you need to do the valve cover gasket and the plug tube seals. Oil getting to the top of the plugs can cause a misfire as well.

Ordered NGK wire set tonight. Should be here in the morning.

Going to clean all the plugs up again and clean out the coils and di-electric grease-em up.

Ditto to what Justice said on the VC and plug tube gaskets. FelPro has a kit that is about $40.

What. The. Hell.

Reinstalled plugs. Installed new wires. Have new wires in correct sequence (1-4. 3-6, 5-2). Still misfiring.

I have an OBDII scanner and what looks like an OBDII port. It lights up the scanner tool, but is unable to communicate to scanner. Is there any other way to check codes?

OBDII didn't become available on these trucks until 1996. I will be interested in hearing more about checking codes, though.

John B.

Confusing.

Had a wild hare to check the plugs again (after finding the plugs loose) and the first coil I pulled out (#2 cylinder) came apart.... put it back together and stuck it in the truck.

Fired up and ran/drove perfectly again. So I must have one or more bad coils?


Even ole Bob's music isn't helping to calm me down today... which is very surprising... grrr

Three little birds. Three little birds.