What should I set my spark plug gap to? Right now I just put in a new set of spark plugs and they are gapped to almost .060. When I step on the gas it acts like it's misfiring really bad. Is that because the plug gap is too large? Any answers, thanks!

 

I think stock gap is around 40.

 

Depends my stock '88 IROCZ 5.7L plugs were .060

 

I think mine were set at .035" for my 305 TBI, it depends on the year as different years had different stock plugs, and at different gaps. If you can't find it, call your local parts store they got it right off hand. Just don't have enough info to give you a correct answer.

 

The emissions/vacuum hose routing tag should tell you.

If it's not present then a set of Autolite 24s (or equivalent) with a gap of .045" will work just fine in any 3rd gen engine with factory iron heads.

 

Pretty sure it's Autolite 25 for stock engines, the 24 are used for aluminum heads like in the vettes. Also the tag on my car says to use a .035 gap but I use a .045 myself.

 

25s are the same deal as 24s, just one heat range hotter.

 

stock gap for all camaros are .35

 

With the gap back down to .035 it still runs like garbage. I got a set of plug wires to try next. It has MSD wires on there now. I'm thinking maybe the dizzy may have gotten wet from snow or something and that's why it doesn't have any power and it misfires.

?

 

Might want to find the problem before tossing parts at it.
Why not see if any holes aren't firing? ie, clamp the timing light onto each wire in turn, and find out which one isn't getting a spark. Or pull the plug and hold it to the block.
A wet dist would fix itself quite quickly, if this has more than a few days, that's not the problem. I would agree it's probably ignition though.

 

Yeah try that first

 

I will try the timing light procedure. I was also thinking that it could be a fuel delivery problem, but I couldn't decide what it could be. I put a new fuel filter on it about 6 months ago and I also ran some injector cleaner through the system a few times. I got antifreeze on my opti-spark LT1 once and I had to take it apart and spray it dry. Of course, antifreeze wont burn away or melt away like plain water will, so I get what you mean sonix about the dizzy probably not being wet anymore.

 

ok, after hooking up my timing light to each plug wire, the results were fine. every wire seemed to fire great, but it still runs like crap. it stalls out and misses and backfires and smokes a little and doesnt have any power. what else should i try? it has new spark plugs and each wires seems to be firing. what other things should i test?? please help

 

100$ says you left a plug wire leaning on a header and had it burn through, causing the spark to arc. You might have just had the timing light on the wire before the point of the break, hence why you got a reading from it.

 

you know what, that sounds like a pretty reasonable theory. im gonna replace those plug wires and see if that'll help or not. i bought some wires from the parts store yesterday but they were too small for the distributor. the dist on there now is an Accel HEI unit and it has msd wires. so i guess i need to find some monster plug wires.

 

Inspect them first, dont just go buying parts. First, just look for a wire that is melted to a header, then theres your problem. You could have also had a wire just barely touching and all you will see is a few cracks in the area that was getting heated up. Either way the best way to check is to run the car at night when it's dark and look for blue sparking.

 

ok awesome, i will def. try that. its just so annoying trying to drive the car and keep up in traffic with it running like it is. thanks

 

i just replaced the spark plug wires because the others were a tad frayed, but it still falls all over itself and has a miss at idle at under throttle. anything else i should try??

 

Check to make sure that you wired them correctly to the distributor. Might have gotten two crossed.

There is a 99.9% chance that whatever is wrong with it has to do with the components touched or moved during the process of changing the plugs, so I'd stay in that area.

What kind of plugs did you get? Were they the same ones as the ones that were in there previously?

 

okay everyone is taking something for granted.

Did you have this problem before you changed the plugs? if you had the problem before you did the plugs then there is a whooole list of things you need to start looking at.

If you just got this problem after changing the plugs, check each plug, the ceramic part is very easy to break, i broke one before in a way that you could rotate the ceramic piece on the back of the plug. If you have a broken plug thatd make it miss.

If not check the routing of the wires, you probably just put one on in the wrong spot.

 

If you read his first post, he implies the fact that it is happening after he put the plugs in. If this was happening before, well then he picked a poor way of conveying that information.

 

oh i agree it was definitly implied, but figured it was better to point that out so maybe he goes oh **** ya i had this problem before i did the plugs, oops.

Cause if he just changed the plugs i dont see why he would think his dist might have been the problem. All it could be is a bad/broken plug or a misplaced wire.

 

well the problem just started over night about a week ago. so the first thing i did was change the plugs and it got considerably better, but not cured. then i changed the wires, but it still is not right, but a lot better than before i changed the plugs. i was really hard on the car in the snow a few times because it got stuck. it seemed to run fine before i got stuck in the snow, but i dont think that has anything to do with it. i just dont knwo what else to check thanks

 

hah i had a funny feeling

okay well go back to basics, air, fuel, spark, timing, compression

im going to assume that your air filters arent charcoal black and that your motor still has compression

as far as timing, put a timing light on the motor and that should give you some info.

Fuel i managed to get a fuel pressure tester at my local autoparts store for like 30 bucks, not a bad investment, changing the fuel filter is never a bad option, but if you have pressure i wouldnt worry about it. Guess it could be a bad load of fuel but thats your call.

Ignition gets a little more complicated, but when was the last time you did a basic tuneup? what shape is the rotor in underneath that dist cap? another thing is pull the cap off and check the points underneath, i broke a point off a brand new cap before and it took me a lil while to figure out thats why my car started acting up all of a sudden.

 

ok those will be the next few things i can try. i put a new fuel filter on it about 6 months ago. i also ran some injector cleaner through it a few days ago and a full tank of gas and the results were the same. i think i need to finish doing a tune up, (cap rotor etc) ill let ya know what comes of it

 

is it possible that one or more of my injectors are faulty? could that cause it to miss and have a loss of power? the entire car shakes and vibrates. the car seems to run really rich too. how could i correct the richness?

 

sorry are you tbi or tpi?

with my tpi what you do is you pop off the wires that attach to the injectors one at a time and actually check the injectors, using a volt meter you put a lead on the two tabs of the injector that recieve the current and check for resistance.

I forget what the numbers are supposed to be but if you check all 8 and one of them is way off then you know you have a dead injector, doing this checks the resistance of the solenoid inside the injector i believe.

Its also possible to have a clogged injector thats not spraying properly but thats making things way too complicated for now, no easy way to check that.

 

I just made a new thread about this, but I used the scan tool today and found out that my car reads out a lot of error codes.

Code

22 THROTTLE POSITION SENSOR TOO LOW
32 EGR SYSTEM PROBLEM
34 MAF SENSOR OR CIRCUIT TOO LOW
42 ELECTRONIC SPARK TIMING (EST) PROBLEM
43 ESC MODULE OR SENSOR PROBLEM
52 CALPACK MISSING OR IMPROPERLY SEATED
53 SYSTEM VOLTAGE TOO HIGH

Any advice?

 

The calpack is one of the connections in the ECM (prom maybe?), are you sure that you werent screwing around with it? Seems to me like it could be that you took it out and didn't put it back in correctly.

Thats alot of codes for something that 'just happened' one day, are you not telling us something? We can't help you if you aren't giving us all the info. Did you accidentally short out a wire somewhere, or mess around with your ECM?

 

I got emailled asking for spark plug info..SO!...first Ive never seen any advantage to gaps thinner or thicker than .045, if .045 won,t work youve got other problems

http://performanceunlimited.com/illu...parkplugs.html

the plugs are normally done (the electrodes cut back)with a dremel tool cutting disk


a few places to look for more info on plugs

http://www.gofastzone.com/techtips/s...sparkplugs.htm

http://www.acdelco.com/html/pi_plugs_ident.htm

http://www.autolite.com/framer.cgi?p...cts/racing.htm

http://members.uia.net/pkelley2/sparkplugreading.html

http://www.atlanticjetsports.com/_techtalk/00000005.htm

http://www.strappe.com/plugs.html

http://www.babcox.com/editorial/cm/cm59910.htm

http://www.ngksparkplugs.com/techinf...tnumberkey.pdf

http://www.nightrider.com/biketech/spkplghnbook.htm

http://www.tsrsoftware.com/sparkplug.htm

http://www.gnttype.org/techarea/engine/plugs.html

http://www.dansmc.com/sparkplugs1.htm

http://www.ngksparkplugs.com/techinf...overviewp2.asp

http://www.pajjakid.com/ubipa/sparkplugs.htm

http://www.edelbrock.com/automotive/sparkplugs.html

http://www.bullittarchive.com/Mainte...kplugoverview/

http://www.powerarc.com/sparkplug.htm

http://www.carcraft.com/techarticles/64378/

http://www.wakularacing.com/TechnicalInfo.htm

http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/F...877/spark.html

 

Kinda sounds like a bad ground.

 

Resolve 52, that may clear 53 and of some of the others. It does sound like you have missing ground.
Have you checked the braided ground strap on the passenger side between the firewall and the head?

 

no i haven't looked at the ground yet. this problem just happened one day. it started missing and backfiring real bad. i wasnt messing with anything. all i did was drive the thing around. it got to the point where i would step on the gas and it would die. so i did a tune up and it ran a tad better, but it was crapping all over itself still. then i scanned the computer and those are all the codes it spit out. the computer was replaced about a year ago, but it ran fine up until now. i will check that ground stap you mentioned and see if that changes anything. thanks for you help and post if anyone can think of anything else. thanks

 

if it's a tpi 305 5.l then it should be .35