Set the multimeter to "Ohms" and touch the two leads together and take note
of the reading. As you place each lead into the opposite ends of a plug
wire, you should get the same reading. Move the wires around a little bit
to make sure there's not a short that occurs intermittently due to wire
position.
As for checking the wires, this needs to be done in COMPLETE darkness. This
is easy to do if you have a garage, but don't do it for too long or you may
pass out from carbon monoxide poisoning, and if you're by yourself, then
you're dead! Anyway, pitch dark really helps to pick up crossfire and
arcing. This seems to be prevalent (at least on my 5.2L) around the
distributor/manifold area, and around the spark plug shields (which I
permanently removed about 140,000 miles ago).
Make sure the engine is thoroughly warmed up when checking for spark
leakage. Hot engines are more likely to leak spark than cold engines.
HTH
-- Remove .your.underwear to reply -- "default" <nospam@nowhere.net> wrote in message news:3BED7248.18DF274F@nowhere.net... > Hello, > After much swapping of parts around, I'm convinced I have a bad wire or > plug or something. My big question is how and what can I check on the > plugs and wires to make sure they're all the same? > > I think I should go through and test the resistance of both the plugs > and wires. Do you know if higher is better, or lower? Is there something > else I should check? I'm not too experienced with the multitester. > > How would I look for crossfiring/magnetic effects between wires? I'm > guessing an oscilloscope near the plug, yes? > > Do you think indexing the plugs will help making my cylinders more > similar, or is that voodoo? > > And my final question, dielectric grease. Does it conduct, or not > conduct? Would I use it on the contacts to prevent oxidation, or around > the seals to prevent moisture/arcing? > > Thanks in advance! > michael.crotty@m.cc.utah.edu > > As my small anecdotal contribution, I'm going after the ping on my 99 v8 > (again). 3923's helped, but then Magnegore 8.5 wires hurt! One of the > cylinders was arcing to the block, putting the stock cable back stops > it. I think a bad plug would cause this though (too much resistance) and > the stock plug's shield goes lower on the plug preventing it. >
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