so i just now finished changing my spark plugs. i bought the car used with 70k miles and now it has 82,xxx miles. the car is a 2003 cavalier w/ the 5 speed tranny. i changed the plugs cause it was idling a little rough and i was just bored. the plugs that were in the car were some autolites gapped at a little over .050! i bought some ac delco's and gapped them to .042 as stated in the owners manual. now when i get on it it feels nothing like id did before. before tourqe was very strong and know its very weak. i am guessing it had to do with the gap's? also every time i go from first to second gear a i get a loud pop from the muffler(flowmaster). any input will be appreciated. Thanks.
The parts department at your local dealer will know exactly which spark plug
is recommended and the proper gapping.
Try talking to them, and let us know what went wrong.
^^^The thing is thats the plug that was in their system for my car it was the 41-981 pt # . I also searched here for the gap and its somewhere around .043-.042. unless the people on here are wrong but i doubt that. I did drop in a bottle of injector cleaner prior to the installation but i dought this had any thing to do with it. I am waiting for the car to cool down and i will try to open up the gap maybe to .045 see if that helps. other than this i am stumped! car is basically stock only a AEM CAI and a flowmaster muffler.
maybe one of the spark plug cables is bad or a little weak
.
When the engine is running, get a set of spark plug pliers, NOT WITH YOUR HANDS! pull one spark plug cable off and then spray windex on the tip of it and check if each cable sparks continually check one at a time
the thing is this car doesnt have wires it has the IDI system no wires just spark plug boots. These i just recently changed as well. its weird cause the power feels flat till redline.
fixed..... gapped them to .050 and now it pulls alot better. Eventhough i dont know why thats what it took.
Rich Grayo Jr. wrote:spoiler wrote:maybe one of the spark plug cables is bad or a little weak
.
When the engine is running, get a set of spark plug pliers, NOT WITH YOUR HANDS! pull one spark plug cable off and then spray windex on the tip of it and check if each cable sparks continually check one at a time
on an eco? really?
ohh I'm so sorry
I really thought it was a good ol 2200 for some reason and there's a pic of the 03 cav and everything.
Well, I'm glad it pulls a lot better.
