seems fairly normal you should move the plug wire to the other cyl and see if it follows. coils last a long time, cheap wires and plugs not so much. these are normally the issue, 40k doesnt sound abnormal for some of the cheaper ones

Switched coil with my 98. No joy. Still gentle miss.

Switched spark plug wire with the original 2003 wire for #6, and my miss is gone and the CEL light is off.

These are Napa Belden 7mm Premium wires 700949. If I recall, they were in the $35-40 range. I paid more than the cheap wires at the main box stores to avoid the cheap wire problems.

I'm really surprised by this being the wire. I'm disappointed in the Belden wire.

What wires are good replacements? Should I do one wire or do all 6?

The original Packard wire is running just fine lying across the valve covers right now.

I wish I could edit my previous post to add:

I see Rockauto Delco at $34 for the tailored wires 746DD and $23 for Delco 9746DD, which from the Info button doesn't talk about tailored lengths.

Rockauto doesn't offer Belden right now--maybe the Beldens were giving others trouble.

i bought delco and napa stuff for a long time but after about 10 yrs ago, they seem the same as the cheap chinese stuff. so my answer is i dont know. i bought delco wires from carquest last time for my bonnie, the ones i took off had about 40k. i guess thats my answer i would buy them again but just know that they only last half of the ones they get from the factory for some reason. i put msd wires on my last monte and they lasted quite a bit longer but i traded the car before i could see exactly how long

Belden was sold to Powermax. I purchased some wholesaler closeout wires last month from RockAuto. What did I get - Napa/ Belden wire set that I bought last time at Napa in 2009 for $60. Below is what I purchased:

POWERMAX 700984 (700984:P) Spark Plug Wire
Wholesaler Closeout - Private Label Pkg. - 30 Day Warranty $ 20.79 $ 0.00 1 $ 20.79

Just did a part number search on RockAuto- they have some of the Belden sets left at a $20. These are great wires at a great price:

BELDEN Part # 700984
Category: Spark Plug Wire [Wholesaler Closeout -- 30 Day Warranty] (Only 14 Remaining)

$20.79

POWERMAX Part # 700984 Premium; 7mm
Category: Spark Plug Wire [Wholesaler Closeout - Private Label Pkg. - 30 Day Warranty] (Only 18 Remaining)

$20.79

I bought Bosch wires from autozone for my SSEi which is far from stock. They don't look like anything fancy but they haven't given me any problems over the last few years and were cheap. Plus with a lifetime warranty you can't go wrong...

BTW, the flashing CEL light generally means multiple cylinder misfire.

Here'* the sparkplug.

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k1...ps79067329.jpg

One side has carbon fused on it.

you use regular delcos? you need platinum at least for any kind of life if thats not the sc engine. i put e3'* in mine its really liking those, no power or significant mileage like when i put them on my old monte but they are very smooth and last a while.i get them for under 5 at advance if you enter p20 in the box in the checkout cart

Those are AC Delco 41-101 Iridium. 40K approximately.

I'm curious what caused the deposit on the one side near the tip that became glassy and then
trails down the one side of the porcelain becoming just carbon powder in appearance. The glassy part had built peaks toward the metal ground side of the plug, probably from arcing that direction.

Here'* a larger image

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k1...ps7f3760b3.jpg

Photobucket changed a few months ago and tried to insert more advertising and become social media like the overloaded Facebook. I'm not sure this is saved in 1280x1020 or some large number of pixels like that. What is a good place to store large size pictures from my camera to share?