I've been struggling with a miss, and narrowed it down to the plug wires. I wanted red wires, and the since ZZPerformance is about the ONLY place I buy parts, other than from the overpriced Chevy dealer, that's where I got them. They have their own brand now, a 10.5mm set for $20 less than the PRJ brand, and Zoomer threw in a set of nicer looms with them for free. $100 for this set. They routed different, due to different than stock lengths, but they fit fine. Had to roll the engine forward to do this, but that was easier than I thought. Another nice thing about these wires is that they are numbered. It fixed my miss. AND they look good.

 

I noticed those wires when I was browsing through your photobucket album, they look good.

 

two things first could you tell a difference in power with the new wires and seconed, how did you know you had a miss? was there a big loss in power?

 

Excellent! They look fantastic! I have looking at those same wires as well. PFYC has the 8.5mmMSD set for about $60, 3800performance has the PRJ wires for about $120

I was wondering how ZZ compared to them.

Would it be possible to get a quick write-up on the install process including rolling the engine forward?

 

The miss was obvious at WOT, as in passing a truck. The plugs were new last fall. Tim at ZZPerformance picked up a random miss on cylinder #4 last time up there. Not enough to throw a code. Then twice it threw a code for a mis-fire on cyl' #5. ZZPerformance HATES MSD coil packs. I changed the #4 cyl' coil to a new GM pack, and diagnosed the #5 miss to a bad plug wire, as I could make it better, for a while. When I 1st checked on Keegan's car at ZZP is when I bought the wires, but just got them on. After installing the wires, the miss went away, totally. So now I put back on the MSD coil I changed before, and still no miss. I changed the coil before the wire because of the bad coils I had on my '01 SS LE, which is when I bought the MSD's. They now have about 110,000 miles on them.
Now I know why ZZP doesn't like the MSD's. Neither did the Track Lab dyno crew that just dyno'd my car, and the printout shows why. I'll post it later today. VERY eratic, no smoothness to the lines at all. So next is getting the other 2 coils I've all ready ordered and replacing the MSD's with new GM coils (at $70 a piece).
Rolling the engine forward: I've installed the ZZPerformance strut brace, and some Montes come with the factory brace as my '01 did. You can't even BEGIN to put your hand in back of the motor! Procedure: Put the car in neutral. Take out the 2 bolts connecting the engine to the front motor mounts, the long, about 3 1/2" bolts. The passenger side engine bracket has a second hole. I used a breaker bar in the pickup bracket(?) in the front of the engine and rolled the engine forward and slid a bolt through the second hole in the mount bracket, which held the engine forward. This gave me BARELY enough room to get to the plugs and change the wires. Pretty easy, actually! FORGET IT WITHOUT DOING THIS!
So the MSD coils will be going in the trash this week, with new GM coils on instead. The MSD's look good, but in reality, aren't. I'm hoping my milage will pickup with the new coils. Long post, but I hope this helps someone. I'll post picks later today.

 

A lot of it has to do with the fact that it makes no power, and from what I've seen- they seem less reliable (in many cases). It would be different if it actually made a difference in power, bu there is no point putting on aftermarket parts that cause more problems than they're worth.

 

Here is a pic I took today showing where I put the breaker bar to roll the engine forward (on the right, upside down). I'm pointing to the back hole in the engine mounting bracket used for holding the engine forward. Apply the parking brake, put the car in neutral, remove the 2 cross bolts, lift up the right (drivers side) mount, pull the engine forward and re-insert the left bolt into the hole I'm pointing to. Really quite easy, just 2 bolts.

 

thanks for the info, I'll refer to it when I do my plug wires

 

Very nice Wayne, they really set of the engine compartment.

Just curious, how do you like the Tripletreds?

 

I don't have tripletreds..........yet!
I have BFGoodrich G-Force TA KDWS in 235-50-18 on the Eagle Alloy 077's.
The Michelins I just took off were THE worst wearing all season tires I've had in YEARS! That what I get for getting the Pilots instead of the Energys. Goodyear Tripletreds will be going on the factory 17's this fall for winter.