Well Ijust got home from an 1,800 mile round trip and the ole Monte has tripped 101k. I pulled the front three spark plugs to check them. The gap is still dead on .060 and they look almost new. I averaged 28 mpg and I have a heavy right foot. So the question of the day is should I change the plugs and wires or just keep rolling until I see a problem?

 

an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure..

 

Just like SCC said, non-severeproblems with ignition are rarely noticed untill you replace it.Better plug wires do a better job of putting spark to the engine. Better plugs do a better job of igniting the fuel/air mix. A car that has no problems won't see much improvement. Better plugs and wires can make better work of poor quality gas, so the engine is less likely to retard timing to correct knock/ping. But truthfully I highly doubt a naturally aspirated (not turbo or supercharged engine) engine will have many problems with knock/ping unless the gas in your area is really really bad.

I did it for peace of mind on my first M/C, a 2003 LS, at 50 K miles. No noticable improvement. If you do it, replace all of the O2 sensors and make sure the battery is unplugged for a significant amount of time. This will force the ECM to re-learn the tuning of the engine, so it adjusts for any other mods you have made.

Personally, if Ithought about it before doing it, I would have realized that the plugs I put in cost 15$ a piece (90$ just for plugs) I would have left the stock high-life spark plugs in, and spent the money on a high flow catalytic converter. Better power, slightly better sound, and still will meet or exceed EPA requirements in most states. But, the red plug wires looked cool with my stock red paint.

YMMV.. (your mileage may vary)

 

its not going to hurt anything to do a tune up...but your not really going to gain anything from it...it just means that you wont have to do it in a little while