does spark mean plug wire good?

[watermellon]

my 89 ranger efi 2.3l engine is running rough. Sounds like its running on 3 cylinders. I pulled a spark plug wire and there's spark there but there wasn't a change in how it was running. Could that spark plug wire still be bad causing the engine to run rough? Even with a spark on all 4 plug wires is there a possiblity that a bad distributor could be causing it to feel like its running on 3 cylinders?

 

[84stealthranger]

if it dont change when u pull just that wire off change out that plug or all of them at the same time. if u pull off another plug wire does it change how it runs?

 

[scotts90ranger]

an '89 2.3 has 8 spark plugs and two separate coil packs without a distributor... if you pull 1 spark plug wire, the other spark plug for that cylinder will let it run just fine, I'm running that setup with 4 spark plugs on my turbo engine.

If its running rough, pull the 4 easy spark plugs (passenger side) and check their gap and see if they're black or white, they should be chocolate milk colored on the ceramic

 

[Ozwynn]

just because the plug wire carries a spark does not mean its good, only that its functional. start the engine and pop the hood when it is completely dark, if the plug wires are bad but still carry spak you will see lightening inside the engine bay.

 

[killj0y]

yeah look for spark leakage at night, and try pulling the plugs in sets if possible since you have 2 plugs per cylinder. Then if you find the problem cylinder change both plugs. Or save yourself the trouble and just change them all. If your low on cash buy some cheap copper plugs and just change them out in a few months when you got cash. They will do the same job anyways, they just won't last as long.

 

[greenpus]

could also mean one of your valves on that cyl is messed up. Don't assume it's just the plug or wire...

 

[87ranger2.0]

Low compression in a cyl could be the problem but more likely to be a spark or fuel problem.do you have a c.el.? It could also be timing check your timing belt for missing teeth

 

[killj0y]

True could be a valve but plugs are easier and cheaper to check.

 

[Bryan22]

low compression, bad plugs, bad coil pack, bad ICM, bad fuel injector.... could be anything. You need to find out which cylinder is having the problem and then find out what it isn't getting(fuel/fire/compression) and then go from there.