1997 5.7L 350 tune-up??

[mbecke2]

Was thinking about changing cap, rotor, plugs, and wires. I bought the truck second-hand in 2006 and doesn't look like previous owner ever changed cap and rotor. Has 137,000 runs pretty good but I was wondering if she would run EVEN better if I replaced cap, rotor, plugs, and wires. I been doin some shopping and seems like its goin to cost around $175 for everything, does that sound bout right? I wanna use all AC/Delco if possible. Is this easy to do? Im not a mechanic but occasionally I do a liitle work on my truck. Was looking for any tips or suggestions?? Thanks

[bigcoconut]

Without knowing the history of the truck that is always a good thing to do. A tune-up can improve gas mileage and help with those pesky smog inspections. The work is relatively very easy to do, for a V-8. The only PITA is the routing of the plug wires. On my 92 those Chevy engineers really had a bad day when deciding where to run them, maybe your 97 is better.

A few tips:
1. Use di-electric grease on the new plug wire connections (plug and cap ends), this will only help when you want to get them off later.
2. Don't forget the air & fuel filters. The high gas prices, some folks are tempted to use that mom & pop gas station on the corner and the gas may not be really clean. We have a few of those around where I live, and I've learned my lesson already.

[Bigg G]

$175.00 ??? I replaced my wires,cap,rotor button and plugs for less than $100.00. I purchased Accel Spiral 8mm Wires , Accel Cap w/ Rotor and AC Delco Plugs for my 5.7 TBI . It now starts on 1 turn of the key and runs much smoother. The tune up definely made a performance difference.


Easy to install just make sure you mark and note the position of your old rotor button position before removing it and after you loosen your old cap be sure to mark your plug wire positions before removiing the plugs from the cap. Route your new plug wires 1 at a time using the numbers on your intake manifold (left side 2-4-6-8.....right side 1-3-5-7) as a guide.

[jveik]

yeah GM really knows how to piss people off. on my 95 they used little crappy clips to hold the spark plug wires and then made it so they open from the bottom so that it is next to impossible to get to the junk, making it a 1 or 2 hour ordeal to change out the wires. just be prepared to yell and cuss a lot. as for the cap, one way to do it is take off one wire at a time from the engine and route the new one right where it went and put it on the new cap right where the old one is on the old cap, and once you get all 8 done, pull the old cap and pop the new one on and whala!!! the aftermarket cap may be a little tricky to get the 2 small bolts to thread into the distributor so be patient. also that little rotor at least on my truck took quite a tug to remove.

[mbecke2]

OK so I finally changed cap, rotor, plugs, and wires!! I used all ac/delco parts (150$) and did everything correct on the first try. It did not fix the idle problem and kinda felt like it was running the same. But then I took it for a test ride and noticed it run cleaner, smoother and had a little PEP in the STEP. Its not sluggish anymore and has the quick pick up again when I hit that gas pedal. I think the timing is a fraction off and thats why its not idling perfect, but its really not TOO bad of an idle. Just enough to aggrevate me though. also I changed the pcv valve hopin that would help. Any cheap tips to help this baby idle smooth again?? I was going to try the O sensor, but seems like a waste of money.

[Jeremy-WI]

Dont try to adjust the timing with a light, you need a scantool to set the base timing-no bypass wire like the 88-95.

[MT-2500]

Originally Posted by Jeremy-WI

Dont try to adjust the timing with a light, you need a scantool to set the base timing-no bypass wire like the 88-95.

The timing is not adjustable.
But the camshaft retard setting can be checked/adjusted with a good engine capable scan tool.
MT

[inafogg]

hello,did u clean trottle body???may help your idle

[mbecke2]

Yea I wanted to do that. How do I? Just buy the throttle body cleaner in a can and spray it in there? Is it that easy or is there something I'm missing?

[MT-2500]

Yes spray carb cleaner or throttle body cleaner in there.
Also hold throttle body wide open and get a old tooth brush and brush it out as you are spraying it.
The carbon gets hard and caked up in there so keep spraying and brushing untill you get it clean.
Good luck
MT