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I have spent the last 8 hours changing out my spark plug wires because of a repeating problem that I have on my 3.8l V6 3800. I have been having a bad sputtering problem, and every time this happens it has been due to a bad wire. They continually are having holes burnt into them, and this time one of the problems found was that the last wire was too long and got caught in the alternator belt. After replacing this wire and checking out the 3 wires on the left side of the engine, and replacing, I went to start up and there was a loud pop/ backfire. I immediately shut it off, and the person assisting me and I checked back through everything, double checked our color coding to ensure that we rewired properly, and everything seemed to check out.

I tried switching 2 of the wires just to see if it would start with two of the wires messed up and it was worse. I have searched for hours online in between trying to figure it out by looking at it and back tracking, and the only thing that I can find is that the firing order is 165432. Though that is helpful, the real problem lies that we dont know which numbers the pistons are under the car, and now, after all of this aren't sure if we screwed it up or if I have a further problem.

Can someone please explain, in thorough detail, or provide me with a diagram off of the internet, or create one in the Paint program or Microsoft Word, that would show me exactly which piston is which, so that we can ensure that the wires coming from the distributor caps up top (there are 3 labeled 4-1, 2-5, 6-3, from back to front, if you are standing over the engine looking at it)...we need to know, if you are standing over the engine looking down at the engine, which on the passenger side of the car is the furthest piston back, then the middle, then the front, and the same on the drivers side, the furthest back, the middle, then the front. Currently, on the DRIVERs side of the car, from the rear towards the front we have Wire 1 (furthest back), Wire 5 (in the middle), and Wire 3 (closest to the front)

Is this the proper order??? If it isn't, then what is? Also, what should the order be for the other side of the engine, the PASSENGERs side? Please, an explanation as soon as possible would be greatly appreciated, I am about 30 miles from my home and will be missing work because of this! Thanks so much!
Paul

 
Rep Power: 678

I know i cant draw but hope this helps you said the 3800 right?

 
Rep Power: 1036

Yeah I had one somewhere, but that was months ago.

 
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OK, After wasting double digit hours trying to do this ourselves, your drawing was the answer....we really have no idea how we mixed up the wires using our color coding technique, but we did. No more popping/backfiring, however we didnt completely fix the original problem, the sputtering....but...I'll run on 5 cylinders for awhile because I'm pretty much over working on the damn car right now. Thanks so much for your help black ice, I added you to my buddy list.
Paul

 
Rep Power: 1069

I wonder if maybe you have a bad coil, or does it only pop when warmed up? that would lead me to suspect ignition module (and the testing will show it good since they can't test them hot so the only good test is a swap test) Where are you located? I may have an extra module I could send (I need to verify it first I had a bad harness that shorted)

 
Rep Power: 678

No problem man thats what we are here for

 
Rep Power: 727

I know I have an extra coil lying around thats good if you wanna pay to ship it.