I was confident that the problem was a fouled plug, and decided to change the plugs. I managed to get to an auto parts store that was a mile from home, and walked up to the counter wearing an old Hood to Coast t-shirt, Nike shorts and a Volcom 'hoodie'. Now it has been a few years since I've been under the hood of a car, and I didn't look like a mechanic but when I started talking to the counterman the proper behavior came back to me - I leaned my elbow on the counter and pretended I was picking some cigar tobacco out of my teeth. I nonchalantly asked if he had any spark plugs for a 1998FordRanger4.0LiterV6. He leaned his elbow on the counter, swatted at an imaginary fly and said "yeahithinksoletmecheckmyinventory". Having now established ourselves as Men Who Know How To Fix a Car, we could transition into a normal conversation.
He had the spark plugs, and I thought that I should purchase some plug wires as well. The Black Widow (the nickname for my truck, because it is black and people say the way I drive I'm going to make a widow out of Sherry) has topped 100,000 miles now and has not ever had the wires changed. Seemed like the right thing to do. I then asked if he had a distributor cap and rotor, knowing that it was electronic ignition I still expected a cap and a light emitting rotor that would trigger the appropriate plug to fire. I was surprised, and he was also, to find that there is no distributor cap - the wires go right into the coil. Alllrighty then - maybe it has been too long since I've done some simple maintenance!
Returning home, I pulled halfway into the garage and began to prep my work area. I first plugged a mechanic's best tool - a garage stereo. True mechanics keep a portable "boom box" radio/cd player in their work area. The selection of music is supremely important - country music will lead to the vehicle somehow finding it's way onto your lawn with the hood up for the rest of your life. Real mechanics listen to classic rock. I then opened a beer. Not having a true mechanic's beer (Bud, no Bud Light) I had to settle for a sissy microbrew. That's OK, it's just for show not for go. With a slight swagger I pulled out my Craftsmen rollaway. Yeah, I've got a rollaway toolbox stuffed with probably a grand of Snap-On and Mack tools from my years in machine shops. Of more importance it has high performance stickers all over it. Moroso, Crane Cams, Hooker Headers, Edelbrock - ahhh, the memories - there is nothing in the world that gives me goosebumps than two 750 CFM dual feed double pumper Holley carburetors perched on top of a GMC 6-71 supercharged Chevy 454 cubic inch 10:1 compression 4 bolt main steel crank aluminum rods and aluminum ported and polished heads with triple springs, solid lifters activated by a Crane cam pushing the rods through bronze guides. Sigh. Those were the days!
BONUS QUESTION: if you can answer this question without looking it up on Google, you will earn my undying respect as a member of the mechanic's brotherhood. I even found some unopened Plastigage. For 20 points, what is Plastigage?
OK, now it's time to pop the hood in the present. Yikes. What a mess! Now, times were when you could stick a tennis racket sideways between the fender well and the engine block. I had a 1967 Camaro that you could pop the hood and say "carburetor" and not unlike the Grand Canyon you would hear and echo coming back. Well let me tell you that the engine compartment had more wires, hoses, manifolds, smog control devices, belts, gears, pulleys, and electronic devices than Starbucks has overpriced coffee. Under a bird's nest of wires I even found a small microwave that you could heat up a burrito in. At least I think it was a microwave, it could have been the air cleaner.
Plunging my hands through the tangle, the familiar smell of grease and oil wafted through the air like the perfume of your first girlfriend. This was my zone! I removed the plugs (with great difficult, swivel headed 3/8 ratchet with all kinds of extensions mated to the standard 5/8 socket). Sure enough, number 3 was fried. I then removed the new plugs and gapped them, installed them and then went to work on the plug wires. What an effort! Those wires snaked through the intake manifold like you wouldn't believe. It was so bad that for cylinder #6, I actually left the old wire IN the manifold and ran the new one across the top! I started it up and woohoo - it ran perfect.
Next year, Aluminum Man here I come. Years from now; someones going to be working on the engine and find that wire, unattached at both ends. They're going to look at it in bewilderment. But I know why!
