need a consensus

[tonyc]

I've been reading on here about coil packs and spark plugs and intermittent misses. My 01 2wd automatic with 163,000 miles has in the past week started missing sporadically. It will start fine, run fine, drive fine for a good while....then as it gets hot under the hood, it will develop the miss, most noticeable at a stop light. No codes pop up except 0422...and it was doing that long before this started. I know for a fact the #4 plug has deep oil around it and #3 has a little. I'm planning on doing the valve cover gasket probably today and plugs while I'm in there where I can clean up the oil. Should I do coils and wires too or just start with the plugs? I don't know what else might be causing the miss without fixing the obvious first. Already done timing belt and fan clutch.

[ron1004]

I would go with doing the oil leak and new plugs first, then look at coils and HT leads if needed.

You may find conflicting opinion on here regards the plug gap, but here's mine.
Set the gap to 0.030" (0.75mm) and not the larger gap 0f 0.044" indicated in some literature. The larger the gap the higher the risk of breakdown of insulation in the coils and wires.

[tonyc]

Got the gasket changed, all the oil cleaned out of the plug sockets and new NGK plugs put in...my gap is .033 though because that's the closest feelers I could get...but so far so good. Runs quieter and so far no miss. I'm hopeful this fixed it. Thanks.