I want to tune up my 96 V10 and Ive never done it before, so I was wondering if I could get some opinions and tips. I changed the oild today, I used a Fram oil filter ( i wanted a mobil 1 filter because they are bigger) and I used 7 quarts of castrol 10w 30 oil. Im getting ahead of myself. The reason I'm doing a tune up is because it hasn't been done in forever and the idle is a bit rough and I'm getting some backfire and a popping sound in the ac vent when accelerating hard. The oil change helped the engine as far as driving smooth but the idle is still a bit rough and the backfire is still happening under acceleration. I think the spark plug wires are do for a change. I found some 8mm Powermax wires on rockauto for $50 and some bosch wires for about the same. Which ones are better? The plugs are Champions and are reletively new so I'm not going to change them. What else in the electrical system needs to be changed out? I don't know how to adjust the timing, but I assume it is a matter of computer stuff and cant be adjusted without a computer hooked up to the pcm right? Is there a rotor to be replaced? Like I said, I haven't much of an idea of what goes into doing this, I just suspect by the way the truck is running that it needs to be done. Thanks for any advice!!! 179,xxx miles 2500 truck

 

The V10 has distributorless ignition. No distributor, cap or rotor, just 10 individual coils that are fired by the PCM. Ignition timing is not adjustable. If it is running rough I would at least remove the plugs and check them for proper color and gap. As for the wires, OEM is the best choice for these beasts. I have read bad things about the Bosch on the V10.

 

I took all of the plugs out (what a pain) and checked the gap for .045. They were all right on even though I didn't gap them before installing them. The color was white, no oil or blackness. Still looking for wires. The OEM sets are about $80 to the front door while the aftermarket ones are about $55 to the front door. I guess it's worth the extra money. It has Car Quest wires right now so I guess anything would be an improvement over those.