So when i first bought my 2001 camaro ss back in march this year it had 38xxx miles on it and the SES light was on. I thought nothing of it until this week to give it a full tune up. Number 6 plug wire was completely arced to death from touching the manifold. I used MSD wires (super conductor red of course) and TR55s from NGK. It has 49xxx miles on it now. 11k miles of running lean is my motor still in okay condition?

 

Wouldn't be running lean, it would be running rich. Unburned fuel. Cat is the one that gets damaged.... Did u notice increase in power when u actually got that cylinder working properly? Also I'm sure it was not, not sparking at all. I'm sure u had some spark going in but not all

 

It was running lean on engine bank system 2 according to my hand held. also including a code that indicated cylinder number 6 was misfiring.

Now at WOT it doesn't drop the front end going from 3 grand to 6. It keeps lifting instead like it's supposed to. And gas mileage has increased by at least 3 MPG even.

 

Probably leaning it out since u had more fuel. How lean was it? I'm sure u will be ok, your beast it running on 8 now.

 

It wasn't too bad of a lean. It ran good enough to get 22 mpg now I get 24 im pleased...now to mod it this winter

 

You'll be fine

 

Not sure why it would read lean if you had unburnt fuel going through the exhaust like that... The adjustment the car makes is to lean the system to compensate, but.... It wouldn't be lean???

Just a thought and by no means a perfect explanation. Glad it's all better now! I wouldn't worry a bit about having a misfire like that as far as engine wear. Many engines are running far worse off all over the world... Trust me, I work at an independent shop:/

 

well i feel more relieved now. but what if my spark plugs themselves were a golden color? and had a little bit of oil on them? id post pictures if it would help you guys but im almost 80 miles away from home at college and wont be back until the weekend.

It was running lean because the number 6 plug wire was put on wrong in the first place and it broke basically so the only spark number 6 was getting was an arc.