How much for 3400 SFI engine v6?

Why does my engine miss? Grand Am GT (2000) w/ 3400 SFI V6 engine...Ram Air.?

• Nearly every time I start my car the engine will miss for several minutes before evening out and working normally. You can feel the car vibrating slightly and hear the cylinder ...show more

• Answer:

  From the age of your car and the symptoms, I'd guess that either your plug wires or your rotor/cap are arcing in the cool air. Does this only happen when you first start it up when the car is cold? If your car is warmed up and you stop and restart your car, does this still happen? Cheap and easy you got - try changing the plugs and wires (or at least the wires). Also, the distributor cap and rotor aren't that tough of a replacement (I don't know whether its cheap - I haven't replaced mine on my '04 GA yet). The best part about that repair is even if it isn't the problem, you'll be performing good maintenance on your car - always a good thing. If you don't want to spring for the money for a set of plug wires just yet, try spraying down the ignition wires with a little WD40 and wiping them with some towels before your next start. If it doesn't do it, you'll know your wires are shot and need replacing. Also, inspect where the wires touch each other or come close to bare metal surfaces, and look for black marks where the wires have been arcing. Also, you might have slightly fouled injectors (although I doubt it). Try a good bottle of injector cleaner in your next fairly full gas tank and see if that helps any. I know my '04 was rougher at idle at most every condition (I know, not like your symptoms, but you asked for possible easy-to-fix things), and it cleaned up real nice with the cleaner.