Misfire on #2 Code P0302

[randyr]

Hi. I have a 96 Explorer Limited V8 with 119K miles. I had a complete tune up with new plugs, plug wires, etc about 2500 miles ago. About 1000 miles ago the CEL came on so I went to Autozone to use their diagnostic device which showed Code P0302, Misfire on cylinder #2. I replaced that sparkplug even though the one I removed was almost new and it seemed to fix the problem until yesterday. The CEL came back on and the test shows the same Code P0302. It is running very rough and starts to backfire intermittently as the speed increases to highway speed. Any ideas what my problem is?? Thanks for any help you guys can give!
Randy

 

[Turdle]

First, try this in the dark of night.
spray the spark wires with water and run the engine. You are looking for little blue arcing sparks-
look around the coilpack and along each wire-you might even hear a slight ticking. If you see this it is usually from a bad spark plug wire leaking to the closer ground path-
Try swapping the 2 and 3 ignition wires-
if the code switches to a 303 misfire-well, you know it is a bad wire--


The coil packs are identical and interchangeable. You could remove the coil packs and swap their positions, hook them back up and see if the code moves to another cylinder.
if it does change, this would indicate a bad coil pack

If you perform these redneck troubleshooting steps, and the code stays as a #2 misfire-
you know it is a deeper problem, such as a bad injector, or, a compression, coolant leak problem in that cylinder.