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Hi Matt, From the problems you are having it sounds like your Monte was tuned, or worked on by KidSpace  I can relate to trying to do it myself, and only having it costing me more to have a professional repair my mistakes : ( If you dont have one ? I would suggest investing in a Haynes Repair Manual for your year, model Monte Carlo. It is a great investment if you are going to work on your own car. I have learned it pays to do your homework before you begin your task of working on your vehicle. I am sure one of our members will post the firing order for the 3.8L in your SS. It sounds like you could have cracked a plug on install, or have placed your wires on wrong. Also, you could have bumped off a wire or hose on your install. It is difficult to determine your problem just by your posted words. I posted the below information for you and other members that want to change their own plugs, and wires. I hope that you can resolve your problems, and hopefully one of our expert GM mechanic members can post what they believe your problem could be. Good Luck __________________________________________ How to install plugs in your Monte Things you will Need. 1.Spark Plug Socket with the rubber insert.I used a T-Handle. 2.Spark Plug Wire-boot puller,Longer necked version. 3.Gap Gage. 4.Floor Jack. 5.Anti-seige Compound. 6.Racket stap 7. Wet vac,slim nossle.
Let Engine cool down!! First block Back tires. Place the car in nuetral. Disconnect the Negative Terminal on the Battery Position Floor jack under motor,have a 12-16 " 2x4 piece of wood.Leftjack up until about 4" from bottom of motor. Disconnect air intake hose. Place racket strap hook through eye hole of front motor Bracket.Have other end of racket strap fasten to some solid. Loosen and remove front motor brackets. Tight the racket strap up until eye let / or slave hole is line up with exsisting bolt hole for motor mount. Some folks use a crow bar on passageer side,motor mounts. to lift engine forward. (In addition some vehecle has a Slave hole that will enable you to place the bracket bolt though.With this there is no need for you racket strap). Be careful not to move to far foward. Snug the flooor jack up against the motor.Just to where the 2x4 touches . This just a pre-caution in case the motor drops back. Starting with the fist plug wire on the passenger side (Plug 1) use your boot puller tool to rmove the boot. Turning left and right and pulling up on the boot. You may want to use a the wet vac to remove any loose particuls Rmove Spark plug.Vacuum again if needed. Put anti-seige on the threads of your new plug making sure you donnot get any on your conductor ends.Place in new plug making sure you donnot cross thread. There is a torque spec. for this.
With new plug wires make sure of your length to match the old plug wires length. Same procedure for the next plugs in back. Do plugs and or plug wires one at a time.
Once completed with the back check and make sure no vacuum lines have become disconnected. Using crow bar on passenger side hold forward (Bolt throught he hole of the engine bracket) Undo your rachet strap. Go to floor jack and let the engine slowly until the brack holes line up.Place in the engine bracket on drivers side and tighten. Leaving the passenger side bracket of will help when working on the front plugs. The front is much easier to replace. After replacing the front ,reconnected the passenger engine bracket (mount). Reconnect the air intake hose,and battery terminal. For other assistance you could go to a local auto parts dealer and buy the Maintence manual for Monte Carlo. Hope this helps and more inportant makes sense.
A alternate trick to get at the rear plugs
Learned this from another Monte Carlo message board.
My MC has the 3800 V6. Remove the two anti-torque brackets on front/top of engine. Swing them up and out of the way. Now, stand outside the drivers door (with the door open) with the tranny in Park. If you rock the car back and forth you will notice the engine really rolls forward and backward without those 2 brackets in place. The trick is to catch this movement with the engine rolled AS FAR FORWARD as possible. Now, as you''''re doing this, step on the parking brake at the instant the engine is rolled far forward. You should now be able to reach the 3 plugs at the rear of the engine! (At this point, for safety I would put a chock behind all 4 wheels.) When I first heard about and then tried this technique I couldn''''t believe how well it worked!
< Message edited by KidSpace -- 8/14/2008 8:24:20 AM >
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TUNE UP GONE BAD - 
