Burning the coil connection ? Check for ground issues , and ck companion cyl . for issues also . Burning the coil connection for the plug wire makes no sense .

 

Does the 4.2 use a waste spark system? If so, what's the companion cylinder to #3?

 

The pairs are 1-5, 2-6, 3-4.
#4 plug wire could be open.
Basicly the cylinder under compression pressure takes the larger share of the coil voltage because normally the other mate cylinder is in an exhaust cycle so it's plug gap is in much lower pressures and is a much lower resistance (or completes the circuit) from the coil through the plug wire accross the plug's gap and to the block completing the circuit on "that side of the coil".
If the plug wire was open in #4, the circuit is now open or a high resistance along with both plugs gaps making the whole circuit a high resistance.
Once the coil is fired the high voltage will try to find the least resistance to a ground nearby.
The voltage can be as high a 40,000 volts.
This can burn the bakalite around the coil tower from repeated arcing if the plug/s circuits are not complete in good conditions, within limits.
Actually to be technically correct 3 cylinders use should use a different plug type as opposed to their mate cylinders for the greatest plug life.
The reason is the polarity of the arc is different for those three plugs.
This has an effect on the rate of metal errosion of the plug tips in those 3 cylinders.
All cylinder 'pairs' are subject to the same overall operation and faults.
Good luck..

 

What? No ending to this story? I hate when that happens!

Any luck with your issue? I seem to be having a similar problem with mine (bad hesitation when starting from a stop).

 

YES,Sorry it took so long. It ended up being the coil, I replaced it and it stopped , this is the 4th coil put on the truck, mech says he sees lots of bad coils......I don't know about that, its running good so far.....CL

 

OK, I'll check that out. Thanks for updating.