The 1000th Spark Plug Question
 

Hey all!

I had an interesting deal with my motor today. It just didn't sound the way it should and was a little sluggish. I pulled m plug wires and plugs. Checking the gaps since a couple looked way closer than I remember, I found some were the way they appeared and off by alot. Example: reading 43 instead of 52-56 as stated on my engine bay sticker for my motor. Here's the deal, I installed these plugs myself, checked the gaps and the put them in. I am not so dumb as to not know the principles of heat and cold and contraction and expansion, yet I can't see how the plugs could be that far off in a month time frame. There is no damage to the electrode so piston contact isn't suspected. All the plugs but two were out of range on the gaping. Since they were copper plugs, I cleaned them up and gently re-gaped them.

Any ideas what might cause such an anomoly? Just curious. Thanks. :postwhore:

Could you have compressed them whrn you put them it?

Plug gaps just do not change on their own. Something would have had to moved them.

You'd know if you had piston contact. If it happens again after regapping them then you know you have a problem. Make sure you write down what you gapped them at this time so you can compare to see if there truely is a change

Can the amount of compression cause the gap to close by chance? Just curious.

nope... excessive heat can cause the straps to weaken and sag but not to close up. If you get them hot enough to sag they're also hot enough to diesel so you'd know if that was a problem.

nope but detonation will close-up plug gaps, whose sparkplugs?

what mods due you have? I see your in Utah and the air is thin up in those mountians, add the change of season wth the cooler air and that can add-up to detonation issues.

Randy,

These are the plugs you recommended to me. They are a heat range colder, I am thinking I may need to go two colder. They are the Motorcraft/ Autolite plugs (copper electrode) you posted on a forum for me. I may need the two range colder number again. This motor is 11:8-1 compression, PI heads/ intake, Professional Products Plenum, Forged Pistons (flat top), forged, rods and crank, bored .020 over. This was tuned by Modular Madness West in Salt Lake City. The plugs in the car now are: AWSF 22c which crossed to Autolite 103's. The plugs show no damage to the back strap or electrode. :postwhore:

yeah, then I would drop down 1 more heat range and move the gap closer to .050

Can you give me the part number of the next colder plug? I thought it was something like AWSF 12c. Does that sound right? Won't moving the gap cause performance to go down? Thanks.:postwhore:

naw, you wont loose any performance closing-up the gap that little, + as the (copper) core wears down it will open back up some but thats something you can play wth.

the next heat range down in Motorcraft is AWSFA-12C
now not all the plug companys plugs equall the Ford Motorcraft #'s, looks like in Autolite # 103 is as cold as they go in a 14mm x .708 full thread(or 764 in a 1/2 thread), thats why I like Champion Plugs as they offer way more tips, heat ranges and grn electroides that anyone else, (so does NGK but I don't like them).

Thanks Randy! I will check with my local Checker for the Champion plugs and see if Autozone carries the Motorcraft plugs. Thanks again. :postwhore:

Randy,

My ford dealer says the coldest they show available is the AWSF-22C plugs. Do you have the AWSF-12C set and how much? :postwhore:

ok, there is NO AWSF-12C sparkplug, the correct part # is AWSF"A"-12C
and we do have them @$1.95 each + shipping, but they are still a 1/2 thread design plug.
also be advised that the currant stock of AWSF-22C's & 32C's (which are also 1/2 thread design) are being "phased-out" for the full thread sparkplugs which will start wth the pre-fix "AG" instead of the old 1/2 thread design which started wth "AW"

Thanks Randy