I think BAD as L hit the nail on the head about the throttle response enhancement from the Splitfire. It's weakest attribute is also it's stongest attribute. The split at the end of the ground electrode allows the flame to not only ignite out of the sides but also out of the top between the forks. This gives a better burn of the fuel. The split gives less metal to each side of the electrode which makes it harder to dissapate heat in lean conditions and can lead to breakage. The moral to this story is I have been running them with a street chip only and never had a problem. If your running anything else be careful because detonation or an overly lean condition could lead to trouble.

The link Noel posted describes the NGK as a hotter plug than any of the others. It has a longer center electrode with more ceramic material covering it. The pic clearly show this as does the whiteish gray color that it's burning.

 

Darn I was hoping to hear an easy answer for the drivers side 3rd plug back. I hope I don't end up visiting there anytime soon.

 

The secret to that plug is a 7mm socket with the builtin swivl. This unit will fit under the fuel rail whereas the one piece socket with swivel attached will not. We didn't have this tool when doing plugs the first time and using an open end box 7mm wrench was time consuming and not easy. The thing to remember is blow the holes with air before pulling plug out. If this is the first plug removal, running a magnet around plug before removal is a good idea. We pulled plugs with a magnet. Plug holding socket from sears is easier. The greatest care MUST be used when starting a new plug with a socket to ensure you don't cross thread the plug. If any resistance is encountered when starting a plug, back out and start again. As these are none gasket plugs, I flush them and then give them a yank of about 1/4 turn. The torque value for this is very low. Over tightning can pull the threads out of the head. The NKG website has torque values for plugs.
noelvm

The best system to changing plugs is to have a friend help. Two takes the load off. Do engine completely cold in the morning when its cooler. Do the hardest plugs FIRST when you are fresh.
Save the easy ones for last.

 

OK. I really appreciate all of the plug info. Now I have a question. I have 8K on my 2000 truck and I have the stock plugs in it now. Truck runs great.
I have the NGK's here now. I just have not put them in. Next weekend I plan to go to Bristol to run the truck for the first time. Jim from JDM will be there to tune my truck also. Should I swap plugs or not before then. If it is not a a big deal I will leave the stock ones in.
Also if I do change, what gap is best .044 or .040.

Rob

 

Thanks for the info. I was at Sears and almost bought that swivel socket. I wish I had now. Oh well next time.

Collins, I would recomend having what ever plugs you plan on running in it when you have it tuned.

 

I think that there's not really ONE specific plug that outperforms any other. The best thing to do is to try them all and see which ones your truck runs best on. Everyones truck is different, chips are different, tunes are different, so plug A may work great in one guys truck, but not is someone elses.

As for the heat ranges, when you cross reference the factory plug to all the aftermarket plugs, only three come up. The NGK TR5, the Splitfires (not sure of the part number) and the Autolite 103s. The TR6 is actually one range colder. I have never been a big fan of NGK plugs, so I searched for an alternative to them, and came up with the Autolites. I have always had great success in the past with using Autolite/Motorcraft plugs, so I tried them. They burned good, and I had them in the truck for about 1000 miles and they still look new. But I really could feel a loss in throttle response with them, which amazed me.

I haven't tried the NGKs in my personal truck, but may give them a fair shake. When increasing boost and leaner tunes, having a one heat range colder plug is a good idea.

I'm still amazed that Ford is STILL putting platinum tip plugs in blown vehicle. In the world of power adders (blowers, turbos, nitrous), platinum tip and gimmick plugs like Splitfires are big time no-nos. Even though platinum tip plugs transfer heat better, the platinum tips are very soft, and cannot handle the higher cylinder pressures of a forced induction motor. I personally blew up a factory plug right after I first got my 99, with no chip or mods, all stock. The tip blew apart and the pieces got caught in the valve seat and bent the valve. As for the Splitfires, they do WORK, as far as giving a better quality spark. By having the split tip, you are exposing more of the spark to the air charge, which usually gives better throttle response and good plug burn. BUT, they have the same problems as the platinums. Because you have a split tip, each leg of the tip is thinner than a stock plug's electrode. Under the stress of forced induction's high cylinder pressures, these tips tend to overheat and can come apart. If it were a naturally asperated motor I'd say fine, but I'd NEVER put Splitfires in any forced induction motor.

So as you can see, it's not an easy choice. The stock plugs perform well, but tend to explode every now an then. Splitfires increase response and burn well, but are basically time bombs waiting to go off. The Autolites are duarable, but seem to take away from the crispness. And the NGKs get mixed reviews. But the NGKs seem to have the least problems, they hold up well to nitrous, and most people who run them are happy with them overall.

 

Sa',
what is the recommended gap on the stock plugs?
I plan on trying th NGKs . Considering your chip you are suppling me would you recommend the tr 5s or 6s?
noelvm

 

Finished the install of the NGK's, It took a conservative 2 hrs and 20 min. I took everyones advice and had the tools pre staged and it was a piece of cake. The only bad part is my hands are cut up pretty bad. I will now see how the truck runs.
For your info my old plugs were carboned up more than I expected. I guess that is good. Rich is better than lean.

Rob

 

Sal,

I do agree with you on the splitfires, they do seem to break off often due to the heat. I seen that on my old vette numerous times. One of those times my dad had to pull the engine apart and replace some rings and get the cylinders honed. That is why I do not use splitfires on my truck. I have the NGKs, and in my application I have seen nothing but performance out of these plugs. My stock platinums looked good, but I would have gave them to 20,000 before they started to break down.

I was the one who posted a while back about the weird sound coming from the passenger side of the engine, well, I was at VMP this weekend and Jim(JDM) told me to re-torque the plugs on that side because I might be getting blow by on one of them due to it not being tight. He was right, I torqued them down again and the sound is gone. That was for all of you wondering. I think that plugs differ from one truck to another and for me the TR-6s are great but someone else might not see anything. My throttle response definitly improved over the stock platinums.

 

I just went through my Ford service manual CD and found information on the plugs. They list a separate p/n for the Lightning plugs, but only one gap spec to cover all applications. The manual spec for plug gap is .052-.056. Sounds like way too much to me.

 

Interesting to know that stock ford system will fire a plug with a gay of .50. If so even with increased boost and compression from say a lower pully, the system should still be able to fire a plug at a gap of say .45. Keeping in mind that the bigger the gap the better, then why are peoply gaping whatever plug so tight at .40 and below. All of the plugs mentioned above will perform differently with different gaps. Maximum usable gap will vary based on compression which can be changed by blower pulleys.
noelvm

 

Interesting information...but I think that many of you are trying to tune by the color of the plug alone...not correct.

Where is the fuel/carbon ring on the insulator? What about the coloration of the side electrode? To properly tune with spark plug readings...one must first know how to read a plug. Its not rocket science..but there is a right and wrong way. Those that are interested can e-mail me directly.

Finally, there are many of you that have never driven or worked on forced induction applications before....and as such many of the tricks that work NA will not work on a blower or turbo car. Specifically increasing the gap on the plug....as we increase cylinder pressure, it becomes harder for the voltage to bridge the gap and accordingly a WIDER gap is not feasible. Tighten the gap as boost increases.

 

This might help some of you, I changed over to the t-6 on the 01 and when I took the stock plugs out I checked the gap on them and they were all right around .44 (kevin)

 

The plug gap for a normally aspirated 5.4 Liter is .052-.056. The supercharged 5.4 Liter is .042-.046 if this helps clear up the confusion on ford spec. I personally gap mine at .040 because of the extra boost I'm making over stock. I did notice that my gas mileage when down a bit when I brought the gap down which makes perfect sense. Refer to anything Dr. Jacobs has written if you what info on sparkplug gap and gas mileage.

I owned a turbo buick for 6 years and more crotch rockets than I care to remember ( 2 of which I installed smooth bore carbs and jetted) so I know a thing or two about reading plugs. You are right Kent when it comes to FINE tuning. What I am pointing out and the reason I started this post is the painfully obvious that is displayed in the very first pic. The NGK's are NOT colder. That is Bull***** and that is a fact. I don't care what NGK says. They make a great plug and that's all I would run in my bikes. They would not be the first manufacturer to have their info screwed up. They run fine in my truck but I would consider that plug to be on the lean side for daily driving. Those 3 plugs display what you see with daily driving not WOT. The ceramic on the 103 and Split appears to be dark but that is a shadow produced by the flash. The second pic shows the color of the ceramic on the Split which is pretty clean and the 103 burns the same.

Has anybody tried TR7's or TR8's?

 

Chuck are you running a chip and if so whose?
noelvm

It seems from reading this board that some chips run (especially those other than Sals) leaner mixtures and would therefore seem to be more prone to pinging or detonation.
noelvm

Ok Chuck, I went to your link and see that you are running a JDM chip. The word is down here that JDM leans out the fuel/air more than others. I'm not saying anything about this other than if your fuel air mix is right on the edge of being too lean then you truck may be more sensitive to different plugs than say a truck with a richer mixture. My exhaust is black, My plugs are black, my truck never pings. Probably doen't run as quick as yours if we had exactly the same mods either.