Greetings,
Well, I spent the day working on my truck yesterday, and wanted to share. I had to replace my smog pump because they couldn't hear me over the pump squealing in McDonalds drive thru. I figured as long as I was going to make room in the garage for me to work on it, I might as well do some routine stuff, too. I wanted to experiment, though, so I had my buddy at Hawaii Racing grab me a set of Taylor spark plug wires, and I bought a set of NGK plugs. I also replaced the cap & rotor, and cleaned and reoiled my K&N (more on that later).

Well, the smog pump went very easy, and took less than 15 minutes from start to finish. When I got to the ignition parts, I decided to add these trick fiberglass MSD sleeves to the wires. I had the kit for years, and just never used it. Well, in reflection that was a mistake, because it took forever to put the wires together, and the experience left me with fiberglass fibers everywhere. 24 hours later, and I still itch all over. It looks kind funky in the picture below, but it looks better in person.

The truck runs fine, in fact, it idles smoother than it has in a while, but power is down. Actually, it feels powerfull, just slow. It has no pep. I'm probably going to pick up another set of Champion Truck plugs tomorrow so that I can do some new plug to new plug comparisons. I'll post the results.

Now, back to the K&N. I haven't cleaned and reoiled it in a couple years, and I drive in a lot of dirt. Well, that thing was so thick with dirt on the bottom, you couldn't see half of the pleats! Keep in mind that mine is a FIPK with the filter relocated to an spot that is more suscptible to dirt from the ground. Anyway, when I pulled it off, I looked inside the air tubes that connect it to the TB, and they were perfectly clean! I wiped my finger inside one, and it left no mark on the tube and no mark on my finger. This just confirms what I always knew: K&N filters KICK ***! Any of the morons in the Engine forum saying their K&N let in dirt didn't install it correctly.

Anyway, I'll let you folks know what happens when I try the Champions.

Take care,
~Chris

 

Damn...it looks good...to bad it wasn't succesfull

 

The wires look really good. I want to get the Ford Racing wires, because they are blue LOL I think that would look good in my engine compartment. Good luck with then new plugs.

 

I just threw on some Accel Extreme 9000 wires(bright blue) like Ford racing.

Chris did you paint the cap? I was thinking of painting mine but wasn't sure about it.

 

I like the stainless steel breather hose

-Jon

 

Hell yeah!

I did not paint the cap. It was part of a brass tipped cap and rotor kit at Advance Auto. The Taylor wires are actually Blue (look at the boots on the plugs), it's just the fiberglass sleeves that are red.

Take care,
~Chris

 

i know what your saying i have the ram air hood and a day off road is havic on my k&n but i also never had it come past my filter i know on most rangers they send a gasket with it and if you dont get it just right you will get dirt in your motor by the way love the steel braded breather hose

 

Nice truck Chad...is that hood from www.cervinis.com?

 

Chris,

I've always been amazed how different plugs can make so much of a performance change. I haven't tried the NGKs on my current truck, but had an import truck that only ran good with the NGKs. So far with the ignition mods I've had best luck with the Champion truck plugs and the Autolite Plats on my truck.

As for the K&N, I couldn't agree more. I've had them for years, and never had a problem with crap getting past the filter, even with some trips through Mexico silt.

I'm about due for a plug swap, but I'm dragging my feet until I make an indexing tool. Might have to just do it anyway.. With a tool I could change and index them in a half hour. Even though access is fairly good on a 302, indexing does take a little more time.

 

i have msd ignition and only run autolite plats. they hold up perfect i tried ngk`s in another vehical i had...JUNK!... STAY AWAY FROM THAT IMPORT **** WE ARE AMERICANS go with what you know but i also tried motorcraft and they couldnt keep up either

 

AMEN on the K&N, these things rule. how often do you guys clean out yours, ive had mine for 4 years and never cleaned it. hey pkrwud, i love the "ram air" decal on the intake tube, looks badass!

 

What a Day!!!

Today was quite a day. It started with a trip to Cigarettes Cheaper to get a couple cartons, only to find out that they still haven't stocked up on my brand. I then went to the auto parts store to return my smog pump core, and pick up a set of Champion Truck plugs. I just installed a new set of NGK's on Thursday, but the truck feels heavy, and I knew it was the plugs.

Once home, I let the engine cool for a bit, and read some inane replies in a thread I had replied to. I then went back out and set up the truck in the garage. The truck doesn't quite fit, so when I work on it, the back 3 or 4 feet go into the alley, and I roll down the garage door, and let it rest on the diamond plate bed rails. I then took each new plug, trimmed the ground electrode, and gapped them. I swapped in the Champions for the NGK's, and went for a test drive.

Now then, some people say that a spark plug is a spark plug, and they don't really affect performance, as long as they're new. Bullshiit. I couldn't believe how much snappier it was, and how much more responsive! It was as if I had taken 500 pounds out of the bed.

This inspired me.

I decided it was time to clean all the electrical connectors in the ECM & TFI circuits, hoping to solve whatever it was that gave me problems with my JET chip, and put the chip back in! It's been about 6 months, and I really, really miss the effect that chip had on my truck.

So I pulled out the e-brake pedal assembly to get to the access door on my ECM, cleaned the contacts, and put the chip back in. I then cleaned up the connectors under the hood, re-connected the battery, and went about performing the re-learn process for the ECM.

This is where it get's dumb.

After the relearn was finished, I wanted to go for a test drive. I was going to wait on the e-brake assembly until after I knew I was going to leave the chip in. I got out and closed the hood, and suddenly, but very slowly, the truck started to roll backwards. I had left it in neutral during the re-learn, and I hadn't hooked up the e-brake. Still, it didn't really hit me, what was happening, until I heard the sounds of metal bending and wood splintering. It was then that I realized my truck was not only headed out into the alley, where it would have careened right into my neighbors garage door, but it was taking my garage door with it. It started rolling faster, and I realized there was no way I was going to be able to get around the side in time, so I grabbed the bumper and dug in. The truck stopped rolling, but every ounce of strength in my body couldn't get that 6000 pound truck to roll back up into the garage. I thought quickly, and grabbed a toolbox that was on the floor, and slid it behind the front tire. I got in the truck, started it, and pulled it forward.

The less-than-a-year-old roll up garage door was bent pretty bad in the middle, and a couple of the rollers were pulled from their channel. An hour later, after some banging, and prying, and hammering, and screwing, I finally got the door almost as good as new.

I then took the truck out to see if the chip was okay. It seems to be doing fine. I'll know for sure over the next week or two, but she-it howdy! It was sooo nice to have that feeling again. In one day, that truck went from feeling like a heavy supercab with a slow engine, to feeling like a light reg cab with a V8. Amazing!

So, lessons learned today:

NGK plugs suck eggs.
Champion Truck plugs ROCK!
JET makes an awesome chip for my truck.
ALWAYS block the tires when taking the e-brake assembly out!!!

Wow. What a day.

Take care,
~Chris

Donate-
You can see them better in these pics:

 

Nice looking engine bay!!!