Ok so were getting ready to sell our `02 F-150 with 82k miles. Doing some routine maitnence, I bought Motocraft spark plugs and Borg Warner wires. Plugs went in easy, threw di-electric grease on the outside end of them. Onto the wires with 1, 2 and 3 on the passenger side into the distributor/plugs and 4, 6, 5 onto the driver side of the distributor/plugs. Now it sounds like it's misfiring. Anyone see something I did wrong?

 

coil is

3 4
2 6
1 5

You got the driver's side mixed up per your post.

Steve

 

I did that, from front to back starting with 1 and 5:

3 4
2 6
1 5

Could it possibly be a faulty distributor? Sounds odd for that to happen all of a sudden though.

 

There is no distributor on this engine.Check your coil for any cracks.

 

Will do. Do the Motocraft plugs have to be gapped before put in?

 

Mine didn't. If they're platinums, your not supposed to gap them. They come pre-gapped from the factory.

 

Yes,they need to be gapped! It specifically reads on the spark plug box;
"Plugs must be gapped per engine specifications"
Sure,they are close to being gapped correctly rite from the box,but you should check/gap them anyway.

 

How do you gap motorcraft finewire platinums without bending the tiny electrode?

All mine looked to be gapped about the same out of the box, so I didn't bother with it because I was worried about messing them up.

 

Peacemaker,from what I gather these fine wire plugs are new to me.Its been over a year since i've replaced my plugs and what I bought from Ford were your typical platinum plugs,which you gap.I use a feeler gauge when gapping plugs.Maybe these new fine wire plugs don't need to be gapped; i'm gonna do some research on this and post back.

 

Ok man, let me know what you find out.

 

Why not go back to where you got them and ask them to confirm the gap of one right out of the box. They'll have a feeler guage or gapper around and could do that for you (they ought to be glad to help you out). Jot down the number and check it against the spec in the owners manual. That could save you some grief pulling a plug to check.

I also think you'd have to have a pretty significant difference in spec and actual gap to get the kind of miss you're describing. If tracing the plug wires doesn't do it, I'd pull each boot, clean out the clip for the end of the plug with q-tips and a little solvent, let dry, put on new dielectric, and see what happens. There could just be crud on the plug clip, inside the boot, or too much/too little dielectric.

Last, when I changed my plugs recently I was amazed at how many opinions and experiences there were with different plug styles and manufactuers. It may be this variety just isn't going to work well with the truck -- the consensus when I did mine earlier this year seemed to be to use Autolite double platinums or OEM Motorcraft. I used the Autolite, was super careful with the plug wires and connectors, and it came out OK.

 

Oh, and I did have to gap the new Autolite plugs. They weren't to spec out of the box.

 

I changed my plugs and had a bad mis after. I then replaced the wires and that fixed the problem. I didn't replace mine until 110K. I noticed that I should have done it earlier. The gap was way bigger than what it should have been.

 

You could have a bad wire. Even a box of new wires can have a bad one in there. Also, check the ceramic on the plugs to make sure you didn't crack any of them during installation.