We just bought a 1994 F150 8 cy. 5.0L. truck with only 39K miles from a retired fella. It hadn't been tuned up in a while, so we replaced the spark plugs and wires. The Ford Maintenance book said to gap the plugs at .044...the Auto Zone guy said .054...my hubby went with the book, not realizing the sticker under the hood verified the .054...after carefully replacing the plugs and wires, we drove the truck and it was running extremely rough and some smoke was coming from a metal cylinder under the truck (mid way down) You could smell a burning smell. What happened here? Would the gap difference make that much of a difference? Please e-mail any suggestions...danachit@earthlink.net Thanks!

 

its possible but unliky i would suspect a the firing order when replacing the wires got crossed up more than the gap as for the smell i couldnt tell ya what thats all about but i dont think plugs and wires not unless the wires are laying across the exhaust mandifolds
good luck

 

im not sure what the metal cylinder is that youre referring to? by the way, ive done the same thing that you guys did with the spark plug gap and no it did not damage anything, but it did lower my gas mileage (i guess because the fuel wasn't being burned completely). im pretty sure the spark plug gaps aren't the problem. sorry i couldnt be of much help. good luck!

------------------
1989 F-150 XLT Lariat: 2WD 302 5spd[*]Performance Accessories 3" Body Lift[*]33x12.50.15 BFG on 15x10 AR Rims[*]Rancho Steering Stabilizer[*]Rancho RS 5000 Shocks[*]K&N Air Filter[*]Straight Pipes For Now...

Muffler? I don't need no stinkin' muffler!

 

Update....my husband figured he did the wires wrong..checked..and sure enough, one was on the wrong plug. He did them correctly and the truck ran fine...as for the smoke...a car guy said because of the misfiring, extra unburned gas was getting into the cadyllic (sp?) converter and getting burned up, causing the converter to get very hot (maybe causing a meltdown). He said if the truck is running rough today, we may have caused damage to the converter.