195k miles on original plugs

[nismotunedgtr]

Changed the plugs and wires on my 1996 Sport 4x4 last night.

Pulled the original Motorcraft plugs from the motor!

The center electrode was missing on 4 of them!

I'm lucky it ran at all.... Runs smooth as glass with a set of Autolites and NGK wires.

Amazing that I was getting 21.6mpg before.

I've already gone through all the fluids and filters.... Makes me wonder haha.

 

[firepop5]

Any difficullty removing them? They're usually a pain after 75,000

 

[nismotunedgtr]

They were a little tough but they all came out. The plug wires had to be cut and torn from most of them though. Haha

 

[Joe Dirt]

Wow!

That's props for Motorcraft plugs!

 

[joey9]

hey i am new to this site and i need an answer to this. i have a 97 explorer v6 sohc with 170 on original plugs and when i pulled the plugs i noticed that they are at like 90 thousndths so i replaced them and now it runs on 5 cylnders and i know its not the wires cuz i pulled them one at a time and i replaced them also so im lost and the only code that came up is misfire and o2 sensor could maybe the o2 be the problem.

 

[colintrax]

check you hooked up the right wire to the right plug.
When I did mine, I kept hooking mixing up 5 and 6.

 

[joey9]

yeah i know all the wires are right cuz i had to put the old plugs back in and it still runs good its only when i put the new plugs in that it runs like crap and i tried like three times so im out of options cuz my gas mileage is garbage. thanx

 

[Joe Dirt]

Sounds like a junk plug then. About all you can do is trial and error them until you eliminate the bad one, then swap it out at the store.

Are you sure that you didn't bump one of the plugs installing by mistake and pin the side electrode to the center electrode closing the gap to zero?

 

[Lzwo]

Are you sure that you didn't bump one of the plugs installing by mistake and pin the side electrode to the center electrode closing the gap to zero?

Sounds silly. It isn't - did it myself. Still to this day don't know how I managed to bump it hard enough to close the gap.:
Given this, you might try re-checking the gaps of all the new ones, since you'll be changing them out 1-by-1 anyhow.