2.3 Lima Coil Pack - Plug Order

[acowx]

Guys,

I'm at my wits end trying to work out the correct plug wire format on the coil packs of an 8 wire 2.3.

My Chilton has the wire layout as shown below

The front coil pack serves the inlet side plugs and the back coil pack serves the exhaust side plugs.

HOWEVER, Ford and Haynes have the plug wires 2 and 3 reversed on each coil pack ! I just need to know which is correct.

Can some of you guys check which way your plugs are connected and also which bank of plugs are served by each coil pack

Thanks !

 

[rwenzing]

Personally, I would be more inclined to trust the Ford diagram but, in reality, it probably doesn't matter which you use.

Your 8-plug engine has a total of 4 double ended coils within its pair of coil packs. The 8 spark plugs are fired in pairs from the 4 coils: cylinders 1 & 4 together and cylinders 2 & 3 together. The spark that occurs near the end of the compression stroke is, of course, the one that ignites the charge. At the same time, the spark plug on the other end of the coil fires on the exhaust stroke of the "sister" cylinder. Because it fires into a burned or burning mixture, it has no effect and is sometimes called a wasted spark. 360 crank degrees later, the situation is reversed and the sister cylinder's mixture is ignited.

Because the plugs on cylinders 2 & 3 spark simultaneously once per crankshaft revolution, it shouldn't matter which end of the coil fires which plug, PROVIDED that you have installed double platinum replacement plugs.

[To save a few pennies per engine, the factory-installed plugs in your truck were single platinum and had the platinum button on either the center electrode or the side electrode depending on coil-to-plug polarity. Platinum on the correct electrode increases plug life significantly and allows the much-hyped claim of a 100,000-mile spark plug change interval. The correct over-the-counter replacement plugs will have platinum buttons on both electrodes (double platinum) to prevent mix-ups in the field.]