new spark plugs

[mountainman06]

im thinking about getting some new spark plugs for my 06' mountaineer. does anybody have any suggestions as to what i should get? im willing to spend top $$$ for anything that might improve my performance

 

[rileyrs]

bosch plugs seem to be best.

 

[dothedeww]

just wanted to say i tried 4 different kinds of plugs and none worked...kept misfiring after 500 miles..went back to motorcraft...works fine.

Also..the motorcraft is longer than all the rest...just a heads up

 

[jupiterak]

Do a search about broken plugs on 06+ explorers. Seems to be pretty common. You might want to get a spark plug extractor tool just in case.

 

[bojans]

See my post in the stock explorer section. Make sure you have the extractor tool before you start.

 

[08Mountaineer]

get the stock plugs (motorcraft I think) nothing will perform better on your suv dont believe the hype.

 

[mountainman06]

alrite thanks guys its about time for new ones i was just getting some input before i purchase anything i dont know much about...and im sure ill need the tool so ill buy that as well

 

[edwx]

Autolite XP iridium.......used them in my '03 and have them in my '06 now. The stock plugs came out easily. I have a 4.0L.

 

[mountainman06]

oh ok how do they work for you? any difference at all?

 

[edwx]

Honestly, in my '03 X they made a big difference from stock, so I was excited about putting them in my '06. I was a little disappointed....I couldn't tell much difference. Maybe because of the "fly by wire", I don't really know, the engine is the same. They're good plugs anyway and I would recommend them.

 

[ajaake]

I just dropped a new set of plugs in the 05 X 4.0 today, used the Motorcraft platinum (SP-500 is stock # i think). What's weird is that the old one's I pulled out(which are orginal 99% sure of this), well anyway, half of them look different at the electrode. 3 have "flat" electrodes, the other 3 are more pointed. The ones that were flat had a blue dot of paint on the plug wire end. Why?

Anyway, I can tell a big difference with just having new plugs. I think I may have even "fix" my weird jerking/surging problem I was having when going about 50 mph.

Sorry, hope I didn't high jack the thread.

Edit>>>I found out the difference in the plugs..I think I understand. So hopefully using the same plugs all the way around will be ok??

 

[edwx]

I've owned a '96, '03, and '06 Explorer V-6's, and on all 3 the factory plugs on the left side were different than on the right side. They even had a different Motorcraft part #s. Not to worry though......when replacing plugs, just buy 6 the same. Someone said it was because of something called, "waste spark," or something like that. I didn't take the time to understand it. All I know is, when buying plugs, just get them all the same....no problem.

 

[Reidy]

I just put the standard Autolite Platinums (made by motorcraft) in my '95 4.0l and I'm really happy. It had Bosch platinums in it and they were SHOT!!!
The electrodes were eroded right back into the insulation by upto 40thou inch and the side wires were eroded or pitted. The one that was the most worn was so bad that you could see the scorch marks where the spark was finding it easier to fire up the side of the plug to the engine block than to spark correctly.
I thought that the tranny was on it's way out because of this because when it was under load in O/D (eg. going up a hill before it changed down) the truck would miss or slip a few times then change up.
Now all is fine with the world of EX again and my worrys of a new tranny are gone.

 

[ajaake]

I just put the standard Autolite Platinums (made by motorcraft) in my '95 4.0l and I'm really happy. It had Bosch platinums in it and they were SHOT!!!
The electrodes were eroded right back into the insulation by upto 40thou inch and the side wires were eroded or pitted. The one that was the most worn was so bad that you could see the scorch marks where the spark was finding it easier to fire up the side of the plug to the engine block than to spark correctly.
I thought that the tranny was on it's way out because of this because when it was under load in O/D (eg. going up a hill before it changed down) the truck would miss or slip a few times then change up.
Now all is fine with the world of EX again and my worrys of a new tranny are gone.

Man that's great news! Glad another "tranny issue" was solved by changing plugs. Sounds like yours was doing EXACTLY what mine was.