What causes uneven plug wear? | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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What causes uneven plug wear?

briwayjones

Manual Master
Joined
December 11, 2003
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Location
Maryland, USA
City, State
Eldersburg, MD
Year, Model & Trim Level
2000 Ford Explorer XLS
I finally got around to changing my plugs and wires. Almost 109,000 miles is a little too long to wait. :rolleyes: The plugs on the drivers side were significantly more wore than the passenger side. On the drivers side they were all around .035 over spec. On the passenger side the back one was about .010 or .015 over spec and got better as you went towards the front. The front plug was only .004 over spec. Does this indicate some kind of problem?
 



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The engine runs a lot hotter at the back of the engine, than at the front, so everything wears faster there. Have you put a 180 thermostat in yet? It's worth it.

Bill
 






The engine runs a lot hotter at the back of the engine, than at the front, so everything wears faster there. Have you put a 180 thermostat in yet? It's worth it.

Bill

Nah, it still has a 195 thermonstat in it.
 






The engine runs a lot hotter at the back of the engine, than at the front, so everything wears faster there. Have you put a 180 thermostat in yet? It's worth it.

Bill

Sorry, thats simply not true.
 






Sorry, thats simply not true.

Al is right... You will totally screw up your computer settings with a colder thermostat. It will run rich, foul plugs, and generally make less power. I've been down that road too many times to ever go there again on a modern computer-controlled engine.

Yes, on old school mechanical controlled engines, lowering temps is a good way to gain horsepower, but with computer control of air/fuel ratio we no longer need to "guestimate" a good place to run. The computer calculates this exactly multiple times a second.

As for the plugs... Ford uses a waste-fire system on their coils, where the plugs on one side fire from the positive side and the plugs on the other fire from the negative side. This is very common on Fords. No worrys. Just remember to replace your plus with Autolite double plantinum -- not one of the Bosh 4 prong, anything Champion, etc. They simply will not run well in this type of engine.

Here is the best article I've found on the web to explain what is happening. Warning -- highly technical languge!

http://www.dainst.com/info/edis/edis.html

Another article -- this one a tad easier to grasp

http://www.wrenchead.ca/HTML Presentation folder/sld069.htm
 






Just remember to replace your plus with Autolite double plantinum -- not one of the Bosh 4 prong, anything Champion, etc. They simply will not run well in this type of engine.

Yup, I used Autolite Double Platinum since Motorcraft plugs are Autolite plugs.
 












You've got conflicted information here. If you had access to an infa-red temperature scanner and shot the front of the engine block you would see the temperature on both sides will be around your thermostat setting, 195-200 in your case. Now shooting the back of your engine 220 to 235, too hot for an American V-8 engine. This high heat puts stress on your heads, block, valves, oil, and rings, thus all the problems you read about in these forums. As for screwing with the computer, the engine starts out in closed loop (preset mix) and then regardless of the temperature begins setting a mixture around 14.43 to 1. 10 or 15 degress in temperature one way or the other will not effect this mix, but does exponentially save on engine wear. I've run 180 in my Explorer for three years and my mileage actually went up from 16.5 to 19.5, my compression is fine, my plugs are fine, and I get an emissions sticker everytime.

Bill
 












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