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gotta love stupid previous owner......

2K views 37 replies 18 participants last post by  wilsonj1018 
#1 ·
well I decided to change plugs in my recently acquired 03 gt. so I went and found some autolite 103s and some boot rebuild kits from oreillys, got home at 8ish. ripped the coils off one boot ripped in half, one plug was cross threaded :cry: no anti seize on any of them!!!! I about shat my self :facepalm: so out comes the helicoil box. pushed a small wad of duct tape into cylinder with some wire I had and pulled it up flush with the bottom of the whole drilled tapped etc. this part was funny ( I taped a mcdonalds straw to the shop vac to get the shavings out) pulled the tape and all out with the vacuum!! I set the helicoil with some dow corning heat activated thread locker I got from work a while back. heated her well for about ten mins. gapped the plugs at .0042 antiseized them well used silicone grease on the boots and fired it up ran like a sewing machine:thumb: after it got warmish I had to go take a few rips in it:dunce: poor nittos wont even grab till about half way through second now barked 3rd, and forth:gayfight2:.....
btw now my neighbors officially hate me:hidinghere: lmao so I had a fun interesting night. and btw so this thread is useful oriellys carries kits with all 8 boots and springs etc for $39. sorry if its old info.
Josh
 
#2 ·
PO of my car for some reason disconnected the front door speakers....they also managed to break the drivers seat belt so they put it on the passenger side and put the pass on the drivers. I was going nuts trying to figure out why I always had a twist in the belt till I realized that.
 
#15 ·
Nothing on the car. It was bone stock until I got it, and until yesterday never gave me even a minor issue.

Now the suprcharger kit......

Scotchlocks on all electrical connections
Sketchy electrical work on remaining wiring harnesses
Crimped tubing for the boost gauge
Red locktite on every bolt/nut - including 5mm fuel rail bolts (he broke it off)
NO torque specs were followed - threads pulled out of some holes
Didn't use a catchcan - oil in the plenum
Bent ball/socket flanges
 
#16 ·
PO of my Bullitt was as a psycho girl who hit the door into something, cracked the front bumper, dented the rear quarter, and worse of all, when she got divorced from her husband, came back to his place, found the Bullitt, and slashed the driver seat. I have spent the past couple years fixing her stupid actions
 
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#18 ·
every ford ive ever had had shitty seatbelts... but the interior don't rattle like a chevy :) and to whomever says copper core plugs has no copper please educate yourself before shitting from your mouth. some under informed individuals may actually buy into your ignorance and feel like an ass at some point in time.
Josh
 
#22 ·
PO owner of my gt had his head full of cow dung...

He installed a v6 CAI, with a v6 maf, v6 radiator, used silicone and epoxy on everything he couldn´t fix, managed to do a paint job that looks like some kindergarden kid did, never replaced anything suspension related, and the list goes for ages....
 
#34 ·
That is more clear; and yes platinum plug electrodes are made of platinum, and iridium plug electrodes are of iridium--with a caveat.

On a typical "single" precious metal plug only the center electrode is made of the precious metal (be it platinum or iridium), the side electrode will be nick/chrome alloy. "Double" platinum plugs have a precious metal center electrode and a precious metal insert on the side electrode.

"Why?" you ask.

In a classic single coil distributor/plug wires type system the established convention was that the center electrode would be negative (electrically) relative to the side electrode (ground), this is called a negative firing system. COP based systems also follow this convention.

Electric current (electrons) flow from negative to positive (Volta got it wrong), this means that in a negative firing ignition system electrons flow from the center electrode to the side electrode.

This electron flow carries with it molecules of the negative (center) electrode material which are deposited onto the side strap, eroding the center. So for best plug life the center electrode material needs to be made of something resistant to this erosion--tungsten and then nickel/chrome alloy fit this bill, with platinum and iridium being even better.

With the advent of distributor-less ignition systems it became possible to fire two plugs from each coil, often using coil packs, often containing two or more coils. In Ford's EDIS (Electronic Distributor-less Ignition System) used on the V8s before the COPs there were two coilpack, each containing two coils; each coil fires two plugs at a time. One producing the active spark (actually igniting a fuel charge) and the other producing a "wasted spark", firing near the top of the exhaust stroke.

These paired plugs also fire in reverse polarity relative to the other, one negative firing the other positive firing, as shown below:



In the diagram the #5 plug is firing in conventional "negative" polarity (current flows from the tip to the side electrode), the #1 plug in reverse "positive" polarity (current flows from the side to the tip electrode). Obviously for the reverse polarity plug the side electrode must also be made of a material resistant to erosion, the same material as the center if both plugs are to have the same service life.

OEM plugs for wasted spark systems are often cylinder specific having either a center or side electrode of precious metal. This is mentioned (but not explained) in the '96 through '98 Mustang Owner's manuals:



Note that the specified replacement plug are type AWSF-32PP, the PP meaning double platinum. In the note below the table there is a caution that plugs removed for inspection must be put back in the same cylinder from which they were removed; and that for the 4.6L 2V the #1, #2, #3, and #4 plugs have a PG, Platinum Ground, suffix; while the #5, #6, #7 and #8 plugs have a P, Platinum [tip] suffix.

This saved Ford a few cents per plug (* 1,000,000 cars a year = $40,000 to $50,000). In the the aftermarket where unit cost is less of an issue it doesn't make sense to stock two types of plug for the same vehicle so they are all double platinum.

All of the above is only so for wasted spark systems, there is no need to ever use double platinum plugs in a '99 through '04 GT...
 
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