Hello Mike and the forum.

The question is, who makes replacement plugs for the 2004/05 F-150's? And at what interval should we consider a change out? Or is using the available stock plug the best (only) way to go.

I'm asking this here knowing that Mike knows what mods I have and if that will affect my choice of plugs in the future. My 150 has a little over 17K miles on it.

Anyone else is welcome to join in with any information they have.

I still can't believe this 6,000# rig can get down the road as good as it does.
And by the way, any new information on a "TROYER PERFORMANCE" window sticker yet?

 

Hi Ham!

As you probably know (the 3-valve engines 4.6 in the 2005 Mustang, 5.4 in the F-150, and even the new V-10) require a special elongated and solid ground-strap equipped type of spark plug, unlike anything ever used before in these vehicles.

Now Autolite HAS finally released an aftermarket spark plug for them, but it's still go the solid ground strap where it's more involved to adjust the plug gap.

For the stock plug, unless the vehicle is supercharged we generally recommend just leaving it alone for at least 30K miles, and then throw in a fresh set. Now once you have added about 60+ HP, or if a supercharger is installed, then we recommend closing up the gap a bit, and using our ignition system upgrade for these COP (Coil-On-Plug) FoMoCo ignition systems.

So at 17K miles and with your present mods, I'd just say leave the plugs themselves alone for right now - get 30K out of them is what I recommend for most people. Now if you want to do something to help the ignition, you can install our ignition upgrade, and we have a couple of levels of those. the first is the Plasma Booster, and then the next up from there is our MSD-based upgrade - then there's a $1200 high-falootin' setup for the 800 HP motors, but you don't need anything like that.

Feel free to give us a call to go over the ignition mod choices in appropriate detail, if you like - I'll be happy to cover all of that with you thoroughly.

 

Already running the Plasma Booster from you so I'll keep em in the motor until I hit 30K. I'll give ya a call about the MSD upgrade to see what that is all about.

Thanks again....

Ham....Larry

 

Hi Ham,

Ahh, that's right - I can't remember who has what sometimes.

Look forward to talking with you!

 

Hey Mike,

I was wondering if the Ignition/Plasma Booster is neccessary if you do the xcal II upgrde? I know you can adjust the spark etc with the xcal. But would it be a waste of $$ to do the ignition upgrade and xcal?

 

Hi MP,

No, the Plasma Booster is not *required* when you install tuning - though I do think it's generally a good idea if you're going to be doing some mods on a COP (Coil-On-Plug) vehicle. It's either an ignition upgrade or reduce the plug gap a bit (which isn't easy on the 5.4 3V motor's plugs!) if you start to get spark blowout - now keep in mind that spark blowout generally happens either when you strap on a supercharger *and* are running high boost levels, or things like high humidity levels, etc - adverse conditions, in other words.

However, here's the thing - don't think of the Plasma Booster as the type of part that is going to add power you can feel in the seat of the pants, as it just won't do that very well, IMHO - what it's *really* about, we feel, is "keeping the candles lit," so to speak - meaning, insuring that you get proper spark under adverse conditions, particularly when the humidity rises, when you have added significant power, if you bolt on a supercharger or increase boost levels, etc.

There's a story I've told many times - a few years ago, back in the Summer of 2001 about 2 months after we got our 2001 Lightning and had some relatively mild mods, we hit the track one day - it should have been running 12.20's in the 1/4 mile, but instead, it was 94 degrees with 98% humidity - and the truck slowed all the way down to running about 13.0's (12.96, 13.02, 12.98, 13.0, etc.) - in other words, it lost about 8 tenths, which is a HUGE amount of performance loss. Why did that happen? Not from the heat - we'd run before in even hotter temps and nailed 12.20's. It was the *humidity* and it just killed the weak Ford COP ignition system's ability to keep the candles lit with higher boost in high humidity. Using the Plasma Booster took care of that and never had another problem with humidity killing the performance in that vehicle that much again.

So think of it as "insurance" - a way to keep the candles lit under adverse conditions, so that you have reliable performance under any situation - rather than a part that bolts on another 10-20 HP, I guess is what I'm trying to say. It's one of those deals where, as it happened to us, we didn't feel we needed it until it jumped up and bit us at a track event - very embarrassing when your Lightning suddenly runs 8 tenths slower in front of a lot of people, I can tell you.

So for the guy who has say, a tuner, intake & exhaust, it's not that important - but for those who want every last ounce of performance, and who want to be able to rely on getting full spark under adverse conditions (and almost everyone will run into days with high humidity from time to time), it's not bad insurance.

There are other ignition upgrades available for the COP ignition as well - the MSD Stacker 8 (which we now use on the Lightning, & we use the Plasma Booster on our supercharged 2004 5.4 3V F-150), and there's KB's Boost-A-Spark, etc.

Just give us a call if you want to go over this in more detail.