Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Duratec Maintenance Plugs...

If anything, they'll wear prematurely and you'll start to notice problems in the upper end of the speedo & tach. If you do, just swap the plugs; quick, easy, and cheap.

Exactly my thoughts... that is the plan Everyone made the plugs out to be so difficult to change... they weren't bad at all. It took me 30min total, including gapping and anti-sieze-ing each plug thread. I thought it was easy anyway. The coilpack, I just took 3 screws out lossened the other, swiveled it down a little for clearance. Wasn't bad at all.

I'll give you a heads up that happened to me. At 18000 with the factory 32F's I aquired the Alex Peper OBD-2 software and was learning to use it/experimenting. I found that is was showing misfires but felt nothing or noticed.
I changed the plugs to the 32PPm's, the result was definite seat of the pants low-end and next full tank jumped 2-3mpg beter around town.
Those same plugs are still there, last month I checked and the OBD (Scan) showed minor misfires on one or two of the rear plugs, did the swap even though the plugs looked fine. No more misfires. Be glad when this type of ignition is replaced with the COP. Coil over Plug.
Wonder if the new 2.5's in Europe have been changed over to COP??? Elimates the plug wire issue, also.
Only bad thing is the RFI generated by the COP, for those who run VHF/UHF mobile radios.


Paul

How long in between the installation of the new plugs and the minor misfires?

I'm suprised at how well the car was actually working to be honest with you... these plugs showed age for sure... they were definitely in need of replacing. The factory F's held up just fine in my opinion... I just noticed harder cold starts than normal... especially the other day when it almost didn't start after sitting for 4 days.

Changing of the plugs is a piece of cake... didn't take long at all, wires should be in tomorrow or monday, in which case I'll be done with this for now. I will worry about replacing them again if and or when issues come up again.

BTW, do the FRPP 9mm wires fit in the factory wire looms? I hope so, I really like how the wires are routed.

Alright, cool... thank you todras. I'll work on it as soon as I get my new plugs. Thanx again for all of the help.

Plugs where replaced at 18000 and at 54000 I did tests. The mis-fires not really noticed or felt. Unfortunately as an everday driver the type of driving is not following a routine.
And a lot of short trips and errands mixed. Out of work/early forced retired and baby-sitting the grandson. Then the occasional trip (500 mile) to visit the other grandson Rockford, Il.

Really hard to get a good feel when I don't get to drive daily.
Thank heavens for the OBD 2 & Ford specific tests.
These misfire tests are recently new as far as Alex updated his software and the info released by Ford is not explained.
http://www.motorcraftservice.com/vdirs/retail/default.asp?pageid=diag_theory_retail&gutsid=diagsheet&menuIndex=18
This is the only source I could find. Mine is 98.
If you are inertested look at the PDF Misfire monitor section.
Bottomline my counts are all zero so I figure that as good as that will get, regardless what all the different low level or high level. Its really neat how they determine a misfire, though!
Paul

Both times I had ignition problems, I, too, didn't "feel" anything until I got up to 80mph and tried going to WOT. That, and the ATX started acting crazy. When my wires went out I did notice a slight "pause" in the exhaust sound every couple seconds when I put my ear near the tailpipe.

The ironic part is that the first time I didn't have the OBD-II package from Alex yet, and the second time it was loaned out to someone else. I need to get that back one of these days.

What is this "OBD-II Package" from "Alex"?