Colder Spark Plug for Tuned Rangers

[landiscarrier]

I believe those plugs come gapped at .031 from NGK. How did you decide on a .026 gap? Just curious.....

It’s what Matt at Gearhead Auto Performance told me to gap them at.
At last check they looked perfect! Better than the stock plugs did with 5k on them.

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[P. A. Schilke]

I had a TS 2014 and a White 2018. The 2014 I traded in and some kid bought it and blew it up, replaced the motor then totaled it. I traded the 2018 in on the Ranger got sick off trying to car top 2 kayaks! LOl

Sorry to hi-jack the spark plug question!


Unleashed said I was ok with the stock plugs but I’m kind of a Tuner Junkie...I like trying others tunes and Gearheads and SSI recommended the 1-step colder plugs. I’ve gone back and forth with tunes and the Unleashed tune is overall the smoothest with a great punch when you get on it. SSI is pretty cool because they do a 1-10 up shift and downshift performance tune....transmission doesn’t skip any gears.

I traded my 2nd ST for the Ranger. Too much of a PIA to car top 2 kayaks on the ST! Lol

Hi Landis,

I went through this with my SuperVee Race engine. No plug recommendation. I went through an exerciser to floor the car and shut it off. Pull the plugs and examine under maginfication. If I saw little balls collecting around the center electrode, Piston material...the plugs were too hot. I had to eventually go down 5 heat ranges. Terrible process but I feel it was worth it as never had a engine failure after that exerciser was worth it. My experience was to not take other persons advice, but to test and determine what in needed. The plug heat range discussion is getting to be like "what oil will you be running after your first oil change"..... Test and you will know...otherwise...guess and hope for the best. Error on the side of too cold is better than too hot...

best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

 

[landiscarrier]

Hi Landis,

I went through this with my SuperVee Race engine. No plug recommendation. I went through an exerciser to floor the car and shut it off. Pull the plugs and examine under maginfication. If I saw little balls collecting around the center electrode, Piston material...the plugs were too hot. I had to eventually go down 5 heat ranges. Terrible process but I feel it was worth it as never had a engine failure after that exerciser was worth it. My experience was to not take other persons advice, but to test and determine what in needed. The plug heat range discussion is getting to be like "what oil will you be running after your first oil change"..... Test and you will know...otherwise...guess and hope for the best. Error on the side of too cold is better than too hot...

best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

Good advice as always Phil. At 51 I definitely don’t have a lead foot and for the most part I drive like I’m 71 haha....I just like that extra oomph when I want it!
Never the less...great advice and thank you!

 

[theanswer3]

I thought we had an entire thread about this, and it was not recommended to run colder plugs, for a basic tune?

 

[landiscarrier]

I thought we had an entire thread about this, and it was not recommended to run colder plugs, for a basic tune?

Ok....and? If it doesn’t pertain to you or a concern of you....you can keep on scrolling. There’s many threads on this forum covering the same subject.

 

[Engmus]

Im also running NGK Ruthenium one step colder, and I want to point out that the "One step Colder" heat range for us, is the default Heat Range, as I recall, for both the Focus RS and Ecoboost Mustang.

Food for thought it probably makes very little impact tuned or not.

 

[txquailguy]

Im also running NGK Ruthenium one step colder, and I want to point out that the "One step Colder" heat range for us, is the default Heat Range, as I recall, for both the Focus RS and Ecoboost Mustang.

Food for thought it probably makes very little impact tuned or not.

Yes, also, I talked to NGK at length yesterday discussing different plug options. Neither the IX Iridium or the Ruthenium are in NGK racing plug line. You would not want to run racing plugs without major mods (bigger turbo). You could run these colder Ruthenium plugs in our stock motors and they would probably run better on the ignition side of things too. They are specifically made for supercharged and turbo engines. Last time I checked our stock motors have a turbo...nuff said...lol

 

[txquailguy]

On another front.....y’all think it’s ok to add 5 gallons of 100 octane racing gas to 3/4 of a tank of 91 octane? Also, can you mix leaded and unleaded? I am not very fuel knowledgeable....TIA

 

[Engmus]

On another front.....y’all think it’s ok to add 5 gallons of 100 octane racing gas to 3/4 of a tank of 91 octane? Also, can you mix leaded and unleaded? I am not very fuel knowledgeable....TIA

You can mix Octane no problem, and the truck should be wise enough to sort that out without any problems.

As for leaded vs non-leaded I would not do that, leaded will definitely cause issues with sensors, cats, etc and IDK how it would work in the High pressure fuel system.

Thats my 0.2 cents.

 

[txquailguy]

Oh goodness.....looky what papaw found at lunch today....hehehe
Sunoco GT100 Racing Fuel @ $9.20/gal.
I just wanted to see if a little would make a difference after talking to Anthony @ Livernois yesterday. This was one of the topics we discussed. I didn't think I could find racing gas so easy and very cheap compared to what I saw on the internet last night.
So I mixed 3 gallons of GT100 with approximately 13 gallons of 91
I'll have to figure the math on that....I was hoping for 93+
If I feel any difference, next time I will add 5 gallons of GT100 to 10 gallons of 91.
No worries.....it is unleaded.

 

[NOVA_Ranger]

Zero issues with stock plugs and 93 fuel here, after 15k miles. I tend to drive the hell out of my truck too.

 

[HoosierT]

Zero issues with stock plugs and 93 fuel here, after 15k miles. I tend to drive the hell out of my truck too.

Stock plugs were fine for me too til they weren’t. You’ll know, especially if you’re tuned...
But the step colder made it run much smoother. Don’t know what you don’t know.

 

[NOVA_Ranger]

Stock plugs were fine for me too til they weren’t. You’ll know, especially if you’re tuned...
But the step colder made it run much smoother. Don’t know what you don’t know.

Might consider it when the time comes to replace them.

 

[txquailguy]

Stock plugs were fine for me too til they weren’t. You’ll know, especially if you’re tuned...
But the step colder made it run much smoother. Don’t know what you don’t know.

Yes, I'm just trying to be proactive since I just tuned her at 30K.....I figure the cost of a set of good performance plugs is small so why not...
BTW....I really pushed her last night after mixing a little Sunoco 100 octane unleaded racing fuel with my 91 regular fill. Not sure I could really tell a difference, but one thing I'll say is you can bang on these engines pretty hard and she doesn't even break a sweat. I was really watching my temperatures last night and they were just steady as a rock. My coolant temp never got over 199.4.
If you look at the vehicles that have the 2.3 in Fords stable....our trucks have the lowest HP rating of the bunch @ 270. Almost identical motor in the Focus RS puts out 350 HP from the factory....Heck that track car Ford has with the 2.3 puts out like 405 HP. That tells me there is A LOT of headroom in these motors. As long as you take GREAT care of them they should give us many miles of problem free fun....even with some mods and a tune installed. Just my opinion, which ain't worth much...

 

[P. A. Schilke]

Yes, I'm just trying to be proactive since I just tuned her at 30K.....I figure the cost of a set of good performance plugs is small so why not...
BTW....I really pushed her last night after mixing a little Sunoco 100 octane unleaded racing fuel with my 91 regular fill. Not sure I could really tell a difference, but one thing I'll say is you can bang on these engines pretty hard and she doesn't even break a sweat. I was really watching my temperatures last night and they were just steady as a rock. My coolant temp never got over 199.4.
If you look at the vehicles that have the 2.3 in Fords stable....our trucks have the lowest HP rating of the bunch @ 270. Almost identical motor in the Focus RS puts out 350 HP from the factory....Heck that track car Ford has with the 2.3 puts out like 405 HP. That tells me there is A LOT of headroom in these motors. As long as you take GREAT care of them they should give us many miles of problem free fun....even with some mods and a tune installed. Just my opinion, which ain't worth much...

Hi Mark,

Until you know the origin of the internal parts it might not be a good idea to extrapolate the the RS or the "track car".... The 2.3L Lima motor had much different internals for the SVO Mustang than the Ranger. Example. The Turbo motor had a Dearborn Shell Molded crankshaft...bulletproof compared to the cast crankshaft of the Ranger Engine... Time for some mod folks to do the deep dive in the differences....Sad that Ford Performance is not a good source of this. The old SVO was glad to explain the differences and sell you the upgraded parts for your build... Esslinger was also a good source... Someone out there knows the differences...

There is a fellow, Brian Thompson, of Thompson Automotive that may have some of the answers. He is a Ford engine builder that took the Mazda 2.3 in the later Rangers and cranked out over 300 hp naturally aspirated for me for the CORR off road series. Located in Livonia, Mi. Not sure he is still around but a good guy.

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired