Went to colder spark plugs.........and....

[Ranger2020zoomzoom]

Your plugs were nearing the end of their life anyways

The burn on the porcelain is normal, there are other threads on this

Glad that helped your problem by changing them

I changed mine at 17k to colder plugs, stock plugs looked and torqued fine but I had the burn. I plan on changing after 30k at around 45-50K

I’m running the E30 tune from Livernois and was curious what gap you went with and what brand/make/model you went with?

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[Fawnbuster]

Thanks for this post! I almost have 42k miles and I have some NGK ruthenium one step colder plugs ready to put in. My tuner recommended to change every 35k miles so I quickly ordered them. How much do you torque them down??

Any part numbers for colder plugs?

 

[DocE3Gun]

Stage 3 has the colder plugs listed here:
https://www.stage3motorsports.com/n...gk-95822-iridium-ix-spark-plugs-set-of-4.html


As for not over tightening the plugs, the only real way to know is by using a torque wrench, especially since it was in inch/lb instead of ft/lb torque specs!

I work with a company that sells scopes for firearms and just about the most common mistake made that causes damage is over-torquing rings that are supposed to be set to 18 in/lbs dry….which seems shockingly light when you’re setting a torque driver to that setting. Prior to working with them, I’d always used simple torx head hand wrenches and tightened things by hand until they felt “tight enough”

 

[Superdannyboy]

I went with NGK 95605. That's one step colder in ruthenium.

For the stock heat range there is:
NGK 90495 ruthenium
NGK 91794 laser iridium
NGK 94374 iridium ix

The one step colder from s3m is a laser iridium.

 

[Mustang2Ranger]

I’m running the E30 tune from Livernois and was curious what gap you went with and what brand/make/model you went with?

Stock gap, may want to check with Livernois if they recommend changing it or not

I got the pre gapped NGK Iridium IX from Panda, can select the gap or buy ungapped ones and do it yourself

How's the E30 tune feel? I haven't tried it yet

https://www.pandamotorworks.com/pro...older-sparl-plugs?_pos=2&_sid=b940aec85&_ss=r

 

[Ranger2020zoomzoom]

Stock gap, may want to check with Livernois if they recommend changing it or not

I got the pre gapped NGK Iridium IX from Panda, can select the gap or buy ungapped ones and do it yourself

How's the E30 tune feel? I haven't tried it yet

https://www.pandamotorworks.com/pro...older-sparl-plugs?_pos=2&_sid=b940aec85&_ss=r

Nice. I reached to them and they said to stay with stock plugs. The E30 tune is intense! My kids immediately went whooooooooooaaaaaaa lol I like it a lot.

 

[Racket]

Ruthenium HX is different than Iridiums according to NGK and they promote it on their website as superior - PSPE® (projected square platinum electrode) provides the best ignitability and service life for high-heat engines. This NGK-patented design is recommended for turbo and supercharged engines.

I guess this would be the model for most of us without crazy performance upgrades?

 

[Superdannyboy]

Ruthenium HX is different than Iridiums according to NGK and they promote it on their website as superior - PSPE® (projected square platinum electrode) provides the best ignitability and service life for high-heat engines. This NGK-patented design is recommended for turbo and supercharged engines.

I guess this would be the model for most of us without crazy performance upgrades? ILTR6R8G

I didn't see ruthenium HX on rockauto, so I went with ruthenium. Nice to know!

Edit: I did get ruthenium HX, it was clearly on the box lol

 

[HTX1811]

Did my swap today.

 

[Superdannyboy]

Update:

I had the one step colder ruthenium NGK plugs for 10k miles from 42k to 52k. Started noticing stuttering and the truck being hesitant. I have a aftermarket downpipe so I always get some pops when I let off the gas but I was getting popping on acceleration. Thought it was the EGR valve I saw a lot about on here. Then on the way home I got a misfire on cylinder 4. I decided to buy stock iridium NGK plugs from AutoZone and swap em out when I got home. Glad I did because one of them didn't even have the upper electrode thingamajig. The truck rides like new but sheesh 10k miles. I do drive the truck hard and floor it every day. The 10k miles was mostly on the daily tune. And a little note, I checked the gap they were all about .028" on the new plugs.

 

[Gazmic]

My OCD got the best of me because I didn't know what that " thingamajig " was called either. Did you happen to take a borescope into your cylinder to see if the ground electrode was still inside?

 

[Superdannyboy]

My OCD got the best of me because I didn't know what that " thingamajig " was called either. Did you happen to take a borescope into your cylinder to see if the ground electrode was still inside?

After researching I apparently didn't tighten them enough so they were subject to a lot of vibration causing the ground electrode to break off. When I removed them they were all loose. I've stripped threads before so I didn't want to tighten it hard but it felt like there wasn't any more turning to do like I reached the end of the threads. Guess I'll put a torque wrench on them.

And no I haven't looked inside.

 

[Stevedbvik1]

After researching I apparently didn't tighten them enough so they were subject to a lot of vibration causing the ground electrode to break off. When I removed them they were all loose. I've stripped threads before so I didn't want to tighten it hard but it felt like there wasn't any more turning to do like I reached the end of the threads. Guess I'll put a torque wrench on them.

And no I haven't looked inside.

If the ground electrode broke off while running then it’s long gone from the cylinder. Hopefully it didn’t damage your turbine wheel too much.

 

[Motorpsychology]

I felt like it wasn't running right with the tuner and factory plugs. At the cost for the plugs (cheap), I don't have an issue swapping them every 30k or so. The flash over and possible boot issues from the coil packs was more concerning to me.

I'm wondering if the flashover might have been caused by water runoff getting into the plug wells? On my '80 Kawasaki rain would fill the plug wells and short out to the head at the ceramic and leave pits and scorch marks.

 

[DocE3Gun]

I'm wondering if the flashover might have been caused by water runoff getting into the plug wells? On my '80 Kawasaki rain would fill the plug wells and short out to the head at the ceramic and leave pits and scorch marks.

No clue there. I did a little digging and apparently it's not that uncommon to see flashover with the ecoboost engines regardless if tuned or not, and may not be any indication of potential issues.

I'm at 64k miles, so 12k miles since changing the plugs and zero issues with anything. After reading a little since this thread was revived, I'm happy we double-checked and went with the recommended torque specs. I was concerned about over-torquing, but apparently under-torquing can be just as bad.

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