Ever since I changed my factory ones out and put the new champion plugs in, my car runs like crap. When I first put them in, there was a little sign of a misfire at low RPMs. I thought myabe I got some anti-seize on one of the electrodes. Well I finally got around to changing them out today. I cleaned them all in the ford carb cleaner and stuck em back in. They were clean and gapped correctly at .045. I drive around the block it runs worse, I'm like WTF. I put dielectric grease on the inside of the COPs, no difference. Still runs like crap.

I wish I could send these $18 spark plugs back to champion and tell them to shove it

where can I get some cheap factory plugs?

 

Try and jet some replacements. Thats what I'm doing as I only have one bad plug.

 

how do you tell which one is bad though? How do you test it?

 

hmmm, mine runs great with the Champions. I've got right at a thousand miles on them, no problems at all. In fact, I think it runs better than with the Autolite's.

 

Dustin- did you see the pics I took of the champions I got- these are pathetic quality- pics here:

http://forums.bradbarnett.net/showpo...8&postcount=16

 

Big +1 I've got about 2500 on mine,

 

Upon closer(like real close- my eyes aint that great anymore) inspection, I dont think these plugs are going in my car...some pics of the plugs up close:

picture 1:
1 of 8 plugs is just shy of 2 threads shorter than other 7- would it bottom in the head? do I want to find out?

picture 2:
actually 4 of them are welded a little crooked so electrode is off center

picture 3:
one of the 4 off center has the little platinum pad offset on the ground so far you'd have to gap it diagonally

picture 4:
I didnt notice this until trying to get pics with my camera- hard to get a picture of, but 2 of the plugs got what I'd say is 'just bigger than thread of steel wool' sized metal chips crimped under the top seal- I cant help but wonder if any of these little chips are on the underside??? be sure to blow out your plugs before installing them...

am I nit-picking? yes indeed, but at $103.60 a set, in my opinion I think these are crap(other than being one piece bodies that wont twist off in the head- nice idea, poor execution). I'll need to look at electrode projection, to see if any look like the pic at the start of this thread...

I wrote Champion, will see what they say, but looks to me like 5 of the 8 shouldnt have made it out the door. If they are content with the 'quality' of their products in these pictures, their business is doomed.
Attached Thumbnails

 

Alright well I feel kind of dumb now. Not sure what happened but I reseated all of the COPs and applied new dielectric grease and no more misfires. Runs perfect, knock on wood

 

I'm glad to hear you got it sorted out. I couldn't be happier with mine.

 

yeah they pretty much run just as good as the stock plugs now

 

I have never had mine out - how long does it take for all 8?

 

It has been known for a long time that Bosch plugs as well as Champion plugs just do not seem to run well in the Fords. Not sure why, but i see this time and again.

I wish Denso made the Iridiums in a one piece design for our cars.

 

I've heard/read about the coils sometimes getting messed up when removing them.

What is the correct procedure? Straight pull or rotate a little and pull?

 

Yea, and you'll sleep better without the breakage worry.

 

well that was the hope all along

 

Ok, after readin' a little bit about this subject... and watchin' the Tech Tip Plus video on these things... Cheese and Rice, this is utterly frightening.

I was watching it and the guy says "Well, that wasn't so bad!", and all I thought was that guy is a paid idiot. Meaning he was paid to say that, because it's totally it's awful. Of course, it's not so bad when you can get paid to do it... might mean a little bit of "Oh, well, we had a couple of them break off, and we had to remove the heads to fix it. Sorry. Pay up." Nah, surely not... right? (and I gotta bridge in my back yard that'll span the Hoover Dam, wanna buy it?)

I've got 21700 on my Stangness now, (up from the 20900 from when I got it) and I'm afeared to continue on the current plugs. Heck, I dunno what I even have in them, but I'm pretty sure it's factory ones.

But I'm deathly afeared of breakin' one of these nastiness items off and then having to have the heads removed. Granted, I'm assuming this is fairly rare... but we are talkin' breakin' plugs... I've broken the tops off before, but that was easily dealt with on an iron head, no separation below the jamb nut, don't take the plug out until you get the porcelain out... this wouldn't give you the chance if it played out completely wrong...

And then Ford Service not paying if *they* screw it up... all because there's no TSB for *Mustang*, is there? If I had an F150, it'd be covered, right? :P

While I'm not scared to try... I'm scared of me bein' the lucky bastidge who gets the full tilt boogie repair. For a $21 part (tops, for new Champions... O'Reilly has them in stock for $21. Can order them online at Champion for $17ish. Funny... I can't find the Autolite HT1s... nobody has them in stock, have to have them shipped. Wonder why?)

I'm sorry. I'm just really kinda po'd and worried about it. This is a design and assembly flaw. :| Way to go Ford.

 

Well the TSB covers the Mustang.
And you should be covered under 6yr 60K or possibly the emissions warranty.
I just wish we could get some good motorcraft plugs. I'd also settle for NGK or even if brisk would make a factory replacement.

Attached is the TSB.

 

I have read the best price on the new Champion plugs is from Rock Auto.

 

I brought that link to the video to this forum, yes, the guys are clowns and probably the worst actors in history. However, the video really does explain the issue and repair very well. I had about the same milage as you, actually a little more and I tackled this. I followed the TSB and it was not bad. All plugs had carbon build up but only one was a bit tight to come out (at first). I cleaned all the carbon off and put the nickel anitseize on them and reinstalled.

I didn't go with a different plug because I felt the antisieze should aleviate any future problems. I will give them a check again in another 30k and redo the same procedure.

So, I would go for it, it will let you sleep at night when you are done. I have a 2004 F150 with 60k on it and I have only been able to get 4 plugs done (one broke). Fixed that, but I have to get the other 4 out and those were not budging when I tried. Every day that goes by I know the problem is getting worse, thus the sleep issue!

 

Honestly I would just pull the plugs following the TSB, using the Ford carb cleaner. Once you pull them out I would just get the rest of the carbon off the plug and antiseize the shank and stick em back in. I only really replaced mine because mine have high miles. When I pulled mine out with 60k on them they really looked brand new. Pull them every 15k miles and re-antizeize them and you will never have a problem