Spark Plugs - General Questions

[Tylus]

Just bought a 2005 Escalade with the 6.0 in it. Got a slight stumble/miss at idle...so I'm going to do a tune up. 66,000 miles

gap is 0.040 correct?

I bought some NGK plugs for it today. Always heard good things about them, but to be honest I'm a Ford guy and haven't played with a GM product in about 15yrs. Anything special to look out for with these motors?

Any particular brand they like better than others (odd question, but my V-10 loves Motorcraft and nothing else).


thx,
Ty

 

[Big Buttons]

Should have gone with the ac delco's. Worth the money and last for around 100K

 

[Phantomx55]

I've seen a lot of people say .040, but it really should be .060 by oe standards.

I personally run NGK Tr6 plugs in my setup. I'd say the Ngk's are just as good as the ac delcos, if not better.

Other then having basically the biggest market of aftermarket parts, 300k+ miles, or 1000+ HP on stock internals, nothing really special to look out for with these engines..

 

[Wake]

Don't forget to pick up a set of new wires before you start the job or you might not be driving it afterward.

I learned that lesson a long time ago when I destroyed some baked on wires during a plug job and ended up walking to the store for a wire set afterward.

I changed my plugs out at 85K miles and they still looked fine, the wires though appeared to be hard/brittle and I destroyed two of them trying to get the boot off the plug.

 

[Tylus]

thx guys. I wasn't sure about the NGK's being good or not. I could have grabbed the AC Delco's for $2.30 a plug...but I opted for the $4/plug NGK's with "double platinum" whatever that means. There was a upgraded AC Delco for $8/plug, but was starting to sound all super fancy. I'm used to dropping $8-9/plug for my Fords for the Motorcraft, so it was nice to have cheaper plugs

btw, I like to change plugs every 30-50,000 miles. it's cheap (relatively speaking), and I only drive about 5,000 miles a year. Wife does maybe 10,000 miles a year on her cars


thx for the comments guys. Hoping to be an active member on this forum the more I play with the Escalade. Not looking to hot rod this since it's the wifes car, but I do plan on a CAM, exhaust and some tuning.

 

[SLCHOE]

You dont gap platinum plugs. They come pre-gapped.

 

[Tylus]

that might be the case, but I don't blindly put plugs in without checking the gap. rough handling in the box can change the gap

 

[Sasquatch]

From what i`ve heard you can damage an irridium plug with a gapping tool. That`s why they`re pre gapped.

 

[Tylus]

there is a DIY tool guys came up with on the Ford forums for checking/setting that gap. The gap specified isn't correct when running superchargers. I've got it bookmarked somewhere from back when I put the RoushCharger on my F-150.

thx for the heads up about these. I haven't even opened the spark plug boxes yet. Plan on doing it this weekend

 

[04whitetahoe]

Precious metals spark plug gap adjusting

there is a DIY tool guys came up

Here's what NGK says about gapping iridium and "precious metals" plugs.

2nd video, "Gapping"

http://www.ngksparkplugs.com/tech_support/spark_plugs/installation/index.asp?mode=nml#gapping

 

[Tylus]

got the new sparkplugs installed. stumble/rough idle is gone

here are the old plugs I pulled out. 100,000 mile plugs my butt! gap was on average 0.080...vice the 0.060 they were supposed to be if platinum tip, or 0.040 if they were iridium tip (most likely since they're cheapo AC Delco).

As far as I can tell, those were the stock plugs at 66,000 miles. Rubber boots were a major PITA to get off. I'm interested to see if I gain any MPG's back now. She's been getting about 15 MPG combined

Drivers side

Pass Side

---------- Post added at 07:56 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:55 AM ----------

btw, I put the new plugs back in at 0.040 per the TSB that was issued...which I cannot find at the moment. Basically it says that you use 0.060 gap for platinum tip plugs, and 0.040 for iridium tip plugs. Platinum burns hotter so you can have a bigger gap

 

[scoobyxj]

Are the AutoLite wires acceptable replacements, or should I spring for the AC Delcos?

 

[big_b_in_PA]

Check out the MSD wire set, they aren't much more than stock. The part number is 32829 for the set.

 

[08grey]

Taylor or magnacore only.

 

[FrankU]

Taylor or magnacore only.

Got a number ?

 

[08grey]

I went magnecore. I don't have the numbers sorry. I do remember I called them to make sure I was buying the right one and they were very helpful. I used the ngk platinum iridium plugs from rock auto.

 

[ccapehartusarmyINF.(ret)]

never waste money one expensive plugs if you got a gm buy ac delco ford buy motorcraft plugs engines today are much much cleaner and effieceient then they used to be so plugs last forever these days even cheapys