Kowboy
New Member
- Joined
- Dec 3, 2013
- Messages
- 242
- Reaction score
- 4
- Points
- 0
- Location
- Hanover, Virginia
- Vehicle Year
- 2000
- Make / Model
- Ford
- Engine Size
- 3.0 V6
- Transmission
- Manual
First a little history. I bought my truck about 5 years back and am the 2nd owner. Truck came w/ 116 K miles on the clock and now has about 157 K. The truck came w/ an extensive service history all written down in a oily / dirty garage book. Golden for the next owner / me. I saw where he religiously changed all the fluids: brake, motor, radiator, tranny and rear end. No part failures were recorded. Records were there for air filters and tires.
I did notice that the spark plugs were not recorded as replaced in this log book. I ignored this as he was so prompt at everything else. The little truck ran flawlessly and gave good gas mileage so the plugs must have been replaced by now. Today I go off and purchase a set of Motorcraft plugs and a Bosch wire set. A Motorcraft wire set was not available from my parts guy. Pulled the #1 plug and saw that the plug had a PG suffix / original plugs from the factory and gapping was .072, nearly gone. The #2 and #3 cylinders looked the same, clean firing but worn badly. Cylinders 4-6 were worn down to a gap of .107. I made a big mistake at assuming that the service had been done. Took it for a test run and I now have the power that I thought the truck should have. Lesson learned.
I did notice that the spark plugs were not recorded as replaced in this log book. I ignored this as he was so prompt at everything else. The little truck ran flawlessly and gave good gas mileage so the plugs must have been replaced by now. Today I go off and purchase a set of Motorcraft plugs and a Bosch wire set. A Motorcraft wire set was not available from my parts guy. Pulled the #1 plug and saw that the plug had a PG suffix / original plugs from the factory and gapping was .072, nearly gone. The #2 and #3 cylinders looked the same, clean firing but worn badly. Cylinders 4-6 were worn down to a gap of .107. I made a big mistake at assuming that the service had been done. Took it for a test run and I now have the power that I thought the truck should have. Lesson learned.