97 460, burning up plug wires.

[rusty ol ranger]

Last year around fathers day i pulled my camper in 90-100* heat. About 3 miles from home the truck started missing intermittantly. Found out to be a plug wire, they were old, so ok.

2 days ago, pulling camper again in 90* heat. Got home, unhooked, now today im getting an intemittant miss AGAIN. Just like before. Im blaming the wires. Ill know for sure this afternoon when i change them.

But my question is...why the hell is this happening? All the heat sheilding is good by the plugs, and the temp gauge only went slightly above 1/2 way when towing it.

 

[RonD]

Probably a spark plug this time not a wire if they are fairly new

You can try running a larger gap 0.048-0.050
That can help with the Richer mix when towing

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

On my race truck I ended up buying Kevlar socks that cover the wires for about 8". That cured cooking the wires. I got them from a hotrod shop but I'm sure Amazon or eBay would sell them too.

 

[rusty ol ranger]

Pl

Probably a spark plug this time not a wire if they are fairly new

You can try running a larger gap 0.048-0.050
That can help with the Richer mix when towing

Plugs are only a year old to. They are motorcraft, the wires are o reiley cheapos. Which is prolly 90% of the issue. I forgot i put the cheap turds on it. But its all anyone stocks.

On my race truck I ended up buying Kevlar socks that cover the wires for about 8". That cured cooking the wires. I got them from a hotrod shop but I'm sure Amazon or eBay would sell them too.

Thats a good idea. Ill look into those.

You talkin bout these?

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Pl

Plugs are only a year old to. They are motorcraft, the wires are o reiley cheapos. Which is prolly 90% of the issue. I forgot i put the cheap turds on it. But its all anyone stocks.


Thats a good idea. Ill look into those.

You talkin bout these?

Yes.

 

[Bird76Mojo]

Pl

Plugs are only a year old to. They are motorcraft, the wires are o reiley cheapos. Which is prolly 90% of the issue. I forgot i put the cheap turds on it. But its all anyone stocks.


Thats a good idea. Ill look into those.

You talkin bout these?

I bought some of those from Amazon and they worked well, but they were nearly impossible to get over the plug wires I bought. I had to open up the metal ring that's sewn in to them on some of them to get the plug wire through. If you were making your own plug wires from a universal kit, it would be a non-issue.

On these plug wires:

https://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p/accel-custom-fit-super-stock-spark-plug-wire-set-4056/6901344-P?cm_mmc=ET-_-Trans-_-Confirmation-_-General#utm_source=et&utm_medium=trans&utm_campaign=confirmation&utm_content=general

 

[rusty ol ranger]

Im thinking this winter im gonna just spend the 70 bucks and order a damn set of motorcraft wires

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Hmmm, I don't know if I installed incorrectly. I just slipped mine over the wire and left the wire ring portion on the outside of the boot. It was the boot that was disintegrating.

 

[Bird76Mojo]

Mine wouldn't "slip" over the wires at all. Not even close. We had to force them and it resulted in some very sore fingertips by the time it was done. Several of them had to have the metal ring opened up to even go over the plug wire.

 

[RonD]

Im thinking this winter im gonna just spend the 70 bucks and order a damn set of motorcraft wires

Call a few Ford Dealers, the parts departments run "tune up" specials, motorcraft plugs and wires for same price as cheaper 3rd party

 

[rusty ol ranger]

Well...

I found one with a boot burned 50% off, cylinder #4, same as before. Changed it, drove it home from the shop, same shit. Changed the other 7 and its running like a top.

Im guessing i had a couple that were broken down inside. But its gotta be the underhood heat doing it. Even some of the plastic tubeing the wires had around it by the manifolds were melted.