another spark plug question

[Pistons23]

i thought my problem was spark plugs that were gapped improperly(by me). they were gapped at .040. i opened them up to .044(which is what the OE motorcraft plugs are gapped to). that seemed to smooth out the idle a little and help with the gas mileage. after seeing those results and still not happy with the way my truck idles im sure its those damn bosch platinum plugs and wires(what a waste of $40). so now im looking for some replacements. if i go to motorcrafts site they recomend:
Motorcraft WR4109 wireset
Motorcraft SP432 plugs

when i go to autolites website they recomend:
Autolite Double Platinum APP104 plugs
Autolite Platinum AP104 plugs
Autolite Professional Series 96844 wires
Autolite Pro-Fit 86844 wires

now ive heard that the autolites and the motorcrafts are pretty much the same. take price out of the equation(sp?) which plugs and wires would you go with?

 

[Pistons23]

Autolite Xtreme Performance XP104

alright these seem to be just like the motorcrafts. autolite even lists the sp432 as one of its competitors.

 

[Pistons23]

maybe this is an issue. these are the bosch plug wires i have

there isnt any indication on which 4 go on which side. so i just lined them all up from shortest to longest. then i would pull one spark plug wire off the truck and find its best match. it ended up being the 4 wires with the gray boots on the exhaust side and the 4 with the black boots on the intake side. also whats with the 3 odd black boots? are those supposed to go on certain cylinders? the directions didnt mention anything about this.

 

[Pistons23]

i guess i left out some important info. my truck is a 2000 ford ranger with the 2.5/auto

 

[Pistons23]

after some research i found that the autolite and the motorcraft plug are near identical. going off of motorcrafts website they list 4 different spark plugs, 2 of which i couldnt find. the 2 part #'s that i could find were SP432 and AGSF32FM. the sp432 is made by motorcraft and the agsf32fm is made by autolite. since motorcraft recomended either im just going with the ones i can find cheaper. which happens to be the motorcraft plug($3.60 on amazon).

now on to the plug wires



btw, the agsf32fm is the autolite xtreme performance xp104

 

[RangerFabWorks]

get motorcraft wires and either ngk plugs or autolite/motorcrap there al good, i love ngk.

 

[skyy_4life]

well when it came to length of wire.... i would remove one at a time then match it up to 1 that is same length... it always works out.

 

[rurouni20xx]

i just did my wires and plugs the other day, went w/ motorcraft plugs and duralast wires (yes i live in autozoo.) the longer set goes to the drivers side and the shorter to the passenger. the dif in the boots, i havent a clue, this is a on a 92 ranger 2.3 but they are sim. basically when i went to do them i unplugged the wire and pulled the plug, one at the time, then changed the plug and the wire at the same time, to make sure i didnt cross them.

 

[Pistons23]

well i scored the autolite professional series spark plug wires off of amazon.com for $10.50. added 3 jugs of armor all ultra wash and wax to bring my total to around $25 which gives me free shipping

 

[powerwagon]

i used some accel 8mm of a extra v8 i got and used them.. i have bosh platnums(thay were free) and i want to go back to auto lights

 

[MIke713]

also whats with the 3 odd black boots? are those supposed to go on certain cylinders? the directions didnt mention anything about this.[/QUOTE]
I just changed Plug wires on my 96 (original wire set) as well as plugs went with autolites and Duralast wires.
the odd plug ends are for the plug pulling hooks that come on three of the drivers side plugwires from the factory
, the wire under the ac pump, and both wires under the intake plennum.
use a small screwdriver to unclip the pulling hhoks and reassemble them around the new wires.
it took less than 45 minutes to change all of them the worse part was opening up the wire loom clips to fish all the wires out.
didn'yt have to take the plennum off either.
truck runs soo much better hope this will lead to an increase in the mpg as it has fallen to around 17 mpg ( 4 cly auto) only have 38 k on it.
hope this helps
Mike

 

[Pistons23]

thanks for the reply. since i have no idea what the pulling hooks are, im sure those are long gone on this truck. im going to try and replace them without taking the upper manifold off this time. dont wanna spend another $10 on a gasket set since i cant find just the upper intake manifold gasket. #3 and #4 on the intake are going to be tough. especially since i cant even get my fingers on the boots.

 

[97ranger xlt]

well i scored the autolite professional series spark plug wires off of amazon.com for $10.50. added 3 jugs of armor all ultra wash and wax to bring my total to around $25 which gives me free shipping

more info needed! like a link maybe

 

[pops13]

I just put in new autolite plugs and wires in today, my truck has 156000 miles on it, the plugs looked like the originals, the electrodes were almost gone, and the gap was over 80 thousands, I am surprised it still ran, anyway take the thottle body off and clean all the black crap off, it will idle much better, mine idles smooth, I had to turn the idle screw down, it was idling to fast after I cleaned it. autolite wires come with the pulling hooks.

 

[97ranger xlt]

more info needed! like a link maybe

never mind, found it. great price.