What are the best plugs for this engine. I put autolite platinum tip in my truck a year ago and think that they are junk. what are some good replacements?

 

regular old motorcraft BSF44C

 

I use the same ones. I've never had a problem with them.

 

Rule of thumb...always use the same plugs the manufacturer used.

 

Last time I used the Motorcraft Platinum plugs in my '95. They were listed as specified for the 300 I6 along with the standard plug. They look very wimpy with a skinny electrode, but they have been in there for 38,000 miles and still running strong. I was figuring to change them out soon though, just because it seems a lot of miles and why wait until performance suffers. The regular plugs usually were pretty bad by 20,000 miles.

 

I have always had good luck with Autolite Platinums in my Ford vehicles. I use AC Delco in my GM vehicle, and Champions in Chryslers. I hate Bosch plugs!

 

Motorcraft probably best bet. Autolite is no longer a Ford product (it is with Fram).

 

Come to think of it, I'll wait until next oil change to change out the plugs. Right now I am running 1900 ppm phosphorus and 2300 ppm zinc in my oil and would hate to foul new plugs.

 

I've always run Autolites with good performance. I did get 4 straight bad plugs out of a package once, but they were from WalMart and probably got dropped 50 times between the truck and the shelf. I put Motorcrafts in a few weeks ago and am happy with them so far. No better or worse than the Autolites. I usually get 25k-35k miles out of a set before I change them.

Platinums are a waste of money in most cases. Same yourself some money and just use regular plugs.

 

Seems to me platinums are about $3 vs half that for regular. For the trouble of changing them out, might as well spend the extra $9 for the platinum IMO.

 

The problem is that the platinums need a hotter ignition to rub properly, sure platinum is strong, but it's a poor conductor. I'd just go with the standard plugs they'll last for at least two years.

 

What trouble to change them out? It takes a whole 10 minutes. Most platinums aren't $3, most are double that or more. I'm not sure what Motorcraft does to make theirs so cheap and I don't want to find out on some dark stormy night. Another problem with most platinum plugs is that the platinum part is welded to the electrode and can fall off. Most Delco platinums don't fail because they're worn out, they fail because the tip fell off and increased the gap 0.020.

 

I like the Bosch Platinum plugs. Autozone's website has them listed for $2.29.

In my limited experience, the Bosch Platinum plugs last longer, are less prone to detonation, fouling, and carbon build-up. You can read more about it here.

I think it's just like most of this stuff, it's all a matter of preference...unless your engine is tweaked out and blueprinted so much that you need to know exactly how much heat to draw off of your cylinders by changing the length of the ceramic on your plugs.

But for the most part, I think it depends on how much you want to pay. If you burn a quart of oil a week and have to change your plugs every couple of months, go for the cheap ones! If you're looking for maximum spark and heat transfer, spend that extra dollar a plug for some fancy plugs.

If you really want to know more than you want to know about spark plugs, Google it for some tech info like this!



BTW: Platinum is an excellent conductor, much like gold is. Fortunately, they don't make spark plugs out of gold! :P The next great thing is iridium, and how expensive is THAT going to be? Autozone had iridium plugs for my friend's Porsche listed at $14 a plug.

 

bosch platinum plugs never worked in any ford i tried them in.

did not last a week in a brand new ford vehicle without running bad.

just my 2¢.

 

Bosch is the only plug that I absolutely refuse to install in a customer's vehicle. Those are the worst plugs ever made and have resulted in more unhappy customers than I care to remember.