I've read discussions on the advantages of advancing the timing and opening the plug gap, but I can't seem to find anything on how to do it. I've read a couple of mustang articles on how to do this. Does it work the same for the F150 5.0?

None of the articles that I read said anything about opening up the plug gap. Is that necessary of is it give you better performance if you do?

 

have you searched on here? do you have a haynes manual?

the process the stang guys use should be similar

 

For the typical wedge head engine, advancing timing up to the threshold of detonation provides the most efficient combustion. This translates to slightly more power and better fuel economy. So you should advance it just to the point of detecting knock under the heaviest load you will put on the engine, and back off slightly.

In these days of gasoline costing nearly $5/gal, you will notice that the price differences between the grades are still 10 cents. So if you consistently buy premium at about 20 cents more per gallon, it will allow you to bump the timing advance enough to increase the fuel mileage to more than offset the added cost. This is what drivers of newer cars with knock sensors are finding out.

You can try to increase the gap on your spark plug, but you must make sure that your plug wires are in good shape. Increasing the gap can make the fuel ignite better, but it will increase the impedance of the current path, and can increase the chance that the spark will try to jump through shorter paths, causing mis-fires, which completely negates any benefits you might gain.

 

I did a search but didn't find anything other than people saying it was a good thing and about how much to advance the timing.

Picked up a Haynes the day I got the truck, Monday before last.

 

I'm putting a MSD coil, dist cap, and plug wires in at the same time (and Motorcraft platinum plugs), so I should be getting a good spark and the plugs. I havent looked up the stock gap yet, but what ever it is how much should I open it up to?

I found a how to on a mustang web site that walks me through it. I'll let you know how it turns out Monday.

 

platinum plugs are garbage and expensive. run motorcraft copper plugs and nothing more.

to change timing. first get motor up to temp. turn off motor, pull spout connector, start truck and adjust distributor and use a timing light. stock timing is 10*btdc. advance up to 12 or 14* and turn motor off and plug spout connector back in. pull the battery cable for about 15mins then put back on and take the truck for a drive for 30mins or so. do some city and hwy driving. if you get any pinging then you will need to back the timing down some.

 

I would not go over .054 gap on the plugs, no matter what kind of ignition amplifier or coil I'm using. The MSD boxes are great when you have a condition where the spark is not strong enough to completely ignite the fuel, such as under heavy supercharging, or on an engine with other problems that need a boost in the ignition. But the multiple spark discharges will wear out the plug wires that much faster. Further, their assists come AFTER the main event, the optimal time of firing, has already occurred, so their benefits are minimal, again, unless your engine has other problems.

Having said that, I installed an MSD-6AL on my 1969 302 engine when I was trying to get the newly rebuilt carburetor to work. Many minutes of cranking with the choke on and no starting caused the plugs to get wet, making them very difficult to actually spark. The 6AL burned through that and allowed the engine to start up.

SOME platinum plugs don't work well with the 5.0 engine (Bosch). The factory plugs that came with my Aerostar were platinum; one side had the platinum on the center, and the other side had it on the side electrodes. It uses the EDIS system where two plugs shared opposite ends of the same coil, so the current flowed in one direction on one plug and the other way on the other plug. I think I replaced the first set of plugs at over 100,000 miles, and the engine was still running great. The gaps had gotten to over .060 by that time, and I was amazed that the wires had not started to arc at that point.

 

With reading this post and having a 94 F150 5.0 and looking to get the most out of it What is a spout connector?

 

1996 Ford Bronco spout connector 96' 5.8 picture | SuperMotors.net
A link to a picture of a spout connector.
It's the thing with the ty wrap around it.
You pull out the plug to time your engine.
Then reinstall it when done.

 

Thanks I installed a Power Aid throttle body spacer and any ping that I had was gone using regular gas.Should I check my timing and advance if needed? I tow a travel trailer with this truck and need some more poop when I need it.

 

wow throttlebody spacers are great paperweights and honestly provide zero improvments.

Lumprsmith, what you might do is start your own thread on this question. give as much info on your rig so we can give our best opinions.

 

To each his own!!!! Had more improvement with this then the other mods but will start that post later...............

 

you can keep the post here if you want. The TB spacer was another question I was going to ask anyway.

I got the wrong wires last week so I haven't changed the plugs and wires yet. I did install the coil and dist cap, and it idles smooth as silk now. I cant wait to see what the wires and plugs give me.

 

do your online research. the throttlebody spacers provide no HP/Trq gains on our vehicles. they are an expensive paperweight and the money could be put elsewhere.