Pinning to my post above:
When I did speak to NGK, I found out that there are about 8 or 10 different specs to cross when matching a plug.
I have a feeling that quite a few swollen plugs are the wrong ones, weather they cross over or not (resistance, light off time, hold resistance, voltage yada yada). There might be 15 different plugs that will screw in and work. How good and for how long....that's another question.

 

That's understood, but one has to wonder just how much of the "Motorcraft is the Holy Grail" mentality is from actual experience VS just seeing the same thing repeated over and over again.

I've seen it said here that Autolites fail after the first cycle. Now, come on, NO GP can repeatedly be that bad or the company that made them either would be out of business or they just would stop making them. There's no profit in having every single unit sold being returned.

When I first got my '84 I put all new Autolites in it. About a year later on the way to work on the freeway the controller failed and turned on the GPs. They were on for the rest of the trip. Of course they were all burned out, no GP could have survived being constantly on. Not a single one was swelled despite the abuse they just suffered. I replaced all 8 with a new set of Autolites and a new IH controller and I had no more GP issues for the next 8+/_ years I owned the truck.

I'm not making the case that Autolites are the cats-***, just showing that reality showed that the common thought is wrong.

 

i have seen 4 instances of autolites burning out within a week of putting them in a ford, one set lasted for 3 starts.
i have also seen autolites last for 7 years in a chevy 6.2, and very rarely do they burn out in the 6.5 buses my nephew works on.
he carries 2 types of glow plugs at his shop, motorcraft ZD-11's for the international minibuses, and autolites for the chevy 6.5 mini buses.

 

some of us don't need to learn things the hard way.we can learn from the misfortunes of others so we need not repeat them,rather repeat their misfortunes as warnings for others instead.it's cheaper and a whole lot easier.plus this is why we;'re all here.to help and warn each other from harmful things to our trucks.many of us depend on our trucks as part of our livelihoods and need to reduce risks whenever we can.

there are countless upon countless threads about stuck glow plugs all over the diesel forums.
if you spend the time,you'll most likely see that autolights are the biggest culprits.just to make sure.search.i could be making this stuff up.

many of the threads and their damage caused can be seen by spending just 5-10 mins via google,or even just on this site alone so there really is no need for me or anyone else to try and convince someone what gp to run.
the main thing is,that the word/warning gets out,so others can make an informed decision first.

Dave S once summed this all up nicely when he said:

if anyone wants to run off brand gp's after just searching this forum alone (even just the idi section alone) after searching "help glow plugs stuck in the head" then best of luck to ya and here's to wishing you the best and that it never happens to you.

i think i took just 5 mins to put this post together for example.however i hope no one listens to it after reading and they call total BS and search themselves instead;
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...l#post13081877

happy searching.

 

When I bought my '93 IDI, it had 2 or 3 burned-out plugs (don't know what brand). I replaced them with a full set of Bosch plugs. A short time later, one of the new plugs was burned out. I replaced it with a Champion (that being what was available at the local store). A few months later, 2 or 3 more of the Bosch plugs had burned out. I removed them all and put in a full set of Motorcrafts. When I sold the truck five years later (boo hoo), those plugs were still good.

After pulling out the Bosch and Champion plugs, I did a little experiment. I hooked them up with a set of jumper cables and intentionally burned them out. The Bosch plugs did not deform. The Champion grew a nice little wart that would have given me a real headache had it happened in the engine.

 

I started this thread a couple of weeka ago. Finally let my new driveway cure enough I cold get the truck up to the garage. I had 5 burned plugs, I changed 4 of them, didn't want to take a chance of having to pull the head during the monsoon season, so I left the swollen one in. I'll work on it next spring. All the ones I got out were Beru.

However I created another issue for myself, #3 CYL is now dead. It is getting fuel to the injector but not firing. Guess I didn't do too good a job capping the injector top.
Can these be cleaned, or should I send it in for rebuild? I've read it's not good to replace just one injector w/new or all injectors w/o replacing the ip. Cleaning or rebuilding one injector is doable, replacing injectors and ip is NOT in the budget.
Any help will be appreciated.

 

if you replace the injector with a stock one you will be fine.

 

The injectors can be disassembled and cleaned. But unless you see a sludge buildup inside you are most likely to see a wear pattern and that is probably causing you problems. Unless you check the pop pressure, changing out one injector is a gamble as much as it is changing out seven injectors that did not need replacing. Certainly, testing the injectors will allow you to bring them within spec's if you choose to replace them.

If you are on a budget, I suggest replacing the one injector if the engine is strong but happens to be missing on the one cylinder.

Are you sure the problem is not related to valves and/ or low compression? Are you sure you are not getting fuel through the injector?

 

I probably didn't explain myself well, I had this and other injector lines off to get at and replace the bad gp's. I assume I let some crap get into the injector and plug it up.

 

I have been meaning to build an injector bench for years. I used one when I was a kid. It was a piece of plywood, a bottle jack, a Briggs&Stratton gas tank, some fittings, a gauge and some different steel injector lines.

Buzzing the injectors a few times usually cleared out the carbon and, if they were too far gone, they went in the parts bucket.

 

Get yourself an ugly girlfriend, and the swelling will go down.

Cheers
-Matt