So we finally found a travel trailer and picked it up yesterday. It is a 2008 Jayco 29A. Fiberglass with aluminum frame. 5345 dry weight, so shouldn't be too taxing on the Ex, but we towed it through parts of the NC mountains to get home and on steep grades it would downshift to 2nd gear and I would hear what sounded to me like pinging from the engine. As far as I know the plugs are original, so should I just go ahead and replace them, or there also a possibility that this is just the notorious exhaust manifold leak? If all exhaust manifold bolts are still intact, is there a good test to know if it is the exhaust? No engine codes were thrown. Give me your thoughts on the probable causes. FYI, the truck has 72k miles on it now.

Thanks,
Kevin

 

My V-10 used to give me some pinging under similar circumstances. Even with your low mileage at 72K (!) you technically aren't due for new plugs yet but they are nearly 18 years old.......New plugs and boots/springs are cheap and may take care of the ping/knock and even if they don't you will have fresh new plugs moving forward.
Ever since I started running the custom tunes from 5Star I haven't had nearly as much of the pinging as when stock, sometimes it will still give a little ping following a downshift under load briefly then it clears up.
Now that you have a TT and will be towing I would recommend some nice tunes to wake the 6.8 up a little and reprogram the trans to have it working waaaaay better with the added load. And of course look into some way of monitoring the actual trans temp, either with a stand alone gauge (what I use) or via the OBDII port and a dongle and app.
Try to take a good close look around the exhaust manifolds for any signs of white or black deposits on the heads that would indicate a leak, it is possible even with all the studs still in place. Does it have a tick when cold? That's another sign of a leaker.
Post up a picture of the EX and new TT over in the camper thread!

 

Thanks for the quick feedback WE3ZS! Do you buy the boots and springs from Ford as well as the spark plugs, or are the auto parts store brands ok for those parts?

I actually have a OBDII gauge from my other car that I hooked up to the Ex for this trip and the highest I saw the trans temp was ~180, so everything seemed good this go around, but that was with an outside temp near 70, so a trip in the mountains when it is 90-100 may elevate me above the comfortable 200 mark for the trans, but I will definitely monitor it. Are the 5 Star tunes worth it even with fully stock everything? I know the gears would drastically help the towing and maybe keep me out of 2nd gear, but not planning that just yet. Unfortunately yesterday was just too busy with getting everything setup and then we dropped it at my parents for some temporary storage until i can get a good parking pad setup, so I don't have the pics yet, but I will get them soon enough :-)!

-Kevin

 

Mine has a tendency to ping in hot weather when towing heavy. I cure the problem by running 89 octane instead of the typical 87 in these scenarios...works for me.

 

For spark plugs you will want the Motorcraft SP-479 and I found (thanks to BentlyCoop) that the Gearwrench 5/8" X 6" wobble socket #80546 really makes the job much easier. For the boots and included springs the Denso 671-0001 set of 10 is the one to get and if you want to have a spare COP or two on hand to carry as a spare on the road the Denso 673-6000 is actually identical to the more expensive Motorcraft COP. Denso is the OEM manufacturer for MC, if you peel the Denso sticker off the top of the COP you will see the MC part number.
I bought my plugs, boots and COPs from Roackauto and if you search a bit you can typically find a discount code to make them an even better deal.
The factory torque spec for your early short threaded V-10 is only 11ft/lbs which is considered by many (including me) to be too low and contributing to the blown plug issue. Seems that some folks are going up to 20/22 ft/lbs with good luck, rear up on the subject and make your own decision, my later model calls for 14 ft/lbs and I went with 32 ft/lbs with a dab of never seize.
I think that a few custom tunes would still be worth it on a stock rig, the biggest changes are to the trans strategy which is much improved especially for towing.

 

At your mileage and motor age I would put new plugs in.

I had a V10 with 119,000 miles and pulled plugs. What I found was intresting. Original factory supplied plugs were still in it. 8 plugs looked very good. Cylinders 3 and 8 overall looked good but the center electrodes were worn down to the ceramic insulator!!! Like those 2 plugs had 200+ thousand miles on them.

Not sure what would cause this but the amount of juice needed to fire those 2 plugs would have been alot.

New plugs and boots could help you alot.....pinging is baaadddddd.

 

plugs, boots and springs ordered from Rock Auto!!!

Any recommendations for a quality yet lower cost OBD II scan gage/display? I typically use my iPhone for navigation, so don't necessarily want bluetooth option as I won't want to constantly switch screens. What I used this first trip was an Aerofroce Interceptor that I have in my "toy" car. I was just going to buy another one of these and an A-pillar single pod mount, but just looked it up and the gauge is $250.

 

I couldn't find my pic so I had to go look for an old post of mine. Found it in the L forum from 10 years ago.

Those magnetic, permanently attached swivel extensions make changing plugs EXTREMELY easier.

I do believe they are now under the Gearwrench banner now though.

I need a replacement set now too because the magnets in mine have lost their strength to hold a plug now.

Stewart

 

I'm old school (some would say just old....) and I like the look of real gauges, so I went with a stand alone trans temp gauge. It was $70-ish and has both the gauge face sweep needle as well as nice LED digital readout. MaxTow Transmission Temperature Gauge It has a sensor that screws right into the test port on the trans, pretty simple installation.
Some folks have good results getting cheap small tablets or phones to dedicate to the OBDII dongle and run any one of a few good apps for multiple data point monitoring.


Stewart, I think you correct, my Gearwrench socket looks identical to those KD ones pictured.

 

I like the look and price of that one, thanks! Is there a good place to buy a single A-pillar gauge pod from? Most of them I am finding are 2-3 gauges as most Diesel guys have multiple gauges to put in them. Preferred would be to find a tan one instead of black.

Thanks,
Kevin

 

I made my own little add-on to the front of the center console for it and a rear diff temp gauge, nothing fancy, just like me!
I have seen single, dual and triple A pillar mounts from various vendors, most will (or may) require painting to match I think.

 

moved post to towing/camper thread