2001 f250 super duty 5.4l

I am having some sporadic hesitation and missing that I think is happening from water finding its way down into the plug holes.

While pulling cops and checking for water (which has obviously been a problem because the whole boot was covered in a rusty powder on #4) I also took out plugs and was cleaning everything up and trying to determine how much dielectric grease to put on and where all I wanted to put it.

This is when I noticed that some of the cop springs had a larger diameter than others. The smaller fit nice and snug on the plug. The larger doesn't. In fact it is worse than loose. It basically hovers around the plug meaning a layer of dielectric grease is most likely problematic and insulating my spark from getting into the plug.

Has anyone else noticed this or dealt with it???

Sure I can clean all the grease off and hope the spark travels through without any detrimental resistance. I'm wondering if I should smash the spring slightly into more of an oval on the end so it is making a snug contact. I'll need to be careful not to put any kinks or angles in the spring for fear that it would produce too much heat by adding resistance and also try not to mash it so much that it doesn't slide over the plug.

This whole problem is worsened by the fact that I do not have all 8 cops secured down with bolts because a couple cops are broken where the bolt hole is, the #1 or #2 is stripped out, and I'm just plain missing one of the bolts somehow. (A couple years ago I pulled both heads, cleaned everything up, re seat the valves, drilled out all 8 plug holes, tapped them, and jb welded some new quality inserts in place once and for all, I had done them before with the heads on so having them off lets a guy breathe a little easier, lol, replaced all gaskets along with a bent valve, guides, some stiff tappets, a couple springs, all timing components, etc and everything went great. Torqued everything to specs. All in the relative discomfort of my rock driveway. Had to fabricate 2 or 3 special tools and all in all it was a job that makes a back yard mechanic pretty proud when it turns out good. Gained some mpg too. Plenty of other things have worn out that I've replaced too being over 200k miles but nothing has been quite as frustrating as this water issue if that's all this comes down to.)

Any experience, thoughts, opinions, advice or anything - that's why I'm posting.

Thanks,
Ricky

 

No one knows anything about whether the spring should be snug fit on the spark plug to perform properly????

I really don't want to sink money and time replaces all of the larger diameter springs and the time for no improvemt of the issue...

If I do however learn that the spring diameter is a factor that has noticable change in performance, I will share my findings.

It would be cool to add something to the priceless collection of knowledge that isn't yet here. This site and the members has been the best forum I've ever seen and that includes not just trucks but every conceivable subject. Thanks for everything.

 

I just checked my spare set of Motorcraft's. All springs fit the plugs tightly. Good contact is desireable, but a tight fit probably is not needed.