well gentlemen, i put in the new plugs and took it for a test drive. everything was fine for about 10 miles then bang. back to sputtering on down the road. ggrrrrrr!! maddening! brought it back home and pulled all coils again to have a looksee. i turned the key on and tested for voltage at the coil wires. everything ok. samething happened last time. goes for awhile then back to sputtering. could it be coincidence that the fuel filter is dirty?? as a reminder i had the bosch plugs in and it was sputtering. i was on a long trip so i could not stop to remedy the problem. then it went away on its own but lower power telling me that the culprit plug was not firing at all. pulled the bosch plugs out then installed motercraft ones. ran great for 10 miles then back to sputtering. eventually if i left it like the before, it would stop sputtering but not be firing on whatever cylinder. is there a way to test the coil while its under load? even while idleing with it in drive or park you can hear it from the tailpipe sputtering. sounds like a slight pop or gust of air. seams like it would be loading up on fuel then firing causing the slight pop. no?? please tell me all suggestions however miniscule they may seem.

clarence

 

Coils are spiking - high or low and maybe both.

Sounds like it's time to go to the dealer and let them hook it up to a Worldwide Diagnostic System (WDS) to tell which coil(s) it is. And, yes, the engine may need to be under load in some way...even if it means hooking it up to a trailer of some heft.

 

I replaced my plugs at a little over 100k miles and had none stuck or tight. Does Ford use anti-sieze on them from the factory. BTW I used the oem plugs and now have about 50k on them now, so far so good..

 

made an appointment for today to hook it up to the wds test. they also have four coils in stock. gee i wonder why!? anyway i will let you guys know what the goings on are after i get back from the dealer.


clarence

 

I hope the dealer that you took it to has a better understand of where parts come from than this. Bosch is German.

 

Bosch plugs don't work very well in for products. They work well in European vehicles but for some reason they don't work in Ford's very well. I would use the motor craft regular sparkplug they seemed work just fine. Good luck

 

well, i was at the dealer for about an hour and $265 dollars later it was the number 3 coil. it showed it going flat on the diagnostic computer. that coil is the fourth one back on the passenger side. i pulled out the bosch plugs and when i looked at them very closely, i noticed that all the plugs were a light brown as they should have been but, one of them was light brown on the one side of the grounding electrodes,and black on the other side of the electrodes. where did the one come from? you guessed it, number three cylinder. i even mentioned that to the father in law this morning!! lucky guess?? coincidence??? maybe i have just entered the twilight zone........i would take a pic and show you guys so you can see too but this computer is running on windows 98 so i cant get the pics off the camera. maybe tomorrow.

anyway i am much happier now as you can tell. thanks for all the replies and i will be on again soon with more questions about more stuff. you guys pretty much nailed it with the coil going.

clarence

 

In cases like this, it makes sense to buy one coil, and if you can detect plug differences, swap in the new coil on the "weird" plug and see if it helps.

Of course, that's with 20/20 hindsight, and someone else's hindsight to boot

 

o'Reilly has the motercraft ones here for less than $3.

Why are they so expensive in your neck of the woods?

 

how are you suppose to gap a plug like this

 

Shouldn't have to, it's not going to need it.

 

That plug looks nothing like my plugs. It looks like they come pre-gaped and cannot be gaped.

What year model. Are you sure you have the correct plug.

 

You are posting a question on a ten year old thread, but to answer the question - you don't.
The plugs for the OPs 2000 V10 are Motorcraft SP479.
I get them on ebay for $2.93/ea, no tax, free shipping.

 

That's a 05-10 3v spark plug

 

ok sorry for the confusion.. i was thinkin he was talking about a 6.8 v10.. i just assumed all the 6.8 took the same plug as 05