Well here we go again... about 3 weeks ago I had my new JDM short block installed in my 01 L and drove my truck for about 350 before I had it dynoed. The night before, I floored my truck with my friend behind me. As soon as I got back to my house he said my truck was smoking at WOT. So I thought well maybe its still in its breakin point and didn't think anything of it. The next day comes and we get it on the dyno, floored it one good time and the whole room filled up with whitish blue smoke. The second run the truck missed and knocked. The tech pulled the plugs and found this......










The last one was the worst ^. all good plugs we're gapped and 50. Moral of the story- compresstion test showed 190-180 psi on the good 5cyl and the other 3cyl was 140psi and the leakdown showed a possible pair of bent exhust valves so the truck is hurt and will need to be taken apart ...again. My question is what are the best spark plugs for the 01 L's and what should they be gaped at? I have NGK copper plugs in it now gapped at 35.

Let me know what you guys think.

 

Man, who installed the engine and who created your break-in tune?

As for your spark plugs, it all depends on what modifications you have and what heat range you need. Here's a chart for you to use only as a guideline.



That being said, there are a lot of guys running built blocks with a lot of boost who still like the NGK TR6 plugs, even though the plug is not within their heat range, according to the chart.

The TR6 plugs are proven, very durable, hardy plugs that put up with a lot of abuse.

Stewart

 

Hey again Stewart- well the same people that we bought the truck from installed it, a then Lincoln Mercury dealer.

We used the same tune that came with the truck when I bought it (Diablosport black chip) until I could get it on the dyno for myself. Another thing to note- after the install of the JDM motor the tech working there (according to him) said he intentually left off an INTAKE vaccume line to "keep boost down!"...

^This is what caused the truck to run lean, hot and eat away at the spark plugs in my opinion because there was unmonitored air going into the motor. What do you think about that?

The dyno I took it to was called Amazon Tuning, out of SC, they we're the ones that discovered the problem and only tuned my truck just to get home with a addition of a upper pulley (5lb lower and Motoblue upper) the truck was the same as I bought it. The tech at Amazon didn't want it blowing up on his watch...understandable

My truck is sitting in my garage again untill we get this thing resolved

 

Those plugs were definitely overheated big time as you already said. I doubt that leaving a vacuum line off is the cause of it. If a vacuum leak was big enough to do that it was also big enough that it should have cause codes for a lean condition. What is possible is that the truck was too lean before and the problem didn't manifest itself until you put in the built motor. My 01 runs at 13:1 air fuel on the stock tune. I didn't believe it at first, but to read the same on 3 different dynos I'm confident that the number is correct. If yours was the same and a generic chip was installed it is probably even leaner now and that is where your problem is at.

The heat range of the plugs should not affect what happens to the ground electrode. The heat range controls how quickly heat is removed from the center electrode. I like the chart above. I'm curious to know if it was generated based on adding boost with blower pullies only, or if it is also accurate when boost is added or lost with other mods. When I added a drop in filter I gained about 2psi, when I added full exhaust I lost the 2 psi, so I'm wondering how that affects it. I'm back at stock boost, so it doesn't matter for me, I'm just curious. BTW, I run the Denso IT20's.

Your compression numbers are a little odd to me. For a naturally aspirated engine to run on pump gas without detonation you typically can only get away with about 175 psi cranking compression on pump gas. On your supercharged engine you have more than that on 5 cylinders. ???? 140 psi on the other three is a little more inline with what I would expect. What is the compression ratio of the engine? One thing I have noticed is that most bent valves make very little compression, definitely not 140 psi. Anything is possible, but there is usually no middle ground with valves: they either seal fine or they barely seal at all. 140 psi seems strange for bent valves. I would tend to suspect a valvejob that wasn't right in the first place or maybe a tight guide that doesn't let the valve close as quickly as it should. It's also possible that those holes have had the rings washed down with unburned fuel if they were the ones misfiring or if they were towards the end of the compression test. You can rule out the latter by holding the accelerator to the floor during the test to stop the PCM from injecting fuel. Did you follow up the intitial compression test with a wet test by putting a teaspoon or so of oil down the spark plug hole and repeating the test?

Anyway, just a few thoughts from someone who is probably too sleepy right now to be thinking so hard.

 

been racing ford engines for years in the circle track dirt track. I could not really tell from the photo but if you got little tiny specks of brown up on the porcelin then you are running to much timing advance. now I dont know jack about computers I come from the distributer and msd box gang. but a plug is gonna tell you a story. we have had them burn the tang off already just like yours. from to lean and too much advance. hope your pistons are ok. I also got my own plug problems on my 04 fx4 with a 5.4 3valve. broke one in the back.. Good luck to ya

 

Hey Ace.

What do I think of the Ford tech who didn't do a complete job, the correct way? Well, I guess there's a reason a lot of folks would rather do it themselves, or find a mechanic they can trust, rather than take their chances with some of the dealership service techs out there.

Silver Streak covered a lot of stuff for you.

The reason I asked about your break-in tune was because I wondered if you actually had a custom tune or stock tune, and if it was custom, was it specifically for your new short block.

Whenever you obtain a new engine, you must obtain and provide certain information for your tuner so he can build you a proper break-in tune. A tune that provides enough fuel for a safe air-fuel ratio, but not so much that it washes down the cylinder walls excessively.

Not to beat you up bro, but it sounds like you had the engine installed and proceeded to just romp on it, without knowing if your tune was adequate for the new engine.

Also, didn't you blow your stock block? Are you using the same heads that were on the blown engine? Did you have the heads torn down and rebuilt, or did the tech just yank them from your old block and slap 'em on your new JDM short block?

As for your choice of tuners, Rick at Amazon Tuning Solutions has a very good reputation. He's been out to California quite a bit the last couple years and has tuned a lot of California Lightnings.

Sorry to hear about your problems bro.

My advice is to call JDM and ask to speak with Jim III. He's Jim D'Amore's son. He'll answer any and all of your questions. He'll talk with you for however long it takes to make sure you get your answers.

He's talked with me several times, for a combined total time of well over an hour, and I'm not even a customer of theirs. I've not ever bought one thing from JDM, but Jim III treats me like I'm one of his best customers.

Don't get me wrong, if I ever get the cash, they'll have my business, I just can't afford anything from them right now. But that doesn't stop Jim III from treating me well.

You have their engine. Ask them how you need to proceed to prevent this from happening. Also, talk with your tuner (I'm assuming it's Rick at Amazon) and ask him what he needs from you, and what you should do before treating your truck with anything less than kid gloves.

Stewart

 

Wow, my experience with JDM was the exact opposite. The first (and only) time I did business with them I spent almost $2k. I spent a lot of time on the phone with them before and during the sale just trying to talk to someone who knew anything. On the rare occasions that I did get to talk to someone they dodged my questions with frivolous BS answers or outright lied to me. Definitely not someone I would ever deal with again, but it seems that all of the big name tuners share at least a little of that reputation.

 

Huh, that is completely opposite of my experience.

I swapped PM's with Jim III over at SVT P. On his very first response he gave me his cell number for me to call him so we could talk.

That blew me away.

Stewart