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Ask your spark plug, wires and coil questions here

214K views 469 replies 172 participants last post by  amc49 
#1 ·
I've decided to make an "ignition" thread.

and post up answer's to the more commonly asked questions.

Do I need to upgrade my coil?

Simply put.... No
Stock coils will provide enough spark to support over 700whp. The average 4 tower coil will put out between 36-40k volts most aftermarket coils put out only 42k MAX. You will not see any gains what so ever by swapping out a working stock coil for an aftermarket one.

Do I need to go with those really expensive plugs?

Again.... No

Unless you have a HEAVILY Modded (MORE THAN BOLT ONS) engine there is no need to use any other plug than STOCK. You CAN re-gap the stock plugs to .060 (in most cases) and you will get a smoother idle and the overall running of the car will be improved... but just slightly. When you open up the gap it take MORE voltage to jump the gap and make spark.. therefore wider the gap the hotter the spark.

Now if you are running Nitrous of Forced Induction then yes you can benefit from changing plugs. I highly recommend the MotorCraft AZFS22C f4 sparkplugs. They are copper cored (which is one of the BEST conductors of electricity.. better than Iridium) and will provide a wider,stronger spark. They also work VERY well with NA engines,and at $8 a set you cant go wrong.

Should I change plug wires?

Yes

Changing your plugs wires is problely the most effective ignition upgrade you can do on a Focus. Any descent low resistance wire is MILES beyond the stock wires... I can not say how much I despise stock wires for there inability to carry good voltage. Remember the bigger the wire the better... smaller wires will heat up internally and heat greatly reduces their ability to conduct electricity.


Well thats your basic ignition questions covered... feel free to ask any questions that you have.

John
 
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#259 ·
^^^Just don't go too far.
Most of us that opened the gap to .060 use copper plugs (much better conductor than platinum) and have 8.5mm or 9mm wires.

If you go too far, you'll end up with a mis-fire under load.
 
#262 ·
Most of us that got Taylor wires have opted for the 8.2mm Thundervolts.
You must have got the Spiro Pros? (8mm)

but tom jsut said taylor wires are crap
Where did he say that?
Ah, I see...
http://www.focusfanatics.com/forum/showthread.php?p=2252808&#post2252808

I respectfully disagree...(And so do several others in this thread that have installed them)
http://www.focusfanatics.com/forum/showthread.php?p=937954&#post937954
^^^Note my comment about the FRPP wires.

BTW, CaysE did some resistance testing on the Taylor wires versus SD Livewires.
The Taylors blew the SD wires away, and they had 10,000 miles on them.
Here's his first post with measurements:
http://www.focusfanatics.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1574338&#post1574338
Be sure to read the follow on posts with more measurements.
 
#263 ·
Wires....fires

Personally, I like the Taylors. They seem to take some of the hesitation out, of course it could be the cc plugs as well. it's your money, you decide. I've had mine for about 3k miles so far and no problems. I'll keep on posting as I go. The FR wires are probably a good bet as well, but the measurements speak for themselves..........
 
#264 ·
I just installed Taylor Thundervolt 8.2mm wires on my '01 Zetec. I decided to go with Taylor after reading this thread, so now I'm giving back with the resistance of the wires!

Stock wires:
5060 ohms on the longest one
5290 ohms on the second longest wire (weird, I know...I had to double-check this and the long wire)
3690 on the third
2350 on the short wire


Now, for the Thundervolts:
74.3 ohms on the long wire
64.2
52.3
32.0 on the short wire.

Holy crap, that's just awesome.

Honestly, I haven't noticed any difference in how the car drives, but Summit Racing included some stickers with my order, so once I stick those on I'll probably be up about 20 hp :p
 
#265 ·
wooot!! just installed the Steeda wires i had bought from Mike a while back, along with some Motorcraft coppers which i gapped to .060

also put in the red powdercoated contour valve cover
(pics soon)

question-- what should i do with the old wires? i figured i'd toss them, but if they are copper i might take them to the recycler... or maybe someone here on FF could have a use for them [dunno]





btw.. i noticed that the Steedas are a bit longer than the stockers...weird
 
#274 ·
It is in the SVT Forum, but there are links to it in other forums like Zetec and FI... this just happened to be where I was when I typed it up.

To answer your question the plugs, wires and gaps work fine on all zetec based engines (even non Focus)
 
#278 ·
I've washed my engine a few days ago and after that the engine wasn't running properly. After I drove the car a few miles and with the engine hot I pulled the boot of the longest wire to check if there is water in there and sure thing there was a lot but when I did this I was left with boot in my hand and the metal part of it stuck on the spark plug.
I have Taylor wires. The car runs fine now after I cleaned the water and pushed the metal insert back into the boot and there are no error codes.
Is this suppose to happen? I've removed spark plug wires before when the engine was hot and it was ok.
 
#279 ·
No it shouldnt do that, I would keep an eye on that wire... its going to eventually give you problems.
 
#282 ·
Good question.

I dont know I've never bought them from Jegs or Summit
 
#284 ·
Well my motorcraft copper cores and C-F-M wires showed up today. Gapped the plugs to .060, all I can say is it really smoothed out the engine. The gap on the old plugs was like .058 with the stock wires, so I can imagine thats why my car was running rough before...
 
#285 ·
Got my massive speed wires and copper cores on today. Maybe its because my factory plugs had 76,000 km on them but wow I loved the test drive after. Also could be that I haven't given it gas like that in a while lol.
The massive wires seem like good quality plus have a lifetime warranty for only $40. Only complaint is the #4 wire is a about a half inch too long so it wants to bend a bit too much at the coil.
ps... I'm pretty sure they are the exact same as the focussport ones..
 
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