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My Spark Plug Story... 07 3.0L

24K views 21 replies 13 participants last post by  klitch 
#1 ·
So I was going over my fusion with a careful eye this week when it occured to me.. 68,000 miles.. Maybe I should pull a plug and see how things are looking. Upon doing so I noticed the tips were worn and the plug overall needed replaced... So, having an auto repair garage, I got on my commercial account and pulled up my car to look at the options.. We all LOVE pictures right.. So I'm looking @ everything from Autolite XP's to Motorcraft OE...

Now the exciting part.. I did the research and decided yea, lets go oe because I haven't done anything performance so what will I really see in spending 7+ a plug for the autolite's.. Well according to autozone and napa.. My motorcraft plug SHOULD BE an SP433... Which factory number is AGSF 32WM... WHAT I ACTUALLY HAD was AGSF 32N... Interesting I thought so before I accepted what I was being told to be OE I decided to try FoMoCo.... Yet again.. same story....

Talked to a tech @ a bar thursday night who said he recalled the ford 500 3.0L running an SP413, AGSF 32N.. Now we're getting somewhere... This plug is Nickle grade and not rated past 50,000 miles.... He went on to explain the new factory spec is this SP433 which is 100,000 mi RATED plug..

To sum the whole story up.. IF you own an 06,07,08 with a 3.0L You possibly have the inferior nickle plug and you should probably invest in a tuneup and the SP433 plugs.. It cleared up my early morning roughish idle and my light hesitation.. IMMEDIATELY!

Thanks for reading I truly hope this helps someone down the road
 
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#2 ·
Hi huntersteve61, I too checked my plugs early( around 38-40,000 miles ) . I noticed they were a little worn. I changed them for Bosch platinum4 ( another story, they suck!! ) and it ran like crap. Changed them to Autolite upgrade plugs and also cured a cold start miss. Good catch!
 
#4 ·
I've got an '08 3.0L with 52,000 miles. Checked one of the plugs and indeed they're AGSF 32N. Looks like I'll be swapping those out here soon. I'm guessing it's a bitch to take out the intake manifold?
 
#5 ·
Well I just called Ford. They did say the replacement part # is AGSF 32WM. I asked him what the difference between 32N and 32WM and he said the 32N was original part and the 32WM is the same plug, just the replacement part #. Both role up into the SP433 and are good for 100,000 miles.

Anyone else have thoughts on this?
 
#6 ·
I agree that both plugs are 100,000 mile plugs. That doesn't mean it is a good idea to go that far. I intend to change the plugs on my wife's 03 Escape at 80,000 miles. At her current rate of use, that will likely be next year sometime.

Worn plugs take more voltage to fire, especially when the under load is high. Forcing a coil to work above its ideal voltage rage is rough on the coil, and is likely a prime cause of coil failure. A brief explanation is that the voltage required to fire the plug varies considerably during driving due to various conditions, but mostly due to cylinder pressure. The higher the pressure, the more voltage needed. Other factors include fuel to air mixture, temperature of the air / fuel charge, and cylinder head temperature.

As to the part number difference, I would have to see the plug, but I do know that often the replacement plug is threaded further up the plug, but the tapered shoulder that determines how deep the plug goes into the head is in the same place. That makes the plugs interchangable, but just with extra threads.

The main thing that determines plug life is the materials in the firing zone. That is the center wire and the side wire. Of the two, the most critical is the firing wire which on our cars is the center wire. Engines with coil packs fire half of the engine from the center wire and the other half from the side wire (reverse polarity). Our cars use iridium on the center wire because of its superior erosion restance. On the side wire, platinum is used. Platinum is still much better than steel, but the side wire does not erode nearly as much as the center wire.

Although you can use plugs with a different configuration of the firing wires, the fine wire iridium center and platinum side wire has proven to be the longest lasting trouble free configuration. Double platinum using a larger center wire doesn't hold up as well, and the multi side wire plugs (such as Bosch +4) are just plain junk in our engines.

As far as brand is concerned, Motorcraft is what the engineers specified (they told the vendor what they wanted and the vendor built it to Ford's specs, although there is some of the vendor saying this is what we have, what do you need). Autolite, the prime spark plug vendor, makes plugs under their own label that are either identical or very nearly so.

NKG furnishes some Motorcraft plugs, especially for engines that are bound for Europe. You can easily tell them because they look like an NKG but with the Motorcraft label. Ford's replacement plugs for those are usually supplied by Autolite. Anyway, NKG is usually a high quality plug and works well in our cars, but often priced at a premium with no real benefit from the higher price.
 
#8 ·
Hey the plug looks the same except for the tip. The 32N is nickle plated "platinum" plug. The SP433 plug is the same physical plug with double platinum and finewire design. Reguardless the N series is now inferior therefore CHANGE!!! And 100K is such overkill.. I was already having light miss at cold start with 68,000.

As for the intake its easier than you think! Remove intake, unbolt electronic Tbody, unbolt egr and unplug 1 sensor on left back of plenum. Loosen the 8 bolts and pull it up and out towards you. While its out wipe out the Tbody, the egr, and replace the plenum gaskets. I can provide the part numbers should you need them for felpro gaskets! took me 2 hours and I had a buddy show up midway and talk my ear off.

Cheers!
 
#13 ·
Hey the plug looks the same except for the tip. The 32N is nickle plated "platinum" plug. The SP433 plug is the same physical plug with double platinum and finewire design. Reguardless the N series is now inferior therefore CHANGE!!! And 100K is such overkill.. I was already having light miss at cold start with 68,000.

As for the intake its easier than you think! Remove intake, unbolt electronic Tbody, unbolt egr and unplug 1 sensor on left back of plenum. Loosen the 8 bolts and pull it up and out towards you. While its out wipe out the Tbody, the egr, and replace the plenum gaskets. I can provide the part numbers should you need them for felpro gaskets! took me 2 hours and I had a buddy show up midway and talk my ear off.

Cheers!
One thing to add is be careful on how tight you secure the 8 bolts for the UIM. The bungs (helicoils) on the LIM that the 8 bolts secure into can easily snap. That opens up a whole other can of worms you don't want to get into.
 
#9 ·
[quote author=Fus1on. link=topic=204604.msg4194843#msg4194843 date=1330882370]
[quote author=cmillls45 link=topic=204604.msg4194822#msg4194822 date=1330876555]
I'm guessing it's a bitch to take out the intake manifold?
[/quote]

It doesn't look too hard
http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/3095/intakereminst.jpg
[/quote]

Took me a bit less tha 2 hours to change my plugs. It's not hard at all.
 
#10 ·
I just did my tune up today. Took me 2.5 hr I have kids :)

Wasn't too bad to do myself. My hardest part was getting the dang
Plenum to pull out after loosening it.

I too had the AGSF 32N as the original op had.

My plugs looked worn. I am at 79,000 miles. This thread
Helped me in performing this task myself.
 
#12 ·
I remember it being recommended to replace the intake gaskets, so I bought a set of new ones when I did my plugs at 60k, but to be honest - I would have had no second thoughts about reusing the originals. They were in perfect condition and were very easy to remove and re-install.
 
#17 ·
I didn't use anything when I swapped in the new gaskets (nor would I have if I re-used the old ones). If you are talking about using silicone grease - it is not recommended for use on silicone rubber, but I'm not sure if the gaskets are made with silicone rubber... If you are talking about RTV silicone gasket sealant, I don't think it is necessary or advised.
 
#19 ·
Always use Motorcraft or Autolites with the 3L and remember to change wires too.

Have you guys tried to take out the rear plugs with a long extension? My Cougar said to take off the UIM as well to change the plugs but it wasn't nessisary.. I remembered that motor an the 2.5 V6 only liked those two types of plugs and the plugs would go to hell if the wires weren't changed at the same time. Guys had bad luck with different types of wires too. The only wired that would work was the stock motocraft replacements.
 
#20 ·
Yeah, I used the Motorcraft plugs because I heard of people having issues with a number of the other ones, especially Bosch it seemed like.

Because of the way the manifold is situated it would probably be difficult to get to the rear plugs if you could do it without taking the manifold off (I don't think you can but I didn't try either). Taking the manifold off isn't really hard anyway though so I'd just do it and be done with it.
 
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