My dad used to have an old '86 F150 with the 300 inline 6 and he said it would go through copper plugs every 8-10,000 miles. Maybe thats just that engine that uses coppers that often i dont know..

 

Well these engines don't, Dodge says to change em' every 30k, could you go longer but why they are so cheap.

 

Once again, it's my dad's vehicle and i know hes not gonna buy different plugs and do this all over again. If it was my truck, yeah they'd be bought and ready to go in first thing tommorow morning lol.
I like working on these trucks though. I like how they're sorta oldskool under the hood. Not much except an engine and a few hoses. Nothing like my mom's explorer. That things a nightmare under the hood.

 

I totally understand what your dad did and why, but that was the old technology and this is the new. He thinks he retarded/advances it, and actually he did somewhat, but he did not index the distributor. The way it is set up as long as it is close to #1 TDC in the cap the PCM makes up the difference to advance and retard timing according to numerous inputs, until you force it out of it's perameters. Of course you can turn it out of the PCM's regulation, so yes it does "some" things, but not what he is thinking. See here how to do it correctly without a OBD reader: https://dodgeforum.com/forum/1st-gen...er-please.html

That is NOT how you advance or retard the timing. In the old age you took off the vacuum line advance. Then you used a timing light to tell you the degrees BTDC and you adjusted it for wear which again was like 1-3 degrees. Then you replaced the advance vacuum and that increased and decreased the advance to the RPM of the motor. A very good trained mechanic, and I mean trained mechanic like myself where taught to listen for a specific sound, then you used that sound to only reference a point. Then you hooked up a timing light to ensure you in fact were not over what it could be, and you also inputted many other references like cam, lift, and timing component wear into the figure to ensure you actually nailed down the correct advance to make up for the wear. Like I said, you need to know what your talking about not just a sound. WHat he did was take it to it's breaking point then back it off a little, that did you NOTHING but take it out of it's comfortable parameters. He forced it into an advancement, however that does not account for when it needs to further advance or retard because of barometer pressure, sea level pressures, and humidity.

No, Platinum plugs are not OEM. OEM is Champion Copper plugs, in fact you can look under the hood on one of the two labels and it will show you the factory plug number it needs and the gap at .040.

Yes it compensates for some movement, but it can only compensate for so much. All the inputs change the timing also including out side abundant temperature and many other things. It's not like it's going to fix it's self because you pulled it out of parameter so it can't. It's tough love ok, you screwed it up and now you need to put it back as close as you can, it's called doing it by OBD or manually getting it close by indexing in which I already gave you the link.

Not to be an *****, but do what you want, seriously I'm tired of typing such long responses to try to prove a point that is out of the normal mechanical range.

 

+1 hydra, the computer sets the timing accordingly. You just have to index the distributor and the rest is magic.

 

also the truck did NOT come from the factory with platinum plugs in it, it came with champion coppers in it when brand new.

the only way you go through plugs in 10k (even coppers) is if you are running the wrong heat range plug in the engine.

 

My dad had a few hopped up fords back in the 70s, and he used to own a timing light, so he knows what he's talking about with the timing..he said he would turn the distributor and it would begin to sound different, and if it pinged, then back off a little. And he'd point the light at the damper and check what the engine was at. I'm not implying you dont know what your talking about hydrashocker, you put out some good info. I'll admit that i think my dad is stuck in the '70s. He knows the tricks from back then, when there wasnt such a thing as a PCM, and tuning a car was all by ear

 

In any case, the plugs you selected are way to hot for your engine. Step it down a bit to the regular champion copper cores and save your engines internals before its too late. If you need to go that far with it then have fun selling it for $800 because it has a blown engine.

Even if your dad won't go out and buy the correct plugs, then go out and buy them yourself. It will cost you $20 for 8 copper core plugs.

 

alright well thanks for the advice guys, i really had no idea that platinums were bad for these engines, and of corse i found out after we bought them. But what about iridium plugs? DO they work in the Magnums? I know they do last a bit longer than a copper plug..

 

Iridiums are way to hot also. Just get the basic coppers.