I just bought my 1998 5.2L 318 V8 dakota the other day, I was going through the tune up procedures today and noticed the sizes of the spark plugs are off.


Old plugs:
Champion RC12LC4 plugs

New plugs:
NGK FR5-1 7252


My concern: The NGK are about 1-2 milimeters longer than the champions that I took out. (I havn't started the car, nor will I, until I find out if anyone else here uses the same NGK's that I have)

Napa is closed until monday, and i would really like to finish the plugs tonight/tomorrow so that I can drive my truck again.
I think I have a one step hotter plug (thinking the guy behind the desk did that b/c my truck has 150,000 miles) I don't mind if its one step hotter, just if the piston will hit the spark plug or not (NGK's website says I should have the ZFR6F-11 4291)

1. Does anyone else use these plugs in their Dakota?

2. Will the 1-2 mm longer NGK hit the top of the piston?


Thanks for your help in advance

 

God I would hope not. I doubt piston/sparkplug clearance is that small.

 

dumb question but i gotta ask it:
did you gap them? and if so maybe the old ones weren't gapped correctly

 

i just checked napa and according to their website they gave u the correct ones, but according to advance auto they have these four diff ones
http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/subcategory_Ignition-and-Tune-Up_-49997333_-49997327_10151_10051_-1___#storeId=10151&langId=-1&catalogId=10051&categoryId=-49997333&searchTerm=&pageId=ajaxPartList&category= &keywords=Ignition-and-Tune-Up&l1_categoryId=&l2_categoryId=-49997327*-49997333&partType=&facetFields=%2CpriceBucket%2Ccl earance%2Csale%2Cpart_type&beginIndex=0&filterValu e=mfrName_exact%3ANGK|NGK&sortBy=0&pageSize=20&fil ters=mfrName_exact%3ANGK

edit: but autozone says u got the right ones as well this is weird i doubt it will make a difference i bet ur fine

 

So according to Napa, the plug I have is correct.

According to advanced auto, when i search for my model and engine, it pops up the NGK that Napa didn't give me,

But,
when i search the NGK that napa gave me on advanced auto's website, it says it fits my engine and model.

So, i compare the specs on both NGK's, they are identical other than the heat range. The plug Napa gave me is one step hotter than the one that advanced auto would recommend, both being gapped at .040

so then i look at champions website, the champions that were in the motor already are considered to have been of 'equal quality to recommended OEM'

which leads me to believe that champion is the oddball here

hmmm...

so many possibilities

i just dont want to crank the starter and hear pistons hitting spark plugs... that is not something I would want to go through... I sure hope some technician somewhere wasn't deprived of coffee, or was rushing to finish specs and cross referencing spark plug clearences when this was decided....


Thank you JoshAbels for looking that up, you got me to think about reverse lookup...


Has anyone used NGK FR5-1 7252 plugs in their dakota?

 

The spark plugs work great! No problems.

 

Figured that would happen.

 

there's too much to risk for me if they were the wrong plugs....


I figured if napa had them in their database, then someone somewhere else has them in their 318 dodge. If there were complications, i would have found something somewhere...

i was holding my breathe when i turned the key though...

 

glad to hear they worked

 

***** This is Old I know! But, just borrowed a car to go back to the store ... because those v-power are 1/4 inch longer ... I guess I have an extra set now ... please update that they worked fine ... right until it exploded so I know I should keep ... Thanks!