Bump.
Hi guys! So, yesterday I was looking at my spark plugs-- well, the 5 of them that I could get to. The ones I pulled looked basically like the one in the picture in post #3 of this thread. Maybe the pointy part (electrode?) was just a tad longer. I tried to measure the gap with my regular tape measure, and it looked to me like it was about 3/32. Brother and dad, who were one the phone, seemed to think that sounded too big. One of the plugs also had a little bit of sort of caked/crusty gray stuff on it. On the part with the 90-degree angle. Brother said that was probably fine. My neighbor thought the plugs looked fine.
So, got some questions:
1. This forum says the gap should be .06. If my math is right, mine is closer to .09, which couldn't possibly be good, right? Bad for your coils, because they have to work harder to make the spark jump across?
2. The spark plugs are attached to the ignition coils. Do they only fire when you are starting the car? Or are they what causes all of the tiny explosions that make the car go? So, when someone says your firing order is 1,2,7,3,4,5,6,8- that is referring to the spark plugs, right? And that is happening the whole time your car is running?
3. When I put mine back in, I was just using a socket extender, and tightening them hand-tight. My brother told me to put a ratchet on there and turn them a tiny bit more, maybe 1/8 to 1/4 of a turn, but don't force them. But I saw somewhere where Ranger said they are supposed to be tightened to 13 foot-pounds. Did I screw them up by not using a torque wrnch?
4. What is anti-sieze? Just lubricant so they'll come out again? I didn't put any.
Thanks.
PS_ I don't know if/when the plugs were last changed. I did notice that they said Delco.
