I HATE the 2V spark plug wells...need opinions

ScortLX · Mar 14, 2010

Ok...this one topic is comprised of two separate questions. I've been tearing down the engine in my '02 in preparation for the KB 2.1L that is going on it in a few weeks. Here are my questions:

1. When I changed the plugs to the TR-6's, I cleaned around the wells and vacuumed out the wells along with using compressed (canned) air. I don't have a compressor so that was the best I had. It cleared out a bunch of the oily stuff in the bottom of the wells, but there was still some little stuff left that couldn't be removed. There were no big chunks of anything in there though. I removed the old plugs and put the new ones in and torqued to 13 lb-ft. If a little of the stuff left in the well happened to fall in, am I completely screwed? I just don't see how to COMPLETELY clean them out before the change. It's just bugging me.

2. I'm in the process of removing the intake manifold and I pulled the fuel rail on the drivers side. Of course, fuel came out and I caught the majority of it. It looks like it went down two of the spark plug wells though. I soaked up with fuel with paper towel and the rest has seemed to evaporate. Do I now have to swap the two plugs that had the fuel in the wells? Or will that not really affect their function? I thought about trying to clean them with electrical contact cleaner, but I don't want to do something that will screw them up more.

Just need some opinions from people out there. With the amount of 2v's that were made, I'm sure this has happened to some people as well. Thanks!

trombonedemon · Mar 14, 2010

You should be fine, the car will burn off the dirt and slightly extra fuel with no problem, I didn't even clean out my spark plug wells when I changed the intake manifold after changing the spark plugs do to lack of equipment and inacess, IMHO, unless its in excess or you are dead set on getting it out of there, you should be fine.

trinity_gt · Mar 14, 2010

ScortLX said:
Ok...this one topic is comprised of two separate questions. I've been tearing down the engine in my '02 in preparation for the KB 2.1L that is going on it in a few weeks. Here are my questions:

1. When I changed the plugs to the TR-6's, I cleaned around the wells and vacuumed out the wells along with using compressed (canned) air. I don't have a compressor so that was the best I had. It cleared out a bunch of the oily stuff in the bottom of the wells, but there was still some little stuff left that couldn't be removed. There were no big chunks of anything in there though. I removed the old plugs and put the new ones in and torqued to 13 lb-ft. If a little of the stuff left in the well happened to fall in, am I completely screwed? I just don't see how to COMPLETELY clean them out before the change. It's just bugging me.

Sounds like you were pretty diligent about cleaning the wells. Don't worry about it. My 02 GTs wells are spic-and-span, probably because the coil packs, when installed, form a pretty good seal against random junk falling down there. Do yours not seat well?

2. I'm in the process of removing the intake manifold and I pulled the fuel rail on the drivers side. Of course, fuel came out and I caught the majority of it. It looks like it went down two of the spark plug wells though. I soaked up with fuel with paper towel and the rest has seemed to evaporate. Do I now have to swap the two plugs that had the fuel in the wells? Or will that not really affect their function? I thought about trying to clean them with electrical contact cleaner, but I don't want to do something that will screw them up more.

They'll be fine. The gas will just evaporate and leave behind a little gum/varnish. If the wells were flooded, you might want to take the plugs out and wipe down the insulators with a rag wetted with brake cleaner to get rid of the gum/varnish left on them, but that's being pretty retentive...

BTW, what did you set the gap to on the TR6s?

ScortLX · Mar 14, 2010

trinity_gt said:
Sounds like you were pretty diligent about cleaning the wells. Don't worry about it. My 02 GTs wells are spic-and-span, probably because the coil packs, when installed, form a pretty good seal against random junk falling down there. Do yours not seat well?

Well, to be honest, this is the first time I had ever pulled the COP's. I should have changed the plugs before 73K miles, but they were fine, so I never took the COP's off. Actually, they sealed quite well. I think my PCV valve is on the way out because the passenger side had some oil on the top of the valve covers and in the area of the sp wells. Not much was really in there (large chunk wise) when I opened them up. I'm probably just being crazy anal about it. I think the seal was ok considering how many miles were on the car and the amount of stuff in the wells.

trinity_gt said:
They'll be fine. The gas will just evaporate and leave behind a little gum/varnish. If the wells were flooded, you might want to take the plugs out and wipe down the insulators with a rag wetted with brake cleaner to get rid of the gum/varnish left on them, but that's being pretty retentive...

BTW, what did you set the gap to on the TR6s?

I set the gaps at .035. Hope that's good. I'll probably let them be and see how it goes. In the well, the fuel wasn't really any higher than 1/4 up the plug, so they will probably be ok. How do you like your KB?

trinity_gt · Mar 14, 2010

ScortLX said:
Well, to be honest, this is the first time I had ever pulled the COP's. I should have changed the plugs before 73K miles, but they were fine, so I never took the COP's off. Actually, they sealed quite well. I think my PCV valve is on the way out because the passenger side had some oil on the top of the valve covers and in the area of the sp wells. Not much was really in there (large chunk wise) when I opened them up. I'm probably just being crazy anal about it. I think the seal was ok considering how many miles were on the car and the amount of stuff in the wells.

The weeping near the PCV seems pretty common. I don't think the valve is the problem so much as the seal in the VC is the problem.

I set the gaps at .035. Hope that's good.

That's about what I set mine at. If I stayed at 0.054" I'd get misfire codes. Nothing so far after bringing the gap down.

I'll probably let them be and see how it goes. In the well, the fuel wasn't really any higher than 1/4 up the plug, so they will probably be ok. How do you like your KB?

Love it. I think mine's going to need a rebuild before too long. I got it used and the previous owner spun the piss out of it with the 14-pound pulley. It seems to boost fine but makes a bit of a humming noise at certain RPM ranges. The sound reminds me of what the rotors may sound like if they touched the housing but it only happens at certain RPM points: at 2700 I don't hear it. At 2800 I do and it's gone by 2900 again. As well, mine appears to weep a bit of oil -- ever so slowly -- so that I have to wipe down the back of the manifold maybe twice a season. I've never had to add oil to it so the leak is pretty small.

I had mine installed at a shop near here that'd never done a KB before. They did a pretty good, clean job but left the plugs at 0.054" and left the PCV system wide open leading to a pretty large vacuum leak. Even so it made 385rwHP with the 9-psi pulley and stock intake (right down to the paper filter) and factory 4-cat H-pipe. I've since adjusted the gaps down and fixed the PCV and gone to a cone filter so it's probably picked up another 5 or 10HP.

I used the KB chip -- no custom tune -- which is very fat and conservative/safe. This is fine by me as I can''t really afford to blow the shortblock to smithereens. However, I do find that fuel mileage seems abysmal, even just tootling around. On the highway I've seen 23-24MPG with it but in town with a few highway runs here and there... well, I've gone ~150KMs (about 94 miles) when the gas gauge is lurking around 1/2 tank. My Mustang brochures say the car has a 13-imp.gal tank so if I really went through 6.5 imp.gals to go 94 miles, I'm getting 14-MPG.

I guess that's actually not that bad given how much more power and torque is on tap. The website "fueleconomy.gov" rates the 02 GT stock at 17/27 city/hwy so losing 3MPG on each seems pretty reasonable. Maybe it's just that the tank is so small (13 gallons) that having gone less than 100 miles and seeing 1/2-tank gone is fooling me... Who cares? It's a supercharged V8 and I'm a leadfoot

I think I could get more power and better economy with a proper dyno-tune but I like the safety of the KB tune and am willing to live with extra gas usage to get it. And because I'm on the stock bottom end, I don't want to eke out every last HP by taking out fuel and adding spark and bringing the engine that much closer to becoming a boat anchor.

You're going to love the 2.1. Just remember the limits of the stock shortblock (unless yours is built): The 1.7 can easily generate enough boost to hurt stock parts so the 2.1 is even more capable

ScortLX · Mar 14, 2010

Thanks for all the info Trinity. I appreciate the help. I'm going to have the car tuned with someone who has tuned multiple cars in my local club and does a great job. I'm going to have him do a really conservative tune with it and I want to make 380-390 at the rear. I've even contemplated getting the 8lb pulley and running that instead of the 9lb in the kit. I can't wait to see it run again with the KB on it. I don't mind going really conservative with the tune, so rich is what it will be with timing that is very non-aggressive. Hopefully it will all work out really well. Do you have any pics of the setup on your car I could see?

trinity_gt · Mar 14, 2010

ScortLX said:
Thanks for all the info Trinity. I appreciate the help. I'm going to have the car tuned with someone who has tuned multiple cars in my local club and does a great job. I'm going to have him do a really conservative tune with it and I want to make 380-390 at the rear. I've even contemplated getting the 8lb pulley and running that instead of the 9lb in the kit. I can't wait to see it run again with the KB on it. I don't mind going really conservative with the tune, so rich is what it will be with timing that is very non-aggressive. Hopefully it will all work out really well. Do you have any pics of the setup on your car I could see?

Here's one of the set-up just after it was installed. Looks about the same now.

cronin49 · Mar 15, 2010

trinity_gt said:
The weeping near the PCV seems pretty common. I don't think the valve is the problem so much as the seal in the VC is the problem.

That's about what I set mine at. If I stayed at 0.054" I'd get misfire codes. Nothing so far after bringing the gap down.

Love it. I think mine's going to need a rebuild before too long. I got it used and the previous owner spun the piss out of it with the 14-pound pulley. It seems to boost fine but makes a bit of a humming noise at certain RPM ranges. The sound reminds me of what the rotors may sound like if they touched the housing but it only happens at certain RPM points: at 2700 I don't hear it. At 2800 I do and it's gone by 2900 again. As well, mine appears to weep a bit of oil -- ever so slowly -- so that I have to wipe down the back of the manifold maybe twice a season. I've never had to add oil to it so the leak is pretty small.

I had mine installed at a shop near here that'd never done a KB before. They did a pretty good, clean job but left the plugs at 0.054" and left the PCV system wide open leading to a pretty large vacuum leak. Even so it made 385rwHP with the 9-psi pulley and stock intake (right down to the paper filter) and factory 4-cat H-pipe. I've since adjusted the gaps down and fixed the PCV and gone to a cone filter so it's probably picked up another 5 or 10HP.

I used the KB chip -- no custom tune -- which is very fat and conservative/safe. This is fine by me as I can''t really afford to blow the shortblock to smithereens. However, I do find that fuel mileage seems abysmal, even just tootling around. On the highway I've seen 23-24MPG with it but in town with a few highway runs here and there... well, I've gone ~150KMs (about 94 miles) when the gas gauge is lurking around 1/2 tank. My Mustang brochures say the car has a 13-imp.gal tank so if I really went through 6.5 imp.gals to go 94 miles, I'm getting 14-MPG.

I guess that's actually not that bad given how much more power and torque is on tap. The website "fueleconomy.gov" rates the 02 GT stock at 17/27 city/hwy so losing 3MPG on each seems pretty reasonable. Maybe it's just that the tank is so small (13 gallons) that having gone less than 100 miles and seeing 1/2-tank gone is fooling me... Who cares? It's a supercharged V8 and I'm a leadfoot

I think I could get more power and better economy with a proper dyno-tune but I like the safety of the KB tune and am willing to live with extra gas usage to get it. And because I'm on the stock bottom end, I don't want to eke out every last HP by taking out fuel and adding spark and bringing the engine that much closer to becoming a boat anchor.

You're going to love the 2.1. Just remember the limits of the stock shortblock (unless yours is built): The 1.7 can easily generate enough boost to hurt stock parts so the 2.1 is even more capable

Your '02's gas tank is only 13 gallons?? R U sure? My '03's is 15.7 gallons. Check your owners manual sir.
Thank you

trinity_gt · Mar 15, 2010

cronin49 said:
Your '02's gas tank is only 13 gallons?? R U sure? My '03's is 15.7 gallons. Check your owners manual sir.

1 imperial gallon (the unit my Ford Canada sales brochure lists) is 1.2 US gallons. 13imperial gallons x 1.2 is 15.6 US gallons.

That, of course, makes things even worse mileage-wise: 94/7.6 = 12.4 miles per US gallon :/

Rickyll7 · Mar 15, 2010

KB FTW! Haha. It's great and you'll love it.

If you soaked those plugs 1/4 depth with fuel, I would clean them up, but you will probably by fine.

ScortLX · Mar 15, 2010

Rickyll7 said:
KB FTW! Haha. It's great and you'll love it.

If you soaked those plugs 1/4 depth with fuel, I would clean them up, but you will probably by fine.

I can't wait! Thanks for the advice.

I HATE the 2V spark plug wells...need opinions

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