My '00 Ranger which I purchased 1/05 now has 58K on the original sparkplug wires. Tomorrow I will inspect the plugs to see how well the engine is running.....
Recently installed a Kenwood TS-50S HF radio and Wilson 1000 magnetic mount antenna. I am looking to upgrade to a performance set of suppression wires and sparkplugs to help filter out some of the engine operating noise. After turning the ignition to RUN, but not starting the engine I have found that the fuel pump also creates some noise, but doubt there is much I can do about that.
Has anyone installed a HAM radio in their truck only to find engine noise....???
What suppression plugs and plug wires have you tried and with what results?
All suggestions and recommendations welcome.

OR 4x4

 

they make a noise supression kit for that look around or check some ford tsb's for an 02 sport trac for the kit

 

whatever you do, use motorcraft platinum plugs. they will run the best in your engine.

 

What about stuff like Denso, or that Spitfire (is that correct?) with the 4 things at the end? (I dont know what they are called) Are those any good?

 

I've been fighting an ignition noise for a while now. It is radiated noise (picked up by the antenna, not the power feed. It comes in on VHF, UHF, and 900Mhz. I replaced the spark plug wires and it got better but it was still there. If I cover the whole ignition system in tin foil, it helps but looks rediculious. I'm going to do the plugs next and I too wonder what plug would be best for this.

Funny thing, on Monday afternoon, I was rewiring some things and noise seems to have disappeared. I didn't do anything that should have made it go away. I don't get it. I'm sure it will come back though.

 

Ditto. When I replaced my plugs/wires I used both Motorcraft. Got the plugs from Autozone and the wires from the Ford dealer.

 

Are companies like Splitfire bad for our trucks since im due for a plug change?

 

I've never heard a single good thing about those split-fire or super-save-the-word turbofire plugs.

 

Noise in your CB / HAM Radio can also be caused by a improperly peaked radio or a radio that needs to be peaked, also be sure to get a SWR meter, not the ones on the radio but a true SWR meter and calibrate your antenna's as well as your SWR on your radio to the lowest ratio, this will help with distance and give you less feedback and let you have the squelch up. I got my radio peaked and got my SWR's to about 0 on the scale, and I can talk up to 15 miles on 2ft FireStik II's on an 18ft piece of Co-Phase on a standard Uniden PC76XLW. This really helps and won't cost you much money at all, just some time to get it all calibrated. Don't think a CB / Ham Radio is Plug and Play, you can't just stick it in and go or you can cause damage to your radio and others, also an amp is not the way to go if you are not talking far enough, or recieving far enough for your liking, yet get your radio calibrated correctly, and then if you still are having issues upgrade to co-phase, (dual antenna's) and get larger antenna's to raise your ground plane. The higher your antenna's the longer you can reach since there is not much interference the higher you go. NEVER calibrate your radio under high tention power lines, or power lines for that matter and make sure your antenna's and brackets are mounted properly so your grounding plane is correct. If you antenna light is on, you can probally still be heard, just not well and your radio is not working correctly.

Spark Plug wires and such will probally help you out but all the knowledge here will not cost you anything and is deffinately easier to do than start trying to reduce engine noise. New Plugs and Wires would deffinately help, but I have not replaced one thing on my truck, stock plugs (replaced once), stock wires, and I can get my squelch 85% of the way up without any noise what so ever. The rest I like to keep just so I know that my radio is working, many of times you won't be able to talk as far as you can hear anyways, so remember that.

 

i dont like any other plugs in a ford other than motorcraft, i think youll be less than satisfied if you try something else. the motorcrafts are more expensive than some cheapos, but its worth it.

 

Tuning your SWR and/or "peaking" (whatever that means this week) has nothing to do with radiated RF noise from your ignition. While a properly tuned antenna and quality coax are probably the most important part of anything, it has nothing to do with this problem.

 

I was told bysomeone atan auto parts store that the splitfires are more for imports. Dunno why, but that's what he said. He recommended Motorcraft for Fords. I don't know about the 4.0's but I've tried all kinds of "performance" plugs on my 2.3 and never felt a difference. In fact, I just changed my plugs and found out I had Bosch Platinums in there. I can't even remember when I put them in! lol

 

First let me say.... Thanks for the responses and the information.....
I have recently installed Taylor 8mm Spiro Pro wires which has helped with the ignition noise slightly and will try to locate a set of Motorcraft Plantinum or Premium sparkplugs.....
I have adjusted the SWR on the Wilson 5000 using a MFJ-259B Antenna Analyzer. SWR readings are 1.0 on 27.3650-27.4650 and 1.5 on 27.2150-27.6050.
The mobile radio I use is a Kenwood TS-50S HF radio which set from the factory does quite well without any adjustments......
Depending upon the elevation and conditions... I have talked to Australia, Canada and most of the USA with this radio.

OR 4x4

 

UPDATE:

Went to the local AutoZone and they list 2 types of Motorcraft sparkplugs.... 605PP (original AGSF-22PP) which they have to order and 6100 (AGSF-22FMF6) which is listed that can be used instead of original sparkplugs; they have these in stock. Not sure what the differences are (heatrange, resistor, platinum) since the AutoZone personnel have no info....
Will contact the Ford dealer this AM to see if they can shed some light on this....
Have tried locating the original AGSF-22PP sparkplugs online, but have not had much success locating them.
Autozone wants $4.42 each and I suspect the dealership will want about $8 each; if prior experience is any indication.

Any information about the sparkplug differences and where I can purchase the for a decent price ???

OR 4x4

 

the PP in the part number stands for platinum plus, like autolite coding. ill bet that the plugs they have in stock are NOT platinum plugs. you need to get platinums, i would put in exactly what came from the factory, even if you have to buy it at a dealer.

 

Found info on the Motorcraft website that states the PP in the AGSF-22PP stands for Platinum Plus as you stated and these sparkplugs have been discontinued and superceded by AGSF-22FMF6 plugs which the F stands for Fine Wire Platinum.
Checked with AutoZone and found out the sparkplugs they sell are the exact ones that Ford sells, but the Ford Dealer has the plugs for $4.30 while AutoZone has them for $4.49 which is .07 more than they quoted the other day.
Purchased a set of the AGSF-22FMF6 plugs from the dealership and while I was there I talked to Used Car Service and the Ranger is now in AGAIN for water leaks caused by the recent downpour we had today.

OR 4x4

 

im glad you got it figured out, thats not a bad price from the dealer anyway

 

Installed the plugs today which took about 45 mins... The passenger side plugs require you to be double jointed to remove them.....
The original plugs were erroded down from .054 to .058.

OR 4x4

 

little info on split-fire's and bosch platinums. Plugs like these, that have more than one prong are very efficient, however, they create an exta amount of heat, due to extra conductors and the gapping on them. More current is passed from distrubutor/coil pack through the plug out to the conductor tips, thus releasing more current which creates a better, but hotter burn. This extra heat will break down your engine and do it in a hurry.

very well put. Ford's love motorcraft parts because they are designed by Ford for Ford. They work well with other vehicles, but they work exceptionally on Ford's.

 

Finally something cheaper at a dealer!!! Do you feel any difference, or hear one?

 

Took my truck on a 276 mile drive yesterday; from Escondido to Claremont Mesa then onto downtown Los Angeles and back to Escondido. Probably 25 miles were city driving....
Checked my gas mileage this morning after filling up.... 18 mpg with highway speeds of 75-80 mph.
NOT TOO SHABBY !!!!

OR 4x4