Changed out sparkplugs in Ford Vulcan V-6

A bit more on topic, I got my Vulcan Ranger for nearly free from my brother in law because it had a miss. New plugs fixed the miss. Fun fact with the Ranger is Ford speced different plugs for right and left banks. One with platinum ground, one with platinum electrode.

Dual platinum could be used in either bank ...
I’m thinking the drivers side bank corresponds to the front bank on a FWD. If so, that will wear out the Platinum electrode and it will end up looking something like this:

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Then, on the passenger side the wear will be on the ground side, but if the plug is robust enough it might not be all that noticeable. Here is the same plug from the passenger side ( back side of a FWD). The wear might be all that noticeable.

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I had a 1991 Ranger Super Cab with the 3.0 and 5 speed manual. I loved that truck. I bought it new. The only problems that I had came later on. The hood paint was coming off and the air conditioning went out. I had the hood repainted and new compressor put on. It was running great when I traded it.
 
I've had several 3.0 Vulcan motors that have been in my arsenal. Going by memory here: A 3.0 Aerostar, a 3.0 Ford Ranger and my mom had a 3.0 Taurus. The 3.0 Ranger with the 5-speed has been one of my wife's favorite vehicle. Just so people aren't confused here, the 3.0 Vulcan is really a lot different than the DOHC version mentioned above that found their way in a few Early Escapes that I've owned. Perhaps the 3.0 DOHC should have been put in a few early Rangers.
Reputation wise, the 3.0 Vulcan is one of the most reliable engines that Ford has built, even if it can be a little underwhelmed. One of the annoyances of the 3.0 Vulcan is that the oil filter sits right on top of the starter. So there have been a few early starter demises because the oil always drips down on the starter and can eventually get inside of it and shorten the life.
There are NO hot-rod parts for the 3.0 Vulcan. Perhaps that's why it remained so reliable.
An interesting thing on the Taurus with the Vulcan engine is that you can reach down between the rad and the engine and unscrew the oil filter without crawling under the car. Bonus!
 
I changed out a set of plugs from Platinums to Iridiums in a Ford Vulcan 3.0 OHV V-6. This might be interesting to some Bitiggers because it was an available engine in Ford Rangers from from 1991 to 2008 and there happens to be a ton of them left.
This plug change was in a 2005 Taurus with a sideways V-6 with 50,000 miles on it’s second set of Platinum plugs.

The engine uses a waste spark setup and the result of it was the plugs in the front bank were toast and the plugs in the rear bank were still good. One plug from each bank is shown beside a new Iridium. Here are all 6 plugs. Guess which one is from the front bank. More later.

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I've heard about the "waste spark " that Ford has. How does this work and whats the point as most other manufacturers don't go this route.
 
Here are a couple screen shots on the “ Waste Spark System.” The whole idea was to get away from distributors and use an electronic crank trigger and a coil pack to fire spark plugs. Using only three coils was cheaper than six coils. Ford used it in the Vulcan engine starting in 1986 I believe and when Ford dropped it around 2007, “ coil on plug systems” were used instead. The successor to the the Taurus, the Fusion, had a coil on plug system.

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I've heard about the "waste spark " that Ford has. How does this work and whats the point as most other manufacturers don't go this route.
The best (or perhaps the most incorrect) explanation is that half of the coils shoot the spark OUT of the coil and the other half of the coils suck IN the spark. I'm sure some electronic genius will explain it better. ANYWAY, from the factory, Ford sometimes used two different spark plug numbers. The reason is that half of the plugs got the precious metal on the electrode and the other half had the precious metal put on the ground. The irony is that you had a hard time replacing the plugs with the exact number.
On waste gate engines like these, I like to replace the plugs with double platinum where the precious metal is on both sides. On an engine that is a COP, a single platinum will be fine.
 
Another fun fact is my 2.3 "Lima" Ranger is both dual-spark and wasted spark. It has two coil packs. Each pack has two coils. One pack fires the four plugs on the intake side of the engine and one pack fires the four plugs on the exhaust side.

I think this is kind of overkill, but I suppose it resulted in a tiny improvement in mpg or emissions. And the redundancy makes it robust!
 
The 3L in our 04 Escape uses those same plugs. The MC plugs are made by NGK, if you cross the numbers that are stamped into the metal part of the MC plugs they will cross to an NGK part number.
 
Another fun fact is my 2.3 "Lima" Ranger is both dual-spark and wasted spark. It has two coil packs. Each pack has two coils. One pack fires the four plugs on the intake side of the engine and one pack fires the four plugs on the exhaust side.

I think this is kind of overkill, but I suppose it resulted in a tiny improvement in mpg or emissions. And the redundancy makes it robust!
I believe that the Lima 2.3 went to twin plugs in the 1990 model year. The HP rating went from 80 to 100, as I recall. I would have welcomed it on an '88 Ranger I had. Twin plugging should have increased mpg. My older example still did 25 mpg with a manual trans.
 
The plug that came with my 2005 Ford Taurus 3.0 Vulcan was the longer threaded ( as opposed to the 2000 model) AGS P32 Platinum plug. In 2018 I replaced them with AGSF 22 FM Platinum plug. Now I replaced them with the NGK Iridium TR5IX. The car now has 120,000 miles. Just a stroll down memory lane. Here is a shot from 2018 when the AGSF 22 FM plugs went in.

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Until your cam synchronizer goes out or your valve seats recess into the heads...


It's a classic engine, I guess, but even the engines that everyone loves have a few flaws.
 
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