Decided to do a tune up on my 1993 New Yorker with the 3.3 Engine. You BITOGers may know this engine from your Caravans, and know how tough it is to get at the rear plugs.
250,000 kms on it and only changed once before.
Figured I would try the E3's as i've heard their quality has improved, and my friend tried them in his Jeep and they worked great.
I wanted them for the range claims (5 years/100,000 miles) because the plugs are in a tough spot, and didn't feel like doing them again.
Old plugs were the basic Bosch Supers. Looked alright to me, gap had widened but they still got 20MPG and I don't drive the car conservately.
So front three, first, all goes good. Then the rear. Cylinder no 1, seems a little tough to get out, but I didn't see any anti-seize on the front ones (2,4,6) so I just attributed it to that. I also swapped the plugs, figuring E3 might have cut the threads wrong, but it felt the same. Got it in (it was tight) and started the car to make sure that it still ran good. It did.
So I worked on no. 4 cylinder now. Jeez that one was tough to thread to get back in, and extremely tight threading. Got it in as far as I could and figured it was seated. Did no. 6 cylinder just fine.
Start the car up, and I got the dreaded misfire like I heard about the E3's on the internet when they first came out. I attemted to drive it to the auto parts store to get some factory champions. I shut it off at a stop light, it was misfiring bad. It wouldn't crank over to start again. I figure the computer disabled the engine to prevent damage. Pushed it into a parking lot, and it starts right up.
So I get the champions, go home, and I hear a sound, like compression, like a loose plug. Turns out the no. 2 and 4 cylinders are only in by a few threads. Somehow I had crossthreaded the plugs, or possibly the last people to do it. At this point I can't even get the old plugs to go back in. So this time I walk to the auto parts store (20 min walk) and pick up a spark plug thread tap. I cleaned and tapped the threads (with extreme difficulty) and got the plugs to seat. Now, the E3's stop missin.
Reset the computer and now I'll be tracking MPG. Engine doesn't lug as much, and sure accelerates smooth. This would be the first time i've used a specialty plug (I'm a NGK G-Power fan) so we'll see how it goes. E3 does honor their warranty, so if the plugs conk out on me, i'll be mailing them back to them and throwing NGK's or OEM's in.
Its not as hard as on a caravan as it is in a car with a big hood like a fifth avenue. But still a pain, especially after cross threading two holes. Ended up taking about 5 hours total with going back and forth to get tools and parts with no transport.
And one more tidbit, I'm a fan of the blue NGK plug wires, and they've always been a perfect fit on everything. Not this time. The wire set for the 3.3 in the New Yorker sure isn't long enough to get in the clips or avoid touching the valve covers. Also, comparing it to the autolites that came out, the numbers are all in the wrong spots for the sizes. I checked in another box, and its all the same.
My belief is NGK uses the same plug wires as the caravans, which might not match up with the older 3.3 engines.
250,000 kms on it and only changed once before.
Figured I would try the E3's as i've heard their quality has improved, and my friend tried them in his Jeep and they worked great.
I wanted them for the range claims (5 years/100,000 miles) because the plugs are in a tough spot, and didn't feel like doing them again.
Old plugs were the basic Bosch Supers. Looked alright to me, gap had widened but they still got 20MPG and I don't drive the car conservately.
So front three, first, all goes good. Then the rear. Cylinder no 1, seems a little tough to get out, but I didn't see any anti-seize on the front ones (2,4,6) so I just attributed it to that. I also swapped the plugs, figuring E3 might have cut the threads wrong, but it felt the same. Got it in (it was tight) and started the car to make sure that it still ran good. It did.
So I worked on no. 4 cylinder now. Jeez that one was tough to thread to get back in, and extremely tight threading. Got it in as far as I could and figured it was seated. Did no. 6 cylinder just fine.
Start the car up, and I got the dreaded misfire like I heard about the E3's on the internet when they first came out. I attemted to drive it to the auto parts store to get some factory champions. I shut it off at a stop light, it was misfiring bad. It wouldn't crank over to start again. I figure the computer disabled the engine to prevent damage. Pushed it into a parking lot, and it starts right up.
So I get the champions, go home, and I hear a sound, like compression, like a loose plug. Turns out the no. 2 and 4 cylinders are only in by a few threads. Somehow I had crossthreaded the plugs, or possibly the last people to do it. At this point I can't even get the old plugs to go back in. So this time I walk to the auto parts store (20 min walk) and pick up a spark plug thread tap. I cleaned and tapped the threads (with extreme difficulty) and got the plugs to seat. Now, the E3's stop missin.
Reset the computer and now I'll be tracking MPG. Engine doesn't lug as much, and sure accelerates smooth. This would be the first time i've used a specialty plug (I'm a NGK G-Power fan) so we'll see how it goes. E3 does honor their warranty, so if the plugs conk out on me, i'll be mailing them back to them and throwing NGK's or OEM's in.
Its not as hard as on a caravan as it is in a car with a big hood like a fifth avenue. But still a pain, especially after cross threading two holes. Ended up taking about 5 hours total with going back and forth to get tools and parts with no transport.
And one more tidbit, I'm a fan of the blue NGK plug wires, and they've always been a perfect fit on everything. Not this time. The wire set for the 3.3 in the New Yorker sure isn't long enough to get in the clips or avoid touching the valve covers. Also, comparing it to the autolites that came out, the numbers are all in the wrong spots for the sizes. I checked in another box, and its all the same.
My belief is NGK uses the same plug wires as the caravans, which might not match up with the older 3.3 engines.
