Spark Plugs? or Coil Pack?

[af_snake]

Hey guys another question for you, im having some sputtering problems when im around 2000 RPM in second gear and above, im thinking it just might need a tune up but im not to sure if my car has plugs or a coil pack, if anyone has the awnser please let me know, and if it does have a coil pack wheres the cheapest place to get it?, remember im on Uncle sams budget so it isnt much.thanks again

Airman Harris
Currently Deployed Ali Al Salem, Kuwait

[vger]

99 and newer should have coil packs, my 99 vert had them.

[01Covert]

The '99 and the '01 like I have are darn near twins, so I'd be pretty sure you have coil packs. I installed Granatelli coil packs a year ago, with mixed results. If you replace your coil packs, decide is 'stock' or 'performance'. I purchased mine thru rpmoutlet.com, as a package with an SCT tuner, which I got for free after the cost of the coil packs. They now offer the same package with NGK Iridium plugs.
The Granatelli's are 50,000 ohm as opposed to the stock at 18-20,000. The main issue is that the Granatelli's require you to reverse the polarity of the wires going to each pack. Be ready for the possibility of breaking some very expensive plastic clips. You have to take each clip apart, remove the 2 wires and reverse them in the plug. Not rocket science, but still a tedious task.
I have since found performance coil packs available from weaponxperformance.com. These come with the NGK's, are a little cheaper, don't require coil cover spacers for the upturned plug in, and DON'T require reversing the polarity. Wish they were out a year ago.

Good Luck!

[SoCal94]

Water in/around the coil packs is a killer... have you cleaned under the hood or had a lot of rain?

SoCal94

[af_snake]

SoCal,
Im stationed in germany, so we get rain a good amount, but we havent had anything rediclous, the other problem with being there is tools are hard to find, this is also my first mustang so looking at the way the coil packs are set up it kinda mind boggles me...

[01Covert]

Using coil packs is different to us old school guys too, but they are darn near impossible to mess up the firing order. It's just a different way to get the spark to the cylinder, but really easy to maintain, and alot easier to change plugs when needed.
What type of octane fuel are you able to get there? It may not be a spark problem.

[af_snake]

the highest octane that i can get in germany is 93, but i run an octance booster on top of it, yeah i agree, it just looks damn near impossible to change them out.

[01Covert]

The octane should be fine then. Fuel filter, maybe?
What I meant about the coil packs was, that it is impossible to screw up the firing order, not to change them out. That actually is very simple, and easier to change plugs than on a standard 2 valve set up. I checked the rpmoutlet site again, and they don't offer the same coil packs I have anymore. They now have Moto Blue, and these don't require any special / fancy set up changes either. Just take the old ones out, put the new ones in and your done. Again, it really is not a difficult job. If you ever changed plugs & wires on any other car, this will seem easier.

[af_snake]

Thanks for all the help man, like i said its al ittle difficult working on an american car wehn im stationed in germany parts are kinda hard to come by and even harder and more expensive to ship to APO address., o how i long for the day to come back to ohio...and for the day im not constatly in the desert where i currently reside!

Thanks again.

Harris

[vger]

My dads car was suffering from sputtering problems and after a hookup to the computer it was #7 coil, replaced and runs great. He has a 2001 Mercury Grand Marque with a 4.6L.
It most sounds like you have a bad coil but which one?

[01Covert]

One other thing though. These 32V engines are pretty stout. When I was having those 'issues' with the new Granatelli COP's, I was running on 6 cylinders for a week. The darn thing still ran half way decent enough that I didn't know it was 2, though I just had one go bad. It was like just a hesitation and a miss as it ran, but it actually didn't run terrible then.
Are you bringing the car back to Ohio, or is it staying abroad when your tour is up?

[af_snake]

yeah she will be coming with me back to ohio wheni leave germany ill be back sometime in march , im in kuwait right now, so im just into more research, and setting up a plan for action