[Mike Strickland]

So I have a final consensus, sorry for not posting for so long. I had a heavy carbon deposit in cylinder 6 and it got under the top compression ring, causing it to get stuck and giving it a slight piston slap and I lost my grounding strap on cylinder 4 because there was a finewire put into that cylinder and it went through the intake valve all the way to cylinder 6 and got wedged in-between the cylinder wall and piston causing it to get even worse. I did all 6 pistons and new piston rings. The cylinder wall was left without damage somehow so I just now got the motor back into the car and I should have it running tomorrow. Anyone needing or wanting to do a rebuild on a 3.0l 24v duratech I do recommend you get these pistons, they are good quality.

 

[rjacket]

Thanks for updating.

I'm still not clear on why the grounding strap broke off.

Were all the plugs finewire or only the one in cylinder 4? Any chance that you got fake plugs?

 

[Mike Strickland]

Thanks for updating.

I'm still not clear on why the grounding strap broke off.

Were all the plugs finewire or only the one in cylinder 4? Any chance that you got fake plugs?

I had to replace one by itself to make it home months ago and I didn't know my specific motor needed fat wires and I didn't even look at the plug until I had the issue. Only the plug in cylinder 4 was finewire, it was put in like 15k miles ago

 

[rjacket]

I had to replace one by itself to make it home months ago and I didn't know my specific motor needed fat wires and I didn't even look at the plug until I had the issue. Only the plug in cylinder 4 was finewire, it was put in like 15k miles ago

I think that single plug you put in cylinder 4 could very well be a fake.

Motorcraft do sell a fine wire but it's part number is AGSF32FM. The F stands for finewire.

Yours says AGSF32WM and should be a fat wire.

If it's genuine, then it would be a factory mistake but a genuine finewire would still be compatible with your engine. The only potential issue with a genuine finewire would have been incorrect gap.

 

[chartmaker]

With "coilpack" you need for sure fine wire on the rear bank. Early years of coilpacks had fine wire on the rear bank only and there was warnings to not switch plugs if they are removed.
For replacement best use full set of fine wire, gaped proper from the box. Gap is not precise, but +/- a few thou. Regaping is risky. Coilpack (waste spark) sparks twice as much and the rear bank is reversed polarity. Double difficult for plugs.
COP has no issue with frequency of spark and polarity. Fat wire is fine with COP. Fine wire is overkill.
Pic is '01 DOHC with factory plugs, and easy to see rear bank is more worn. It was waste spark car.
-chart-