Changing Spark plugs on a 2010 M90 GT

[Nyerpp]

Hey Guys,

So I tried replacing the factory original Motocraft spark plugs on my 2010 GT with some nice NGK after market plugs. The passenger side took me all of 20 minutes to finish. The driver's side was another story. It took me about 30 minutes to work my way back to the spark plug nearest the firewall. At this point I realized that not only would the throttle bottle have to come off, but so would the elbow on the super charger.

I am not so confident doing this on my own with all the vacuum lines and plumbing, i don't want to get myself in over my head. Does anyone have any experience they could share with replacing spark plugs on an M90 car.

With the 7 out of 8 changed the car runs a tonne smoother and the low end power is more noticeable, I will like get into the habit of swapping then every summer whether they need it or not.

Mike

[Pentalab]

Hey Guys,

So I tried replacing the factory original Motocraft spark plugs on my 2010 GT with some nice NGK after market plugs. The passenger side took me all of 20 minutes to finish. The driver's side was another story. It took me about 30 minutes to work my way back to the spark plug nearest the firewall. At this point I realized that not only would the throttle bottle have to come off, but so would the elbow on the super charger.

I am not so confident doing this on my own with all the vacuum lines and plumbing, i don't want to get myself in over my head. Does anyone have any experience they could share with replacing spark plugs on an M90 car.

With the 7 out of 8 changed the car runs a tonne smoother and the low end power is more noticeable, I will like get into the habit of swapping then every summer whether they need it or not.

Mike

I just went through the exact same thing on my own 2010 GT with M90 blower about 1 month ago. Having no garage is no fun. Clouded up and started to rain. Since the car was going into the local ford dealer to have the brakes replaced with power slot rotor's, HPS pads, SS-teflon brake line's and high temp ATE-blue brake fluid.... I took the easy way out, and got em to also change out the plugs AND install the new FRPP TB all in one shot. The forecast at the time was for another 2-3 days of rain. I was fit to be tied, and then some.

The plan was to remove the oem twin 55mm TB... toss it aside, then replace that last plug, ( and also the other 3 x plugs on the driver's side). Upon inspection, the curved elbow doesn't need to be removed. The local Ford dealer has done every mod you can think of, including blower upgrades, suspension upgrades, TB, drive shafts, etc. etc. I also have the Steeda STB across the front too. That stb had to be removed, to get the 55mm TB out.

The tech who did the actual work said the entire thing was a piece of cake. Since the steeda stb has a single transverse bolt at each end, they simply removed the bolt on the driver's side, and the stb just swings up and out of the way. Old twin 55mm TB came off next ( 2 plugs and 4 x bolts). Next was all 8 x plugs swapped out. Then new FRPP twin 62mm TB installed. STB lowered back down. Next up was the brake job. He did not have to remove that curved elbow... just the TB.

BTW... I used Brisk (450 hp rated plugs) bought from steeda.ca I had em gapped at .035" This is what both Ford and Roush suggested with any 5 psi setup. Old plugs were given back to me ( inside the Brisk boxes)..and I checked am all... and they too, were gapped at .035" . I didn't notice any difference at all in performance. I didn't even notice any increased throttle response with the bigger TB. The car now has 31K MILES on it.... and just over 30K, when the plugs were changed out.

Brisk plugs are pn XOR14YS1 These are NOT one range colder either. (You only require the one range colder plug when the smaller SC pulley is used, and boost is 8 psi. Then the gap is also reduced slightly, to .032").

BTW, I didn't chop out the vanes in the airbox lid, left em intact per VMP. I did get VMP to send me a new SCT-X3 handheld tuner with a pre-loaded 93 octane tune (no ethanol). Tune was based on 93 octane, no ethanol, vanes intact, and bigger FRPP twin 62mm TB used... and also the K+N air filter. The SCT just arrived last week, and I loaded the new tune in last wed night..then went for a 50 km drive. Yikes, the difference was night and day! Told Justin to give me more mid range TQ in both NA and blower mode. The throttle response is now near instantaneous. Since Chevron in BC sells 94 octane, and no ethanol, 1 deg of timing was added, for a now safe 94 octane tune. I asked VMP not to disable the knock sensors..and he tells me he actually re-enables them! Roush had started disabling the knock sensors on M90's back in 2009 ! Roush tune had the timing way too far advanced, at 29 degs in blower mode... and too rich in NA mode. Mine is an auto..and when shutting the OD off, with ur foot into it a tiny bit, while cruising, resulted in a rock hard downshift from 5th to 4th.(the fix was to get off the gas, then hit the OD button, into 4th, then back on the gas). That is all gone now with the new tune. It doesn't short shift like the Roush tune either, when driving around town. The shifts are lengthened out a little bit, not too much, and just slightly firmer. Fuel economy increased by 2 mpg around town..and 4 mpg on the highway. ( na mode, just cruising).

Once this new DSS brand DS gets installed, then we will put it on the dyno later this summer. I still have the oem 3.31 gears..and nitto-555 rubber on the rears (275-40-18). The car is now a rocket in both na and blower mode...its more than blatantly obvious. On a 2010 GT M90 setup..and the smaller 2.49" pulley, vmp is getting 462rwhp. The usual deal on a 05-09 cars is 440 rwhp with the vmp-500 kit. The extra 22 rwhp is derived from the vanes chopped out (7rhp)..and the combo of the bigger TB + shorter intake air tube on the drivers side on 2010 cars ( another 15rwhp). I'm convinced the crank hp is at least 485.....with tune tweaked for 93 octane, cool temps, and me being at sea level. The one piece DS is supposed to extract another
14 -15 rwhp. We will see what the dyno sez, after the DS install. Zero heat soak issues with the 5psi boost. 0-100 kmh and also 60-160 kmh is damn quick..as is 120-200 kmh. Fuel pump duty cycle is fine.

The short of it is..the SC elbow stays put on a 2010 GT with M90. Dunno how often these plugs need to be changed out. I opted for the pricey Brisks plugs, thinking at least they will last longer. I didn't see any improvement at all with the new Brisk plugs + bigger TB. Once the new tune went in however, whole new ball game. BTW, I had a 2nd K+N filter still in the box...so swapped the existing K+N that got installed last July..with my 2nd K+N. The idea was to clean the 1st filter at my leisure. The filter that was removed was squeaky clean..and also the air tube from output of vanes up to the new TB. I did clean the lower part of the box + snorkel to front grille.... but barely got any dirt and crap off. (Last July when I installed the 1st K+N.. the box was real dirty..and ditto with snorkel.). I was more worried about the air filter than the plugs.

later...... Jimbo

[Nyerpp]

Hey Jimbo,

Thanks for the input, I will try my luck and just take the throttle body off this weekend to see if I can get at the last plug on the drivers side. I left the plugs at the stock gap and they seem to work very well so far, I did not measure them, they looked pretty close by eyeballing it as to what came out of the car.

I am glad the tune works for you, I also noticed a big improvement with my tune, best bang for the buck outside of a blower. You should definitely get some 4.11 gears with an automatic, people say it the best gear for your car.

Mike

[skwerl]

I didn't have to remove the elbow either. I have a 2010 version M90 on my Bullitt.