Is there any real spark plug upgrade?

 

For a basically stock engine? I would say no.

 

Yeah, new ones when you get to 100K miles....

 

i wouldn't wait for 100k, i did mine at 42k and they were pretty worn. this thread has a lot of post from others that saw the same results. very noticeable pick up in performance

https://www.f150forum.com/f118/chang...6/#post6447893

stick with the stock iridium plugs

 

There are no upgrades, the stock iridium plugs are pretty much on the cutting edge of spark plug tech. What you can do is go to a hotter or colder plug. The 5.0 with it's high revs, and the 3.5 and 2.7 with their high pressures place a lot of demand upon the plugs, so they may not last 100k miles. I replaced mine at about 90k miles, they weren't bad and could have stayed in, but idle improved when I swapped them.

 

The only real "upgrade" is the NGK Ruthenium plugs, and the jury is definitely still out on whether they are an upgrade or not.

 

I changed my plugs at 79K miles in my 5.0. The gap spec is 0.049" - 0.053", and mine measured 0.060. The out of spec gap puts additional stress on the coils, so I replaced them with the OEM Motorcraft plugs.
It ran great before changing the plugs, and the performance and MPG hasn't changed since changing them. I posted photos in this thread:

https://www.f150forum.com/f118/repla...-miles-455489/

 

ruthenium? is that an isotope of unobtanium?

 

Why? You won't gain anything. This isn't the 1960s where you'd get another 20hp from decent plugs and wires.

 

On a tuned turbo engine, you are hoping to gain plug life. None of them increase performance. If the Ruthenium plugs cost $1-2 more per plug and last 40,000 miles instead of 30,000 miles they are WELL worth it.