Just replaced all 8 COP with Accell and autolite plugs.
A good friend who works at Ford has no problem using Accell on his own truck.
My 99 F150 Lariat w/5.4L Flare Side 2wd runs like when I bought it new and very responsive.
It now has 86k miles with HD 20" wheels, couldn't be happier.
Purchased all 8 COP thru amazon and plugs also.

Liked seeing "lethal" on all cop.
By the way all 8 were perfect out of the box!

Returning to forum after a long time away

 

A lot of stories start out that way. Then within 6 months they're starting another thread called "p0304 misfire??" and trying to figure out why their trucks run like crap. If they work for you I'm glad, even a blind squirrel gets a nut once in a while, but I want the odds of never touching my coils until 200k to be much higher than Accel and the other cheapo coils give you.

 

Well my story is that two out of eight OEM Motorcraft COP have gone bad. One was #4 after only 10K miles (warranty) and now #8 after 86K miles so I changed all 8 COP and with new plugs also.

If I am lucky to get 86K miles out of my Accel COP and one or two go bad then they are no worse than the Motorcraft OEM ones.
I also know that "nothing" last forever be it coils, plugs, motors or anything else man made.

The Accel COP are not the cheapest ones on the market nor are they the most expensive ones either. How many manufacturers are making these and branding them with some other name?
Ford does not make the Motorcraft COP as far as I know of and are much more expensive.

You get what you pay for is a good saying and I never go cheap on any of my vehicles being my 99 F150 Truck, 07 Honda, 07 HD Street Glide or 05 Big Dog Chopper. Being an informed consumer who does research before I purchase is how I determine which way to go.

Don't mean to kick the can down the road but making a blanket statement that Accel's are garbage is your opinion which you are entitled too but can be misleading to others.

I was only trying to give information for this thread so others can see that I have installed the Accel COP and so far would do it again and not need to pay the extra $$$ in doing so.
Just sayin

 

So I am fighting a 301 code and the truck is running like it is missing. I did pull the COP and tube out of cylinder 1 and I was a little mystified by what I saw. I pulled the boot off of the COP and found the spring wire underneath and then reassembled it. My question is, how do I know I am making a good connection between the wire and plug? Do I just pull the spring down to the end of the boot and it will seat itself when I put it back in and lock it down?

Any help here is appreciated

 

I can say the same thing about you telling people that an awful brand of coils is worth buying.. But it's ok, it's not an argument, we're at both ends of the spectrum, and I'm sure there are people in between with mixed feelings and it's just like anything else, the OP will have to take information he gets from here and other places online maybe and make up his own mind.

As for the spring issue, if you pull the boot off the coil you can see better where the spring goes then you can put the boot back on over it, it's like a 1/4" blade connector sort of and the spring should go on tight and have to like twist on and you shouldn't be able to pull it off very easily.

 

So far all I'm really sure of is stay away from E3 plugs, buying motorcraft coils is safe but I haven't gotten any reliable info on a performance coil, I find it hard to believe that with all the cars and trucks out there with a 5.4 That there are no reliable performance upgrade coils available

 

There's msd but those are $350+ which is real steep

 

Austin97, Thanks for the help on the explanation of the spring and boot. Pulled the coil and spark plug and hooked it all back up out of the engine and checked the spark. Looked good, reassembled all and no missing today on the way to work. Makes me nervous when I don't find anything definite. Think I'll keep an eye on this thread and get ready for a major tune up.

 

Good deal.

I forgot MSD makes coils too, I'm sure they're good as they're an actual reputable company, and like I said Weapon X has a very good reputation, and Performance Distributors makes a coil that I've heard a lot of good about.

I've always recommended that people just replace coils that go bad with Motorcraft and leave the others alone. They don't all go bad at a specific time like plugs do, if you replace one at 100k it'll probably be 130k before another goes bad and the rest might last till over 200k. It's not very often at all that I've replaced two coils at one time on any Fords I've worked on, which is a lot considering I'm a dealer tech..

 

anyone here running MSD? i'm not replacing bad coils im trying to upgrade.