S D

So yesterday I figured I would give my dad's truck (94 ram 1500, 318 V8) a tune up since I know it's been a long time since his last one, and knowing him he would drive it until it stopped working, then park it in his yard and drive something else.

I decided I would replace his air filter first, but after taking off the airbox I saw that his throttle body was black and had about 1/8'' of built up crud everywhere and decided to tackle that first. So I took that off, and 2 full cans of brake cleaner and a few rags later, I had it looking like new.

After this I moved onto the spark plugs. His wires looked great so I skipped that part.
I took the first plug out and my jaw dropped. His electrode was all but gone, and the plug was gapped at over .060 (.035 oem specs)
My dad and I replaced all of his plugs (driver side rears were a PITA!) and every one of them was gapped at least at .055 with hardly anything left of the electrodes. After we got done he says "At best these plugs have about...oh...110k miles on them" on his cheap $1.99 copper Champion plugs!

I also checked his air filter, which was in pretty decent shape except for some oil accumulating on one side. After cleaning the gunk out of his air box with a hose I found that he had a huge crack in the bottom portion, which I filled with epoxy today.

His engine is now quieter, smoother, and peppier. His throttle also no longer sticks. All this combined with the speed sensor that I replaced a few weeks ago have his truck running beautifully despite having 235k miles on a completely stock engine.

By the way, I'm not trying to make my dad look bad because I know that with his current condition he can't do anything to his truck, but I was just amazed that his truck ran so well with it's condition. It always starts immediately every time, and idles (with rusty stock exhaust) so quietly that sometimes It's hard for me to tell it's still on!

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Mike

Wow, what does he drive? That's a small gap. Most are .060 spec.

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"He shouted: 'You've won! Didn't you know?' I didn't, and it's about the nicest thing I've ever been told" -Bruce McLaren, 1968 Belgian Grand Prix
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2009 Pontiac G8 GT - 6.0L, 6AT - 95k miles | 1994 Chevy Blazer K5 - 350, 5MT - 140k miles | 2006 Mazda 3 S sedan - 2.3L, 5MT - 130k miles
Wife's Car: 2013 Chevy Volt - 70k miles
Bikes: 1979 Yamaha XS 750 | 1985 Honda Sabre 700

S D

A 94 Ram 1500 with a 318 (5.2) V8. I guess I should have posted that too..

The worst part about his plugs was that they were almost worn down to nothing, and one was worn so badly that I don't see how it could have been working at all, yet his truck drove just fine.

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