Tune up for my CJ7
hutchman
Jeeper
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- Location
- kennewick, wa
- Vehicle(s)
- 1986 CJ7 - 90,000 original unmolested and rust free miles - Stock - well almost.........
Well, had a pretty good health day today and decided to install some previously purchased parts. I have been doing some research on Jeep ignition systems.....and you can find a lot of opinions on them! I looked at upgrading to an HEI from a GM product, buying a special built HEI for the Jeep, the TeamRush upgrade, the Nutter bypass, and a new carb.
After a lot of reading, I decided to do the TeamRush upgrade. The TR upgrade uses the stock distributor and stock Ford six cylinder parts to improve the spark delivery of the stock system. Apparently, stock Jeep distributors from the 80s are known to leak voltage which results in cross firing and low voltage to the spark plugs. It also specifies using a premium cap with brass contacts and rotor. The nice thing about this upgrade is that it can be performed in stages. You can start with a simple tune up, and as time and money allow, upgrade the stock coil and ignition module. This seemed to me to make some sense.
So anyway, I ordered the following.........
Motor Craft plug wires for and 82 300 CI Ford Six:
Premium distributor cap and rotor from Auto Zone.....it does have real brass contacts. And the cap adapt piece that goes between the cap and the distributor body.
Again, these are all stock replacement parts from an 82 F150 with a 300 CI six.
So this is the stock distributor cap. It is one of the small ones that suffers from cross fire, etc. When these are new, they are probably OK, but as the age and start to break down they start having problems from what I read. The previous owner must have tuned this up not too long before I bought it, because the dist. cap was not too bad. However it already showed some burning on the aluminum contacts.
Ready for it's new parts:
.
When I pulled the sparkers, I found a near new set that indicate an engine that seems to be in good shape......it appears to pretty close to perfect on mixture. However, the PO must not have known that the plugs needed to be gapped. These were all at .028 - .030. My guess is he took them straight out of the box and installed them as the new ones were all gapped the same.
Sorry for the out of focus image, but that was as good as my camera would do.....You can see however, they appear to be burning pretty good in spite of the narrow gap. I am going to save these for spares.......probably could have re-gapped 'em and used them over. I gapped the new plugs at .042. Stock called for .035, however, the TeamRush information states that you can increase this to .045 when using the stock coil and electronics. Someplace in the back of my mind however, I remember reading that you should not increase the gap for a plug more .008 over recommended. Much more than this and the ground on the plug no longer covers the center electrode. At .042 I still had complete coverage, so that's where I gapped 'em.
Cap adapt and rotor installed........this stuff fits just like it was made for the Jeep.
New Ford Cap and wires installed.
So how did this work you might ask? Well, after a 10 mile test drive I can tell you that there is a very noticeable difference in the way it idles and drives......
It is much smoother at idle.
It is much smoother when lugging the engine.
It has noticeably more acceleration.
It is much smoother through the tail pipe.....it sounds smoother.
All in all, I believe this is a very worthwhile mod that is easy to do with stock parts. It improves the Jeep with minimal expense. Since these are stock parts for a Ford, the cost is no more than stock Jeep parts and you get the advantage of the bigger cap.
Will these parts give you a better tune up than stock stuff? My guess is no, but it should last much longer due to the larger cap and brass terminals. When you throw in the ability to build on this basic tuneup with a hotter coil and better electronics, then I believe it is money well spent.
After a lot of reading, I decided to do the TeamRush upgrade. The TR upgrade uses the stock distributor and stock Ford six cylinder parts to improve the spark delivery of the stock system. Apparently, stock Jeep distributors from the 80s are known to leak voltage which results in cross firing and low voltage to the spark plugs. It also specifies using a premium cap with brass contacts and rotor. The nice thing about this upgrade is that it can be performed in stages. You can start with a simple tune up, and as time and money allow, upgrade the stock coil and ignition module. This seemed to me to make some sense.
So anyway, I ordered the following.........
Motor Craft plug wires for and 82 300 CI Ford Six:
Premium distributor cap and rotor from Auto Zone.....it does have real brass contacts. And the cap adapt piece that goes between the cap and the distributor body.
Again, these are all stock replacement parts from an 82 F150 with a 300 CI six.
So this is the stock distributor cap. It is one of the small ones that suffers from cross fire, etc. When these are new, they are probably OK, but as the age and start to break down they start having problems from what I read. The previous owner must have tuned this up not too long before I bought it, because the dist. cap was not too bad. However it already showed some burning on the aluminum contacts.
Ready for it's new parts:
.
When I pulled the sparkers, I found a near new set that indicate an engine that seems to be in good shape......it appears to pretty close to perfect on mixture. However, the PO must not have known that the plugs needed to be gapped. These were all at .028 - .030. My guess is he took them straight out of the box and installed them as the new ones were all gapped the same.
Sorry for the out of focus image, but that was as good as my camera would do.....You can see however, they appear to be burning pretty good in spite of the narrow gap. I am going to save these for spares.......probably could have re-gapped 'em and used them over. I gapped the new plugs at .042. Stock called for .035, however, the TeamRush information states that you can increase this to .045 when using the stock coil and electronics. Someplace in the back of my mind however, I remember reading that you should not increase the gap for a plug more .008 over recommended. Much more than this and the ground on the plug no longer covers the center electrode. At .042 I still had complete coverage, so that's where I gapped 'em.
Cap adapt and rotor installed........this stuff fits just like it was made for the Jeep.
New Ford Cap and wires installed.
So how did this work you might ask? Well, after a 10 mile test drive I can tell you that there is a very noticeable difference in the way it idles and drives......
It is much smoother at idle.
It is much smoother when lugging the engine.
It has noticeably more acceleration.
It is much smoother through the tail pipe.....it sounds smoother.
All in all, I believe this is a very worthwhile mod that is easy to do with stock parts. It improves the Jeep with minimal expense. Since these are stock parts for a Ford, the cost is no more than stock Jeep parts and you get the advantage of the bigger cap.
Will these parts give you a better tune up than stock stuff? My guess is no, but it should last much longer due to the larger cap and brass terminals. When you throw in the ability to build on this basic tuneup with a hotter coil and better electronics, then I believe it is money well spent.
