Are Motorcraft Beru glow plugs still the best?

Ferdy Mint

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Getting chilly in Texas, long crank start on my 03, already put in a new GPR, must be the plugs.

I see older threads recommending Motorcraft Beru glow plugs. Just though I'd check to see if 12 years later that's still true.
 

Kevin 007

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Always good to check up on latest quality control topics as everything changes for the worse as time goes on, it seems.
I'd say that they are. In my opinion, don't even try anything else. There have been some issues with motorcraft plugs that I have had in idi's and there are a select few other options out there that can work well. But not in powerstrokes, to the best of my knowledge.

You might want to look into the Stancor relay mod however.
 

Ferdy Mint

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I'm running the snowmobile relay in that truck. We keep a couple spares on the shelf.

Thanks for the info
 

greenskeeper

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Getting chilly in Texas, long crank start on my 03, already put in a new GPR, must be the plugs.

I see older threads recommending Motorcraft Beru glow plugs. Just though I'd check to see if 12 years later that's still true.
I'm running the snowmobile relay in that truck. We keep a couple spares on the shelf.

Thanks for the info

Did you measure voltage drop across the "new" relay?

You can also look for "open" glow plugs by probing the harness at the valve cover. An open reading would indicate a completely failed glow plug, however I have also seen glow plugs with the correct resistance reading but when pulled from the motor and energized, they would hardly glow and not be "cherry red" the entire length within 10 seconds.
 

MadMac

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I see older threads recommending Motorcraft Beru glow plugs. Just though I'd check to see if 12 years later that's still true.

Noting your other post on the FTE Alternator sizing... I can only comment on my experiences with my '85 wrt BERU spade plugs. Noting my observational only experiences with several kinds of the Spade Plugs - paying attention to the source/origin/quality of GPs is absolutely necessary.

I have noted in various threads my vast troubles with the GP system in my '85 - particularly my frustration with remediation of a broken off tip... which turned out to be one of the fake motorcraft plugs. $1000 lesson.

My learning from all that was two fold: Bench Test your plugs, or at least verify them in place as yearly maint. And verify they are the right OEM plugs before you put them in. I don't think it matters which generation they are... this is what I do now...

My '97 - I'm going to have to get the meter out, as everyone did in the FTE Alt sizing post - and figure out what actually happens. Particularly since it has "chipset tuning". For everyone else - why this is important - would necessitate deep reading this FTE post

In that long FTE Alternator sizing post you bumped - there is a fair amount of information woven in about the make up of the various generations of BERU plugs and the relationship to the other components... Everyone can make up their own minds about how important it is to them - mine is that those components are matched to provide an overall "engineering tolerance" for failure (a technical term in extreme scale computing systems) - and as a result prudent risk avoidance would include using OEM plugs - or a really thorough understanding of why you don't need to...
 

Ferdy Mint

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That guy who posted the FTE link has a bunch of useful knowledge about older trucks. He helped me with fuel tank issues on my e99 (obsolete 37gal tank) and pulled up old photos of exactly what I have and need. He's one of the few reasons I lurk on FTE still, despite all the guys that mostly talk about what kind of tire shine to use etc. Oh, and the death wobble threads... FTE got bought by some huge investment bank and now has strict content policing, so I don't post anymore. I ;might offend or misgender a snowflake etc.
 

WrenchWhore

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I'd say if you're running a factory glow plug controller setup that the Motorcrafts are your best bet. If it's manual push button that changes things.
 

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