Brand new instant swell glow plugs

[steelheadguy]

I had 9 bosch glow plugs laying around. I decided to test them. I used a 12v dual purpose battery. I connected the positive to the plugs terminal and the negative to the threads. It was glowing in 3 seconds flat so I disconnected it. As soon as I disconnected it, something sparked and went flying and the tip swelled.

Now I know it is common knowledge to only use motocraft, but are all other plugs really this bad?
Did I do something wrong? The battery is a little over charged, reading 13v.
I tried testing 2 plugs in series incase I was only supposed to apply 6v, but it barely worked the plugs.

I will only put the recommended motocraft plugs in, but it is still fun to experiment and question why.

These plugs have never been installed.

Edit: I tried to light up the swollen plug again. It wouldnt even get hot. Is it possible this plugs life was all of 3 seconds? Not even one whole cycle.

 

[tbrumm]

I had Bosch glow plugs in my truck for quite a while and never had a problem. As a matter of fact, they seemed not to get quite as hot ans the Motorcraft/Berus. Now the Wellmans (DieselRx) glow plugs I tried, those were "instant swell in the head" plugs. At least one was-barely got it back out of the head after the first heat cycle.

 

[steelheadguy]

I tried another one after this. It didnt swell but while cooling, it produced a tiny little ball of metal on the tip. The first one did the same way worse.

I hope I am not doing anything wrong because I want to test my motorcraft plugs when they show up.

FYI anyone looking for the motorcraft zd9 glow plugs I found them at Oreillys auto parts for ~11$ and walmart "site to store" for just under $10. Each store had to order them but would only take 2 days.

 

[bbjordan]

3 seconds does seem a little short, but then you only had one glow plug connected.

When I glow the plugs in my truck, all eight of them suck the voltage down to about 8 volts! I've noticed this on the 6.9 & 7.3 IDIs and the 7.3 PSDs.

I expect that if you were to hook up all eight plugs and glow them, they wouldn't burn out so fast. If you do this test, keep an eye on the voltmeter to see what the voltage drop is.

To be fair, you should take one Beru glow plug and glow it.

 

[79jasper]

Go get a ac Delco 60g plug.
I dare you to try burning it out. Lol

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[typ4]

There is a reason they have the current regulating resistor on the controller. Don't test your new zd9's with a big battery. I use a small gell cell.

 

[dgr]

It doesn't seem like an equivalent test. On my 6.9 I think there are two 10 gauge wires that feed 8 plugs in parallel. So you would need to test 4 on a 10 gauge wire at the same time. I think that would be one piece of 3 foot long 16 gauge to test one plug. Anyone think that would get warm?

Jasper, are those Oldsmobile slow glow plugs? I think that was what I ended up putting in mine. I should pull them just to see what they look like.

 

[chris142]

I tested a Delphi glow plug I took out of my truck.it glowed for 20 minutes,never swelled.

 

[79jasper]

Yeah I think those Olds 5.7 used them too, I had them in my 6.2. Drove a few hours with them on. They still work.
One guy hooked one up to a battery and let it go a few days

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[79jasper]

A lot of people really like them. Especially in manual setups.
You won't find that on this forum though. Lol

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[steelheadguy]

3 seconds does seem a little short, but then you only had one glow plug connected.

When I glow the plugs in my truck, all eight of them suck the voltage down to about 8 volts! I've noticed this on the 6.9 & 7.3 IDIs and the 7.3 PSDs.

I expect that if you were to hook up all eight plugs and glow them, they wouldn't burn out so fast. If you do this test, keep an eye on the voltmeter to see what the voltage drop is.

To be fair, you should take one Beru glow plug and glow it.

There is a reason they have the current regulating resistor on the controller. Don't test your new zd9's with a big battery. I use a small gell cell.

This really what I was wondering. Having all 8 glowing at the same time through the controller might give me different results.

I only ordered 8, or else I would retry this test with a beru plug. Anyone want to mail me one to test under the same conditions?

 

[FORDF250HDXLT]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOiL0FEYnu4


if it's not a Beru,it just wont do.


.

 

[steelheadguy]

Does a manual switch bypass the voltage regulator in the controller?

 

[mbolton1990]

Since that plug is the old style (has the spade connector) isn't that a 6v plug?

 

[79jasper]

Does a manual switch bypass the voltage regulator in the controller?

Depends how you hook it up.
The way I do it is run a heavy duty relay straight from the battery.
So like that, yes.

But if you just add a switch to the stock controller, no.

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