7.4L Plugs Advice Needed

[Wellgeo03]

Well I decided to pull a couple plugs on my 90 TBI 7.4L tonight to see what they look like. I have been experiencing poor idle and sputtering when the engine is cold. I have only had the truck just under a year, and have never driven another 454 equipped truck, but it seems to be down on power.

I pulled plugs 1 & 2 and this is what I found.

Both have the same ash build up on one side, and the gaps are .055 and .06. The factor gap is supposed to be .035. They are AC plugs with a 1 on them. Looks like they are Rapidfire Performace Platinum plugs.

I don't believe they have a ton of miles on them. Would the overly excessive gap lead to pre mature ash deposits, and poor power?

The images are a little dark.

[naphtali5725]

google is your friend

here's one of many "how to read spark plugs" chart

http://www.ngksparkplugs.com/tech_su...d.asp?mode=nml

[Wellgeo03]

Well I cleaned and re gapped the plugs. They were all gapped quite wide, but not worn. Deposits were on all 8. Upon further inspection I may have found a very small vac. leak at the vacuum ball on the driver side fire wall. This may have been causing a slightly lean condition.

Upon further inspection I found that the air filter installed in the truck is 3.5" tall and should be 5.5" tall! So the truck has been running without an air filter for who know how long! There were some swear words when I found that! There was some dust on the inside of the air filter housing, so I am thinking this may have contributed to some of the deposits on the plugs.