After being overseas for 3 years, when I came back I picked up a 2004 F250 SD CC v10 with 130,000 miles off of eBay in September 2013. I immediately changed all the fluids, brake pads / rotors / calipers all around, O2 sensors, etc-- all the stuff I figured would have needed to be done if I owned the truck from day 1.

Of course I did the fun stuff to -- seat covers, mirrors, radio, cab lights, fender flares, 5 star tuner, and even picked up a great grill guard off craigslist that was Line-X'd.

So all this time, I knew I had to replace the spark plugs. So after reading and watching some YouTube videos I went out and bought 10 Motorcraft Platinum plugs and boots. I followed the 1/4 turn and PB Blaster method with about 8 hours in between and started on the right side so not the deal with the air intake and after about 2 - 3 hours I was done. The only problem was the tab on the female connector for one of the COPs broke so the connection was not a secure as I would like it to have been. A zip tie around that connector and the fuel line was good enough for me.

One thing I did do was lay a 4' x 2' piece of 3/4" plywood over the engine bay (front to back) to sit / lay / turn / kneel / and reach all the way back to #10 on. The plywood helped me since the grill guard was on the truck and it's a long way from the front of the grill guard to the back of the engine bay.

Now the best part -- MPG!! After running three tanks of 89 Octane I have seen an increase in 1.4 ~ 1.8 MPG. Now I know I did not drive the exact same city vs. highway over those three tanks of gas, but I did not change my driving habits drastically either.

I don't have any pics of operation spark plug -- but just use the FTE site to find all the information you need. The best site so far IMHO is 2004 F250 5.4L Spark Plug Change

Up next -- Gibson SS headers, a new Y pipe, and a cat-back exhaust. Using the FTE site to make a decision on an exhaust / muffler. Front wheel bearings are starting to howl so I'm looking at Timken at RockAuto.com

Just wanted to say thank you for all the FTE members that have helped me over the past 9 months with my "dumb question" posts and wanted to share with other V10 owners not to fear the spark plug!

 

Glad you enjoy your truck and got all the maintenance upgrades done. Jason does some great tech articles as well. On here he is 1975stroppebaja in case you want to rep him. Seeing you mentioned the wheel bearings check out riffraff diesel (sponsor) for there ABS Grease zerk . Also jason's page has an a good write up to use for the wheel bearings. I did it in my garage with a BFH, punch and basic hand tools. Saved a bunch of money just buying the bearings and seals through Ford along with new tools.

Welcome to FTE.

 

I've always said trying to go 100K miles on a set of plugs is just plain crazy---glad that important maintenance step yields such a great benefit.

Did you save the old plugs by chance? I'd love to see their condition, maybe measure the gap to check how much they've worn from new.

 

I save my last two sets of plugs from any vehicle. I think they tell me a story about what is happening in my engines, over time.

 

This truck is from the NE so the whole wheel hub should probably be replaced -- I know it's more costly but just feel safer when I've got the three kids with me coming back from either hunting, camping, etc. I did remove the ABS sensor and shot some grease into the hole, albeit not with the nice zerk fitting - just my needle grease fitting -- but the howl and whirl is still there.

Regarding the old spark plugs, I did not take pictures -- sorry -- but I did measure the first few that were removed and they were between .070 and .080. After measuring the first few and then having the clean the spark plug gap tool to double check the new spark plugs, I just kept chucking the old ones in the trash.

The spark plug body was fairly rust / brown color and seemed to be a little wet -- maybe from too much PB Blaster soaking in the cylinder. The ground electrode of the plug was only 50% in terms of metal left as compared to the new ones. But the hex nut, insulator, spine, and spark plug terminal all looked in fairly good shape on each of the old plugs.

I really never thought about spark plug archeology (i.e. saving the plugs over time) either!! Completely makes sense and I think I will go ahead and change them in 50,000 miles -- i agree 100,000 miles is way to long of a time period as well.

 

My 02 has 70k on it so spark plugs are in my future too. I think dollar for dollar the Thorleys would be better than the Gibsons.

 

I really like the Thorleys -- but I picked up a set of Gibson SS headers for $400 that are brand new in the box with all the bolts, gaskets, etc. so I figured I couldn't go wrong there.

 

Well ya cant pass up a deal. What are you thinking for the Y pipe? Install that kit or make one? Flowmaster has a nice Y if you want to make your own. http://www.summitracing.com/parts/flo-y250300/overview/ keep us posted.

 

For a Y pipe I was looking at SPD, eBay, 5 Star, etc. The plan was to use the existing exhaust down pipes but just cut in the new Y pipe.

Very similar to what FTE member 1975stroppebaja did at 2004 F250 Broken Exhuast Manifold Stud

 

Just changed the plugs in my E150 5.4 van, it has 129k miles on it and these are the original plugs. I bought the van in 04 with only 17k miles on it. All the plugs were tight and other than a few deposits looked pretty good. The sticker on the van said gap should be 1.32mm-1.42mm and the old plugs measured about 1.55mm.

I didn't intend to let them go that long, just dreaded the job and kept putting it off. It took about 2 hours and while it wasn't exactly fun, it wasn't as bad as it first looked either. After changing plugs in my V10 F250 a couple years ago I bought the set and it worked great. Can you do the job without it? Sure, but at only $42 it was well worth the investment. Installed all new boots, always do, I don't even look at the old ones.

Is it better now, who knows, can't tell much difference as it ran perfectly fine before.

Here is a pic of old and new side by side



Here are all 8 old plugs

 

Thanks for the photos and your short write-up on this---very interesting!

The center electrode seems a bit worn away but otherwise all plugs look fairly good, a lot better than I expected. I'll be changing my own '00 E250 5.4 plugs sometime this summer, they'll have about 55K on them IIRC---its not frequently driven these days.

 

Mine gets a skip or miss every couple years. Just started two days ago, about 25,000 miles on them. Usually fixes the miss and get another 1 mpg. New set going in the morning.

 

 

Not best picture, but only about three years old and maybe 25k on these. Gap ok but worn tips, insulators had dirt, grim, rust, and this is not a work truck. Babied truck with everyday about 4 miles to work and any running around. All on road, light to no loads.