I have experienced an intermittent engine miss in high gear with a load or going up hill for a few weeks. Knowing that this is probably due to the dreaded plug failure (95,000 miles), I finally decided to "bite the bullet" and do the deed...not looking forward to broken plugs....ugh!!

Anyway, I pulled the computer, battery cover and battery, and coils on Tuesday evening. On Wednesday morning I blew out the plug holes with compressed air, and broke the plugs loose about 1/4 of a turn, in accordance with Ford's TSB, and sprayed a healthy shot of Gumout Carburetor Parts Cleaner into each plug hole. I let them soak for about 3 hours.

I proceeded to remove each plug by turning it about 1/2 a turn, and turning it back and forth a couple of times. Once it seemed loose (no more creaking and crackling), I completely unscrewed the plug.

I was extremely lucky....only broke ONE plug. The rest came out fully in tact, which was very surprising because most of them were hard to twist out and made awful noises all the way.

Then I used the LISLE TOOL (bought it on Amazon for $57). Using the printed directions, I did have an issue. The "pusher" tool forced the porcelain down to the tip of the plug and that broke the tip of the plug's bottom electrode completely off and into the cylinder. I tried to capture it with a magnet, but determined that it is aluminum and the magnet would not grab it. I used my shop vacuum an sucked on the plug hole about 2 times, hoping to get the electrode out of the cylinder....scary!!!! Otherwise, the tool worked perfectly.

I put everything back together, and swapped the coils (left side to right side...as told to do so by a Ford mechanic - not sure if it helped at all).

Then, I started the truck, hoping NOT to hear the plug electrode banging in the cylinder. Upon initial start up, the engine ran really rough, the truck shook, and it tried to stall....then, after the computer reset itself, it ran smooth as silk. On the test drive, it shifted erratically for the first few moles, then settled in nicely....I assume the computer was re-adjusting things.

Now, all is well, it idles very smooth, not bangs or knocks, and it starts easier than before. I am a happy camper and hope not to do this again for 90,000 miles!!!!!

 

Good job. It's not such a bad job bad is it?

 

I like hearing good stories on changing these plugs as I have 18 of them to do this winter with about the same amount of miles, hopefully my willing to spend time on it or(as my wife and friends refer to it ridiculous amount of patients but I don't really believe them) but hoping I can possibly work all of them out without breaking any..... I do plan on taking ridiculous amount of time working the plugs with them soaking and hope for the best. Do you recommend to Lislie tool or should I look at something different when I do mine?

 

Yep, I highly recommend the Lisle tool....it worked great for me. The only issue was that it pushed the porcelain through the tip of the plug. I was able to suck the electrode out with the shop vac. Otherwise it worked exactly as it should. Again, amazon was $57... cheapest i could find. Good luck