Well, it was a quiet morning until it sounded like a harley davidson was in the back of my van. Turns out a spark plug blew out. I removed the coil pack, disconnected the fuel injector and made it home. Took it to the shop, all the threads are gone. What to do? The shop's manual said 16 hours to pull the head and heli-coil them. That's a lot of labor.

My van has 185,000 miles on it and was running fine. I don't want to scrap it but $3,000 for this repair is a little costly.

Any ideas?

Thank you for all of your help,
Keith
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There is an ongoing thread about this problem. Check it out.


99 v10 spark plug blow out....help..

 

I'm curious if you ever had the plugs replaced or toqued?

 

I have only had the van for 1 year, nothing done in that time.

 

I just pushed 100,000 on my '99 E350 V10. Scared to change or touch the plugs. We'll see how miles the originals will get first.

 

As IEZ44 has suggested following thread on the subject. There is some good reports of helicoils fixing the problem. Sure better than paying 3000 grand for a head change only to have it happen on the other bank. I think I am going to trade off my E450 Motorhome and look either for a 7.3 diesel or GM Gas rig. I don't feel at all comfortable with this Ford V10. Just too many folks having the same problem you are having. Some will say it is not chronic, but I live here in the Southwest around several large Ford Dealerships. I have spoken to all of them and they all report that they are having this problem, but Ford will not acknowledge it as a problem. They have done the same about the oil consumption issue too! Either these V10's burn oil or they don't. Ford says a 1000 miles per quart is aceptable for a modern gas engine if you can believe that! (:

I hope you can find some one who can help you without you having to pay a arm and leg to repair yours.

 

Received my tool kit today http://www.timesert.com/Triton-repair.html
this is made specifically for the Ford Triton head spark plug repair. I am repairing an '99 E350, so it will be fun. I will be measuring the tool clearance and see if I can do this without disassembling too much.

 

fyrfyter, Please let us know how it goes. I'm very interested how it turns out.

 

Fryfyter, I too will be interested in how you do. I have an 99 E450 and I know how tight things are in there. Seems to me you are going to have to remove a lot of stuff in order to get a straight shot for putting in the heilcoil. Good luck and don't want to hear any cuss words. LOL

 

Just read this on the v8 site here. Thought you all might be interested to know not just our V10's are blowing plugs!

It is an engineering flaw. I replaced my sparkplugs when I supercharged my truck a few months ago and properly torqued them to Ford's spec. Recently a friend with a 1999 Lightning had 2 plugs blow out within about 2 weeks of each other...one on driver's side and one on passenger side. Went back and checked mine and sure enough 5 out of 8 were loose enough to remove by hand. He purchased Time Fastener Co's Big-Cert Triton kit (sad they actually make a kit just for our trucks... ) and after removing the blower and lower intake (not what we planned to do just another inept individual got into this truck before we did) and got to work on the heads. It's a really trick little kit...comes with 5 inserts (about $8 ea. if you want buy 3 more to do all the cylinders) and all the taps and reamers to do the job. They say no other tools are required but if you don't have an air wrench handy plan on spending a few days. Don't have to remove the heads just coat the end of the reamer with grease and it will catch damn near all the chips. Takes about 10-15 minutes per cylinder. After we put his truck back together I'm going to purchase the inserts and we'll "fix" my truck before anything pops. $256 kit but I think the peace of mind is worth it.

 

Well, reamed the hole (no air wrench), took 4 hours to ream it by hand. Threaded it (5 minutes), and got the insert screwed in. Too bad the insert tool didn't come back up with it, I'll let the threadlocker set overnight and then try to remove it tomorrow.

Had to take off air filter assembley, misc connections and hoses, fuel rail (both sides), fuel injectors, and pulled front seats to make it easier.

More to come tomorrow...

 

Reaming the hole by hand takes so long because it is such hard work twisting the wrench? Is is possible to set the reamer up on a corded or cordless drill? Does it look like a huge project do all 10 cylinders?

 

Not enough vertical clearance to use power drill (when engine still in van).

Needed an air wrench, that would have worked REALLY well.

It would be a HUGE project to do this on all 10 with engine still in van.

 

fyrfyter, did you get the tool insert out OK?

 

Insert tool came off FINALLY. Oiled driver tool properly and when backing out the insert backed 1/2 way with it. I needed the van in service, so I used a spark plug and tighened it down to 17ft lbs, and left the cylinder dead (no fuel, no spark). Not sure if I should risk fuel and spark.

Any ideas???