Yes-Plugs are known to spit in the older modulars.
Yes-We've been warned and now it is "buyer beware" time.

Yes- I am an "old timer" here that hasn't posted in a long time. Did y'all miss me

 

Outpost! I remember you!

 

Sorry oldusedbear...but you seem to imply that FoMoCo did not step up to YOUR satisfaction... I strongly suspect you did NOT have any plug blow out

Also, I suspect you do NOT know any one who personally had a plug blow out inside of warranty be it the 3 /36 we got or the new 5/60 version

OH I am sure as passionate as you wrote that you know somebody with a blown plug...I know several

I happen to know for a fact Ford did exactly as promised with the manufacturer warranty... if a plug blew they replaced the entire head ... they never once shirked the warranty and they never once claimed there was not a issue.

I owned A 2001 Platinum Edition SuperDuty...do you folks understand that in 2001 the Platinum Edition was a play on a Record Label sales as IN.... "We went Gold" ( 1 million sold), or "We went Platinum"(2 Million sold)... 2 million V8 and V10 Superduty Trucks in service between 99~01

The aluminum head V8 and V10 are currently in the 8 million plus range "in service" with about 14% being V10s...most all are still "in service" some logging well into the 370,000+ mile range with average rebuild in the 189,000 mile range..and most noted rebuild requirement was for sloppy cam drive assy with bottom end bearings still in spec.....amazing from a domestic manufacturer IMO

OK back to the plugs.... 8 million motors 86% V8s and 14% V10 equals
55,040,000 V8 spark plugs
11,200,000 V10 spark plugs

total = 66,240,000 spark plug holes drilled and tapped then some factory monkey wrenching a damned LOT of spark plugs into holes... and by the way you are insane if you believe every one of those 66+ million spark plugs had perfectly formed threads...( just some food for thought)

Gee 66 Million spark plugs in aluminum heads by Ford motor company

The industry standard before a major auto company decides a engineering redesign or recall is necessary (outside of safety related mandates) is 3.5% failure rate

Some one check my math but that sounds like before normally Ford would do something about a problem they need to see over 2 million plug failures

I have a general idea they only had several thousand failures and the only reason they did the redesign on the 2003 and up motors was because they were bleeding a bunch of red replacing a whole head and eating the labor costs too

They were also very keen that us American red blooded male Ford Truck owners were not going to put up with the problem no matter how seldom or infrequent the event

Bottom line is to imply that FoMoCo did NOTHING is flat wrong... they repaired EVERY one that blew under factory AND ESP warranty with a new head

They redesigned the heads and the failure rate dropped significantly...

Sure it sucks to still have a 99 295HP~2002.5 310HP V10 that spits a plug... but the back yard fix is relatively easy and not cost prohibitive

03 and up have a lower rate of failure and 05 and up 3v V10 almost non existant... in the manufacturing world I say they did a very good job of addressing the problem

MY Nissan V6 blew a plug
MY Harley V twin blew a plug
My Briggs lawn mower blew a plug
MY Kawa dirt bike blew a plug
MY Dads Kohler motored snowmobile blew a plug with me driving

FoMoCo does NOT have the only aluminum head motor that will blow out a spark plug

None of my Ford V8s or V10 with aluminum heads has ever blown a plug...

 

Nice to here from you again Fred

Denny

 

Welcome home Fred!

 

Wow, that's a lot of blown plugs on your equipment. In the hundreds and hundreds of motors I've owned or worked on powering every type of equipment, I've never blown a plug or seen one blown out. I've always torqued plugs within the exact range required by the mfg's, I have never done this "by feel". Because of what I read on this post about the plug problem last year, I changed my plugs at 82k (way ahead of the '100k' interval recommended by Ford) and my plugs looked fine, maybe I'm just lucky. Not saying plug blow out could never happen because of poor design considerations, but torquing the plugs to the correct range seems to prevent that for me. I guess I was lucky to have learned that as a kid rebuilding engines with my dad and grandpa, they drilled it into my head to torque bolts and plugs correctly.

 

Sadly, I don't think we are discussing spark plug threads here as much as we're discussing the philosophies and policies that can make or break the biggest companies in the world.

GM has recently been bumped out of the number one spot by Toyota. Ford has just been overtaken by VW.

We're told that Toyota's and Honda's market capitalization combines to a total of 257 billion - - which is 17 times the combined value of GM and Ford's.

GM and Ford are hoping for a 50 billion dollar bailout. Lotsa luck after AIG et al gets the first 700 billion!

The financial oddsmakers are saying there is better than a 90 percent chance that one of them will default.

Some may prefer to believe that Ford and GM business practices are not responsible for the condition they are in.

I'm not in that group.

 

Ford and GM are more the victims of excessive Labor Union Black Mail (and that is exactly what going on strike during high production months is) then poor quality product

They succumbed to the gun to their heads and caved to some of the most insane and outrageous pay and benefit packages in ANY industry

Sorry Old bear...we ARE talking about V10 Ford Aluminum head motors in THIS forum and a thread started by Britt lamenting his long in the tooth motor blowing more then one plug and then expecting some relief from FoMoCo.

In my opinion an irrational expectation.... then along comes a few Ford Bashers who try and claim they are just pointing out facts and not really being disloyal or bashing... I say BS

I posted some correct and very relevant facts... rather then dispute my claims you want to add stuff about market share and some how expect us in this forum to believe that poor quality or customer service is the reason American manufacturing is loosing ground.... OK it is part of it but not really the main reason

I think what you did was crab walk away from this topic and base issue...

Is FoMoCo obligated to repair a blown plug way after the warranty is expired?

And if they don't, are they bashed for not helping a brother out?

Fact is Plug blow out is a very rare thing. And my opinion is that Ford properly reacted to the problem

Every high volume manufactured part or assembly is going to have some flaws and NO company is able to escape that fact

BUT hey! I am mostly a owner of foreign cars ...my current ride is a Mercedes Smart car... with all it's warts and flaws... ( waited in line a year and second one is coming next month) my Big heavy duty truck of choice is a Ford and I deliberately switched from diesel to Gas because of lower operating costs, relatively efficient and powerful motor....

If some folks are eskairt of the rare and PREVENTABLE plug blow out...cool...go buy a Chevy or Dodge...they are bleeding the same red ink (for the same ignorant reasons) ...never mind Honda, Nissan, or Toyota they most likely never will make a truck that can compete in the 1 ton class

Britt.... sorry brother your expectations are awfully high for a truck that age and mileage...

vze2sgxa was amazed at the number of plug blow outs I have had... good point and let my experiences teach some younger folks a few things...BTW I am 53 and have owned gas powered stuff since I was 13 years old...40 years is time enough to blow some stuff up ( don't ask about pinion bearings, drive shafts, shattered tranines and clutches...grin!)

MY Nissan V6 blew a plug ... I assume poor quality control at assembly as I think I shot out a too loose plug ....all 5 remaining were perfectly torqued in the heads

MY Harley V twin blew a plug .... entirely my fault...finger tight, mildly inebriated, fired her up and reved her up two too many times... lucky to not have a hot plug in my ******* from that idiocy

My Briggs lawn mower blew a plug back around 1975~76 it was a very used yard sale machine... I assume plain old corrosion ate the threads in the head as the plug was quite rusty when it blew... I think the thing was 10 or more abused years old when I got it for $25

MY Kawa dirt bike blew a plug ... Young me not trained as mechanic yet and I am sure I striped the threads at a fouled plug change by "Armstrong good n tight" method of torquing

MY Dads Kohler motored snowmobile blew a plug with me driving.... This one I chalk up to many hot cold cycles loosening the plugs and we not being aware of the issue so we never checked them

 

Gloria here.

We owned an auto repair and towing business, in central NV, for 9 years. We just closed up shop in 02/03 (9/11 killed us). Ours was a general shop, and we towed for the local Sheriffs office, and the Highway Patrol. This was on Hwy 95, between Vegas and Reno.

Now, do understand that the majority of traffic on Hwy 95 is towing something (usually 5th wheels), and the majority of the tow rigs are Fords. Dodges second............. and GM's heavily in the rear. There were also alot of Motorhomes coming through......... and you know what engine the gasser motorhomes usually have.

Never, in the entire time we had our shop, have we seen one modular motor with a blown plug. Never. We have never known anyone who has blown a plug in a modular, nor do we know anyone who knows anyone who has.

During this time, we also had a '01 Lightning that we put 68K troublefree miles on.

To back up what Fred said, aluminum heads are primary in racing. Blown plugs are certainly nothing new in racing circles. The sad but true fact, is that an aluminum head does not leave alot of room for human error. They are not forgiving. Should Ford have put more threads in............. yes, and they fixed it. Can you still blow a plug with the heads with more threads.............. yes, they are still aluminum, after all.

The thing is, to expect a company to go out of their way, out of warranty, to help people out.............. when the failure rate is so low, as to be a statistical anomoly, is to truly hold them to a higher standard than other companies. Especially when the problem primarily manifests itself in higher mileage engines.

You are wanting to hold Ford to a different standard, because they are your automaker of choice. However, this is unfair to the manufacturer, and yourself.............. because when you place your expectations so high, you are bound to be disappointed, as noone can live up to that standard.

In a "perfect world," all manufacturers would have limitless funds to help out everyone who buys their products, no matter how old, poorly maintained, or abused............. you know, just to be good guys. We do not live in a perfect world.

Finally, remember that everything is blown way out of proportion on the internet. One guy has a problem, and posts it on 15 sites, and people see it, and post it on another 5-10 threads each.......... and pretty soon, this one guy, with one problem, looks like an epidemic. Does this make the first guys problem irrelevant............... no. Does it paint an accurate portrait of the real world.......... no way.

 

Sounds like some of your plug blow outs were material and quality control-related, and beyond your control. I just turned 50 and recently retired with 27 years from the Navy specwar community after my third deployment to Iraq. In my Service experience, I have seen GM engine (both gas and diesel) failures from plugs, injectors (diesel), and other pieces blowing out on dueces and 5ton trucks as well as small river craft, which is a bitch when you are in the middle of combat sometimes. We had a pretty good operating support agreement with some Army mechanized units who would do the fixes for us if we covered security ops for them, those guys could fix any of our Navy equipment really fast, very competent brothers of ours, some of them the best our country has grown. Anyway, I guess I'm more wary of the plug problems partly because of the combat experience and am more apt to be proactive replacing and torquing them correctly (myself), mainly because my wife drives the Expedition with our two children in it and I just want to be sure they are safe, probably over doing it with an early plug change, but gives me piece of mind. BTW, my 11 yr old son keeps telling me "don't worry dad, 50 is the new 30." At least I'll be around to teach him how to work engines.

 

Well said Gloria...

Can we put this thread to rest?? The plug is blown, its not an epidemic, and Ford isn't gonna fix it.

 

Your wish is my command.

Thread closed.