This is a work truck, but I have never heard of this one - and a search yielded no information.

A co-workers 2006 Ford F150 (4.6 or 5.4, unsure of which one) with 58,000 miles, crew cab, auto. The truck had a loud noise/quit running. The mechanic's diagnosis is that a spark plug end disintegrated and fell into the engine - damaged the piston and bent the valves. I've heard of them blowing out, but falling in??

It's a company truck that had the oil changed every 3 months/3,000 miles.

I'm very happy with my '08 F250 SD 5.4 so far, but I'm concerned. Is there a problem with Ford spark plugs, or is this a one in a million deal??

 

Since most of the plugs are "2-piece" (including OEM). It could be possible. Normally people have an issue extracting the plugs somtimes resulting in pieces falling in.
Here's a recent thread in this forum with some links to go back to for reference.
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/8...ark-plugs.html

Its prevalent with the 5.4L

 

Thats a new one!

 

well i know the lower end of the sparkplug is taperd so that it can only go so far in and i know when you brake them you can't push them in to the cylinder

so i'm guessing its a one in a million case where a part fail. but how the plugs are made i just see it hard to believe

 

x2...that's a new one. They fall apart taking them out sometimes.

 

And...actually it being 2 pieces couldn't be the culprit here unless the plug was defective, as the lower piece can't actually slide down into the cylinder because of the taper on it.....The only part that could have potentially came apart would have been the ceramic, but thats highly unlikely since the ground strap at the bottom would have prevented it from falling inward.....

Its got to have been a defective plug.....in my opinion anyhow

 

I just read through some of those old threads on the plug problems in the 3v 5.4's, scary stuff! I remember many years ago I found a good deal on a Suzuki Sidekick 4 door (under 10k new), and at 30k I tried to change the spark plugs. They were "welded" to the head, and pulled the soft aluminum out when I tried to change them. Suzuki eventually (had to call their 800 #) paid to fix it (heli-coil) and they later told me that the factory had over torqued them on the assembly line!

It looks like I lucked out with my SD, that sometime in 2007 Ford re-designed the heads to take conventional plugs - so my late 2008 build '08 SD with the 5.4 3v should not have this issue.

I know my co-worker was driving the '06 F150 it when the plug gave away, I guess it was a fluke....

 

mlminor, I bet if you remove one of your spark plugs that you will find a plug just like one in your buddies '06. Plugs for 04 - 08 have not changed, the heads did. Nov 07 and later have more clearance for the lower half of the plugs. That was the change.

 

I'm sorry Fishin76, but there was a change in head design and plug type in Nov. 2007. Many of the late 2008 and all of the 2009 heads have a conventional type one piece plug with the open gappable strap. The engine on my 2008 was made in October so I wasn't so lucky.

HYPO

 

Sounds to me someone may have over torqued that spark plug. The threaded sleve on the plug can crack, split in half and then fall into the cylinder or the electrode can come apart and fall into the cylinder too. The threaded taper on the plug is actually nothing more than a pipe thread. I only ever seen a plug desinegrate a couple times when I worked at a GM dealership as a tech, but fortunately its rare. If the installer follows the factory torque specs, stuff like this won't usually happen. Just my $.02 worth!

Jim

 

Yep...plugs changed...i posted a picture on here not too long ago...but i don't remember the thread

 

according to the sticker on my valve cover. It makes sense, my truck has a 09-2008 build date on the door jamb sticker.

I got "lucky" with my leftover '08, in that it was a very late build. I think I read somewhere that that slowed production down due to the fact that they could not move the '08's, and extended '08 production a few months. I bought mine in mid-February, so it probably only sat on the lot around 4 months. I test drove a Nissan Titan (at the same) that was built in November '07 (and was not a demo), 15 months on the lot!

I'm very happy with it so far, but I only have 3,500 miles. It's very tight and is quieter than both my cars on the road and the 5.4/3.73 has been adequate with my modest tow needs. I'm usually a manual tranny guy (all my other vehicles are manual shift), but I'm impressed with the TS 5 speed so far - I really think it's way overbuilt for the 5.4, which should mean I'll (hopefully) never have tranny problems. The tow/haul mode works really well to wring the most out of the 5.4 as well. I received a great deal on mine, but I would have taken it with the ZF stick at the same price truth be told...

Thanks for all the input, this is a great site.