Well they ended up having to install a helicoil in the head and it seems to be ok.

James

 

Good news James,

It can be a fairly painless repair and folks can be back on the road pretty quick most of the time.

How much did the repair end up costing you? and what area are you in? It's good to know so other folks that run into this problem can have a ballpark idea of cost before they take their vehicle in for the repair.

Rick...

 

It cost 133.00 to fix it not to mention the adapter kit I bought that they couldn't use so I will hold onto it for just in case when I am on the road.
I took it to Parker County Automotive in Weatherford Tx. which is about 20 minutes due west of Ft. Worth.
They tried the adapter that I bought first but it didn't hold so they had to do the helicoil.

James

 

why are #5 and 10 succeptible to blowing?

Purely because they're the hardest to get to?

 

If Ford started shelling out money for repair kits or the like for the SP problem then they would have to do similar or repair it for every issue that came down the pike. Unless you want them to wind up bankrupt or bailed out like Gov. Motors you will have to put up with the issues they and every auto manufacturer has. Can you imagine the cost increase on auto sales? Their off the wall now let alone adding additional costs to recover their losses.

 

Mine was cylinder #2

James

 

On the V10s,,, I think it may be because 5 & 10 are nearest the firewall were the heat builds up more than the other cylinders. 5 and 10 are set back pretty deep under the hood without much breathing room.

Rick...

 

Thanks for the update James,

Sounds reasonable to me ($133). Keep an eye/ear on it for a while. If it holds ok you'll eventually forget it ever blew out on you.

Rick...

 

Dave,

I agree to a point, but it's easy to say that until it happens to you in a nasty situation in traffic or on a backroad trip or while trying to get work done. We're not talking about a leaky window seal or weak door locks,,, the spark plugs blow out of the heads.
Driving in various conditions this could be a nightmare and dangerous for some unsuspecting folks in a certain situation.
It's a tough one to swallow when it happens to you and causes more than just the initial aggravation.

Rick...

 

Rick,
I do agree with you but unfortunately thats not the real world here. I had major issues with the death wobble and could only read TSB's on the issue and ford wouldn't do crap about it. Thats more of a safety issue than anything IMO. I realized that i would fix myself and leave them out of it. I am a diehard loyal Ford fan and always will be just have to deal with things in life as they come wheather we like it or not. Unfortunately.

 

So i have a question. I have an '02 350 V10 that i've had for 2 months. I just had a plug blow out also but it already had a sleeve in it i believe this is the second time this has happened for that cylinder. Does that mean that i may have to get the head worked on or replace the head now to solve the problem?

 

Can anyone recommend a shop in SoCal (preferrably Orange County) that has done the TimeCert repair for a reasonable price?

 

Timesert makes oversized inserts for exactly that circumstance where another manufacturer's insert (and maybe even an incorrectly installed Timesert) has blown out.

 

Ok I want to figure this out once and for all. When my wife first bought the truck. I was happy but once I got back from Iraq I started to look into the motor and seen that the 5.4 V8s were blowing the plugs.. So i started to search deeper.. I found that all of them do it.. then i seen that up to 2003 they did it, and Ford fixed the problem. So im asking WILL mine blow out on me? Its a 2003 5.4 V8 it has 65,000 miles on it.. I want to replace the spark plugs but im worried that if i do i might mess up and end up blowing one of the plugs out the head.. Thanks again

 

OK poking around the internet, I found this: Blownoutsparkplug.com