2003 Ford Excursion V10 6.8L. I'm in the middle of doing a plug change, decided to do the back 2 on passenger side since they were literally a PITA. With 3 of the 10 plugs done, I'm starting to worry about the whole throwing a plug issue. I spoke with a mechanic that does a lot of work for me, he recently did the COP and exhaust fixes for me, said that the older model 6.8's don't have much of an issue because the cylinders are longer with more threads. I'm pretty worried about going down the highway and a plug being thrown out. I've read just about every plug change on these forums and following the steps, so not too sure what the hell I'm so worried about, I just don't want some massive repair bill because I screwed something up. Can I check the plugs after I install them a week after to make sure everything is still tight or is that too soon? Thanks in advance for all of your help.

 

The '03 year fixed the thread problem in the cylinder heads. Earlier models had the issue.

I forgot to mention in the Excursion forum that you should have a cool engine when you change your plugs.

 

if it makes you feel better, by all means recheck the torque on each plug after a month or so..

so long as you used the right torque setting and didnt just wrench tighten em you should be fine with a 03 V10...its got the longer thread count heads.

 

I greatly appreciate yalls help. Things are going smoothly after getting the back 2 on the passenger side, I'm on #10 now, about to put it in we'll be done with the plugs for another 100,000. These plugs are BAD. All about .70-.79. The boots looks bad too, a few had a few small cracks when you mash on them. The cylinders, except for #9 which caused some trouble in the past, all looked pretty clean. I vacuumed crud out of each cylinder, and ran a gun cleaner partially down while running the vacuum to remove any further debris. After this I'll post some pics of the plugs, one has some oil on it it looks like, what causes that?

 

jh818 I repped you here, tried repping you on the other thread it didn't work, but I'll get you again. You've been completely helpful during this process in this post and the excursion forum post. Thanks for taking the time to help out. Fordfanatic I also repped you, thanks so much for helping out here.

 

Plugs 1-5, gaps ranging from .068-.078 on these. #4 looks pretty bad, had some oil on it.

These are plugs 6-10, gaps were around .070 on most of these, pretty close to .070.


The boots were all cruddy. The top one came from #8 and was recently replaced by the shot that replaced that COP. Springs all looked good until I took a few off the COP, they resisted...

All in all, the plug change on a V10 is a PITA until you get past #4 and #5. 6-10 were a breeze. Removing a few things really helps out, and unplugging the fuel injectors helped a ton on 3,4,5. It most certainly will not be another 105,000 miles before another change that's for sure. Probably let these run for 50,000 and check up on them. Tomorrow oil change and fuel filter change along with mounting my mag light inside the truck. The hard parts over with, that's all I care about. Thanks again for everyones help.

 

Glad to help, Mark. I hope she runs as good as new. Have you driven it yet after the plug change?

BTW, I would recommend getting an extra coil or 2 handy. Keep one in the glove box in case if one should go out on you...especially on a Sunday night during a holiday weekend while you're out camping in the boonies. You know the dealerships parts dept. ain't open until the next business day. Also, a spare serpentine belt.

 

Definitely a few things I'm going to stock up on around here, I got one boot I kept from this change, not that I would probably ever need that. I'm going to get a few COPs too like you mentioned. After I get the current belt replaced I'm going to get a second one to keep. I have a big tote in the back, gotta find a way to attach it so it doesn't slide all over the place when turning.

She purrs like a huge kitten now. I cranked her up, held my breath, RPMs settled in, smooth. Hopefully everything will stay this way, haha. Knock on wood.

 

If you haven't thought about it or done it, you might want to unplug the batt for a bit, and reset the pcm stategy. Lets you start a fresh sort of speaking, and takes a few days to set around your driving style.
Might want to also add the CO2 sensors to the list of things, if you haven't yet. Just 2 front ones, and don't let the parts store sell you 4. Crawl under and have a look, and you should only see 2, up high on the exhaust above the y pipe. Those if you change you will want to do hot, to help to loosen them, and then wait till cool to get them completely out, and the pigtails in, as they are WAY up there, and a pita to reach. Way easier when cold, and if still warm you will have burn marks on your arms.(ask me how I know this).

 

I had the battery unplugged the entire time simply because the light on the hood was attracting bugs all around it and was causing more bad then good. C02 sensors, so the ones I need to change are the ones that are a PITA? Awesome, haha.

 

Apparently you'll throw the CEL when you don't plug in the #4 COP. Meh. Slight stutter when I went to pull it back in to the garage, and CEL lit up. Looking everything over, making sure everything was plugged back in, all vacuum lines secure, that's when I noticed #4's plug hanging out there. Everything's great now, no issues. Changed the oil as well, was gonna wait but figured why, I'm awake, it's 3am, let's do it. The oil seemed pretty thick coming out, and Ford didn't use a Motorcraft filter...? Why would the Ford dealership not use a Motorcraft filter? Oh well, there's one on there now, and 5w20 in there. Things going good with it. Fuel filter tomorrow, that HAS to wait, don't have those little plastic tools to take the lines off.

 

CO2 sensors? Or did you mean O2 sensors?

 

Yyyep, my bad. I meant oxygen sensor. That will teach me to abbreviate. Those darn computers never help you any more. LOL

 

Whether you have the extra threads in the head or not depends on your build date. Some 03' trucks still did not have the extra threads.

Fixed that for you.

 

Haha. Thanks. Do know when they fixed the thread problem?