I am still learning about my 2004 E350 5.4. I am the second owner, bought the van in July 2010 and it has 63,000 miles. I have heard assurances that the 3 valve heads were not used in van engines, only in 5.4 pick ups from 2004-2007. Anybody like to confirm this?
I am an "if it ain't broke don't break it" backyarder. That said, I am considering changing the spark plugs soon, way in advance of the 100,000 mile schedule. Paranoid about snapping plugs off. Is this a real or imaginary concern?
The "old school" in me has a problem with working on a vehicle that is in perfect running order. I'm talkin' extraordinarily clean here. I am extremely fortunate to wind up with a truck from a meticulous first owner.

 

I say take it to Ford for plugs, it's a nightmare, opening the doghouse is like peering into Pandora's box, but yes, vans were behind the trucks, space constraints and due to keeping them reliable since they had a heavy commercial base. Trucks were a guinea pig, once the bugs were worked out, it moved into the vans, yet the van received a detuned version from the trucks, and spent less time in the shop, aside from the nightmare 6.0, which lost Ford it's big stake in the commercial market. If you believe me wrong about my diesel claim, Ford dominated the ambulance market, every one you saw was an Econoline, after the 6.0, you see Chevy's, even read the write up from Ambulance services, upset their 6.0's spent the majority of it's life in the shop, the gasser didn't, but operation costs was murder.
At those miles, what makes you think it needs plugs, they are good for 100,000 miles, and Motorcraft are the only accepted replacement as others will foul out prematurely, I've seen it by everyone who tried on another Ford truck forum. Mine required a swap at 97,000 as it would start and immediately die twice when cold, wasn't the AIC as it was new, if it's running fine, leave it be, just get the throttle body cleaned.

 

Only reason I would have for early plug replacement is their potential to fuse in the head. If this isn't any less of a concern at lower mileage I will leave them alone until I have to start chasing misfire codes or approach the regularly scheduled change at 100,000 miles. I'm pretty much fishing around here. I'd be interested if replies to this thread were overwhelming that early spark plug replacement was a huge advantage over waiting.

 

The vans never got the 3 valve engine whereas the pickups had the 3 valve 5.4 from 2004-2010 and the 3 valve 4.6 in 09-10 I think, but the 2 valve 4.6 was also available.

There is a specifications link at the top of the page, and you can see that even the 2011 vans have the 2 valve 4.6 and 5.4 whereas the pickups have all new engines. (This is like Ford using the old 5.0 in the Explorer thru 2001, whereas the cars got the 4.6 as early as 1991 and the trucks in 1997.)

The 2 valve motors used to have a problem "spitting" spark plugs because there were only 4 threads in the aluminum head, a completely diff problem than the sticking 2 piece plugs in the 3 valve engine. (And both of these were stupid design oversights.) Circa 2005, Ford changed the 2 valve heads to have way more than the 4 threads that the earlier mod motors had. If I were you, I'd probably wait until the 100k required change; you will not have a stuck plug problem. Or if you want to change them out early yourself, go for it. Lots of car companies have a 100k plug change interval with aluminum heads and in general there won't be any problems waiting.

Good luck,
George

 

A syndicated column in my Friday newspaper prompted this thread. A horror story regarding plug replacement was told and the letter writer was advised to bring "his wallet and anger management tapes" to a dealer to have the work done on his '05 5.4l 3-valve pick up. In my opinion, cooler heads here at FTE are more assuring. I am grateful for the feedback and will wait on the plug change. I will look around for something that truly needs to be worked on. Like my golf swing.

 

News is always on the search to report a horror story, if one can't be found, they'll blow something out of proportion.

 

I wouldn't argue that newspapers sensationalize. An advice column describing fused sparkplug extraction cost and effort tells a horror story unto itself, however. No exaggeration to blame on the medium with this problem. You gotta feel for the guys who were blindsided by the design. I feel like I dodged a bullet here.

 

I'd like to know is it's possible to shove in a DOHC 3 valve into a van.

 

Maples--the 3 valve engine is a SOHC; the DOHC mod motors are 4 valve engines. The DOHC engines were used in Lincoln Aviators (4.6) and Navigators (5.4) and in some Mustangs as well.

I believe that the 3V was actually as powerful as the 4V engine and perhaps even torquier because they adopted variable valve timing with that design.

As an old hot rodder friend used to say, any engine swap is possible if you have a welder....but one stupid thing about the mod motors is that they are physically larger than a 460, and IMO there is no need to have overhead cams in a truck V8 engine. And in general, you don't need 4 valves in a truck engine if you have a relatively square bore and stroke, but Ford's tiny bore centers make the 3V a decent compromise--the 5.4 is really undersquare and has only a 3.55 inch bore. In general, you only need to use 4 valves for power at really high rpms with small displacement engines. The new 3.7, 5.0, and EcoBoost are 4 valve engines, for making more power out of smaller size engines.

A cool engine to transplant into a van would be the new 6.2...which is a 2V engine designed for a TRUCK. (I'm an old muscle car guy who has owned a whole bunch of engines over 400 cubic inches in the old days.)

But it might take an electronics degree to do the correct computer transplants

George

 

A Cummins would be a better candidate with an Allison transmission, but the program for that trans is $2000, or my uncle would have it on his in his 89 Chevy dually, he gets looks, a diesel team chased him down at a trade show wanting to see it. I hate the width of the mod engines, it caused the redesign of the Econoline, now they're ugly as hell, stupid superduty grill in it.

 

Wasn't the mod motors that caused the redesign. The mods started in 1997, when they started with the "oval" grill 97-02. The new front end is from 2008 and I agree that it was horrible, but like most horrible designs, I've gotten used to them and don't mind quite as much--and now my '02 looks older somehow. But one problem is that the front end got 5 or 8 inches longer or something with the redesign and I don't want my van to be any bigger than it needs to be. Maybe crash requirements since they're all heavier vans now and need more crush space?

It's also possible they did the big grille for increased cooling purposes, since they also killed the "real" 5-lug E150 around the same time, so all the vans are now like SD level trucks including the new E150 which has GVW over 8500 lbs instead of the old 7200 lb max.

George

 

Having watched this problem from the beginning by spending time on this forum, the early cases were a major pain because dealers were replacing heads, on the owner's dime--literally thousands of dollars for a spark plug change. After a number of years, Ford came up with recommended methods (carb cleaner soaking threads, etc) that will lessen the likelihood of the stuck plug problems. And tools were developed to extract stuck plug pieces relatively easily and cheaply.

I'm sure that there are still mechanics or dealers who are capitalizing on the problem, but if the owner has done research, he could shop around for prices under various "what if" scenarios in terms of busted plugs, and also determine whether his mechanic has the proper tools and some experience doing this particular job. With the right methods, experience, and tools, this becomes a routine job even if a plug or two break off.

It's still a stupid design problem, as were the 4-thread sparkplug holes on the earlier mod motors. The post-2005 2V engines would not have either of the problems and would be the one that I'd prefer to have at plug change time. Except working on a van engine isn't fun to begin with.

George