He y there fellow Ford fans.......First time changing plugs on my 5.4. Is there any tricks to help this and whats the best way to keep dirt from falling down to the bottom and into the plug hole ??? I cleaned them first as best as possible.. And should I replace the wire springs inside the boots ????? or what suggestions ? I have done many tune ups but FIRST time here on my 5.4L Thanks Jc

 

What year is your truck? Do you have the Windsor or Romeo built engine? Some of the different years and designs have different and unique issues with the plug changes. I suggest that you do a search on plug changes. IMO the coils, springs or boots do not have to be replaced with each tune up but many do as an insurance because this is not a job you want to do more than once per 100,000 miles. It all depends on your gambling instincts and the level of pain you can endure. Tune ups are no longer the fun they were back in the day.

 

When I did mine some 6 years/60k ago, I replaced the coil-on-plug (COP) on the hardest to reach cylinder with a new one (rearmost, passeneger side) and kept the old coil as spare - I have since used that spare as another coil have gone.

Nowadays, a set of coil at eBay costs < $100 and there seems to be no issues with them that I hear of.
So those are your options as I strongly suggest not to re-install the old coil you'll remove on that cyclinder, and arguably on the other side's rearmost cylinder (driver side) as well as they are both PITA to work on, the ps more so.

Compress air if available, otherwise, you can use a 5/8 deep socket with a dab of grease to the end, to get the debris on the plug holes prior to plug removal - you'll have to fish out dirt several times with this method but it will work.

Oem Motorcraft is available in parts store now, although I elected to use double plat Autolite at the time as I could only find oem plugs at stealership then.

1/4-7mm wobble would help, as well as quality 7mm combination with 12 pojnt box-end. Extension assortment, time, lots of patient. Save the beer for when job is done as you'll need to concentrate. If you drop a bolt for the coil, very slim chance you'll find it in the engine abyss, so don't drop any.

GL

 

So i got 205000 miles on the truck has prob never had plugs /coils done but it just doesnt feel right what where ????? Or are the sign of a failing coil. I Checked plug it's Fine

Thanks.
Sry for bad grammar n spelling. Dam this iPad.

 

The best thing I found to get the dirt and crud out of the spark plug holes on all the 5.4 style engines before and after you remove the coil packs and spark plugs is a few feet of 5/16 or larger fuel or vacuum line taped to the end of your shop vac hose. It makes a great little flexible suction hose to vacuum up all the dirt around the coil packs and inside the spark plug holes.

On the 3 valve engines with the long stye spark plugs that tend to break in half, this works really well at sucking up all those pesky little shards of porcelain before and after you have to use the Lisle tool to remove the bottom half of the plug and only costs a few $$.