CC, thanks for the offer, but it's approx. 450 miles away. I need a "Bo" in Northern Ohio. lol

 

What is the recommended mileage for a plug change on these trucks? My truck has 40000 miles. Should I be getting ready to change them?

 

I'm pretty sure Ford recommends 100K for the first change. Some people feel the sooner you get them out the better. That would probably make sense cause the less carbon build up the easier they should come out. Once you get rid of the original plugs this issue will be over.

 

If you read the fine print, they say 100K miles in "normal" conditions and 60K in "severe." Severe is described as stop & go city driving.

I spoke with an engineer at Federal Mogul (Champion) who told me that most spark plugs (of all brands) really start to go south at 60K. They may work "OK" past that but that's the point where you might see a deterioration of performance, mileage, etc. If you wanted to pick an arbitrary point to do plugs, I suspect that might be a good place.

I did my plugs early because of a unique opportunity. Had that not come, I likely would have run them to 60K.

 

I changed mine at 67K and they were shot the gap was way out! I plan on doning mine after another 60k. My two cents.

Shawn
06' 5.4 2wd

 

One thing nobody mentioned yet is, when I removed my original plugs, they were squeaking all the way out because they were so tight. I put in a new set of MC SP515's and they turned freely all the way in by hand. I thought something was weird with the first one, so I backed it out and did it again. The rest were the same.

I think the SP515's are the 2nd or 3rd redesign of the original plugs. If I remember right, SP509's were spec'd before the SP515's. They must have known about the tolerances, so they might have gone the other extreme on the newer plugs. So now, I'm wondering if I should check them to see if they've loosened and about to pop out!

 

If they were adequately torqued, I wouldn't sweat it. Plenty of thread engagement (unlike the earlier 2V Modulars that blew plugs out... what is it with Ford and spark plug issues?)

I have heard that Autolite decreased the diameter of the insert for the new plugs. Have intended to get hold of a new one and measure and compare to my old 2005 era plugs but haven't gotten round to it yet. If I did, I would also see how much torque it took to break a new one vs an old one. The originals took about 36 lbs-ft to break off, if you clamped the electrode sleeve in a vice and twisted the upper part.

 

I just changed mine, 04 f150 4x4 5.4L. I parked it in the garage and started on it while it was hot. I broke them loose one at a time (all had a nice "POP" sound when they broke loose) then I sprayed the sea foam-slow creep in each one. then pulled them all out with just the socket and extentions after it had cooled down a bit. none of them broke. I also had an 03 f150 4x4 5.4L and never had any problems changing those either. I always use plenty of anti-sieze.

 

It's not good practice to remove spark plugs from a hot aluminum cylinder head. There's a chance the aluminum threads may transfer material to the plugs metal thread and gall on the way out.

 

Would a 1/2 inch impact be to much. I plan on doing my plugs next weekend and a 1/2 inch is what I've got. Using an impact makes sense to me. Besides, I don't have a whole weekend to do the plugs. Will also wait until I can rest my hand on the head. Like Lime1GT said you can ruin the threads in the head removing the plugs when the motors hot.

 

Don't be in a hurry to do this job it will cost you big in the end. If you don't have the required time to do it you might better take it to somebody who does.

 

Mindbent2

I second what elrodalonzo wrote. I would give the job 3-4 hours or not at all, You have to figure you will break one or two going in, even if you don't and it's a 1.5 hour job. there is no getting it wrong where it won't cost you hundreds minimum. Saying that I would not use the 1/2" impact.. The torque is so high on that size impact I don't think it would give you any "feel" on removal if it could even reach #4 and 8. My advice given your limited time... (1) buy the lisle tool (2) Use hand tools. After you use the tool the first time I think a broken plug only adds 20-30 minutes to the job. After dealing with the broken plug issue on my truck and reading everyone’s story and methods-procedures I have come to the conclusion that a successful change with no broken plugs is 50% luck. Plan for the worst case breaking a plug or two or four or whatever. Using hand tools you can do it and minimize horror story scenarios.

 

I agree 100% with Cofcmsc.

In my opinion, those who had zero plugs break were lucky. I would have played a lotto ticket that night.

 

Yeah, I've seen it go both ways ...
... but my hats off to anyone who get's 8 of 8 done with no problems!

I'll do mine at 50-60K and have the Lisle Tool handy when I do it.

 

Well tackled the plugs this week on my 04 5.4 67K F150. I guess you could call it successful cause the old ones are out and the new ones are in. Pulled it in the garage cold and removed the cops. Cracked all the plugs a little and sprayed with Kroil. Waited a few hours and figured I'd pull one out just to make sure nobody changed them already. Well that one broke off so I figured I'd let the other ones soak overnight. To make a long story shorter, all 8 broke off. They turned really hard to break them loose initially and I think most of them broke when I did this. There was alot of carbon build up on the tips but it was softened up from the Kroil penetrating overnight. I had a brand new Lisle tool on standby and it was worth it's weight in gold. I got all tips out without too much stress. Although on the first one I ran the pusher down all the way as per the instructions and it pushed the porcelein down so far it broke the electrode strap. This really had me concerned since I didn't know if a piece of it had dropped into the cylinder. I pulled another one without running it all the way down and was relieved when I compared the two and wasn't missing any pieces. You are running a risk of not getting the puller threads in far enough if you don't push it all the way down, but after doing a couple you get the hang of it, you can actually feel the strap break if you go to far. I pity the first few mechanics who did this job before they invented the proper tools. I wouldn't recommend doing this job for someone without mechanical experience or the time to do it. This plug design is one of the worst defective oe parts I've ever seen and a real black eye for Ford the way they handle it. I would not buy another 5.4 in this year range unless the price was right. I used Champion plugs as a replacement and would never use another Motocraft spark plug. Hopefully this will be of some help to sombody.