I'm in the middle of my 5.4 spark plug change at 96k miles. 7 of 8 removed without breaking. I found there are at least two tools. The Lisle 65600 is often mentioned here, but Autozone sold me a different tool claiming Ford recommends this method. With this you remove the broken ceramic using needle nose pliers, then it comes with an extended length tap which is used to cut threads into the plug sleeve which is stuck in the head. Then you use a threaded (at both ends) piece to screw it in and lift it out. There are some rubber caps that drop in before the tap to keep chips from entering the chamber.

Has anyone used this tool? It's by OEM and sold at Autozone. There is a separate tool kit available to pull the ceramic piece but I do not have that.

 

Never heard of this tool before, I supposed it could work but sounds like a lot more work
I broke 6 of the 8 without even trying Lucky for me the Lisle tool worked flawlessly on all six. I had only 1 plug on each side that came out without the use of the extraction tool.

See the plugs below in the order that they came out

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That sounds similar to the tool Ford recommends to use. If a plug breaks the Ford tool uses the electrodes with some chemical similar to loctite to pull the porcelain out (instead of pushing in like the Lisle tool), then they put a vacuum cap in the plug sleeve (to prevent filings from falling into the cylinder), then tap and pull the sleeve. There are some advantages to doing it this way, but the biggest disadvantage is that it is time consuming. After doing applying the chemical/loctitie to the electrode in the porcelain I believe it has to sit a minimum of 4 hours. Most dealers do not use this method as most techs are "Flat Rate" and this Ford method is not "Flat Rate" friendly.

 

It also doesn't work half the time. I used the Ford tools before the Lisle tool came out and it sucks. The Lisle tool is much better, and as eth555 said, faster.

 

Unlike you, I borke 7 of 8. The lisle tool worked great until the 7th broken plug, then the threaded shield extractor stripped. More My fault? Anyway, the tool really worked like a charm on the first 6.

 

Well I got out the 8th plug, but it's really hard to know if there are no bits of ceramic down there. I used a tube to vacuum out the hole before and after pulling the sleeve out. But it still did not look smooth around the base of the threads. Hoping there is nothing in there...

I also made one other mistake. Used the standard anti-seize compound. I found out too late that high temp meant it is nickel based.

 

I used the nickle anti seize on mine and changed them at 60k and still broke 6 of 8

 

So what did you do about the 7th plug? Did you get it out okay? I'm just curious, hope it worked out fer ya.