The 5.4 Tritons (modular) are infamous for breakage. Some have even shot plugs out of their holes due to only three or four threads securing them. I had the dealership change the plugs on my 01 S'crew when the fuel pump went out. Better them than me breaking off plugs or stripping the holes.

 

Plugs were just changed on this. It's a 5.4L so I considered that a bonus when I made the deal.

 

The early models were worse than the newer ones. I think they (semi) fixed it for 04.

 

Was fixed by then. My 2003 Harley F150 5.4 S/C has the updated heads. Because it's 2003. BTW, yours is a 3V per cylinder 5.4L. a few years of 2V 5.4L had the low number of threads.

 

MOST of the time it was 'cause people weren't tightening replacement plugs enough. Then they eventually worked themselves loose. As they loosened they would rock around. Like I described on a 300 I6 in another thread. After rocking around for a bit this messes with the threads and the plug gets spit out.

 

So my '04 shouldn't have spark plug issues?

 

Shouldn't as long as you take care when working on them. Torque them properly and make sure you don't cross-thread them.

 

Nope. It won't. Totally different heads. But 351 was right. Still torque them correctly.

 

Life just got better. I'm glad to know I won't have to take the truck into a dealer for a spark plug change.

 

Just bringing this back to the top.

 

I think we'd all appreciate an update.... yah Tro?

 

3x. Me too.

 

You know how it goes, boys. Life got in the way. Unfortunately, that happened sooner than I would've liked. I got the job out in Alberta, I passed all the drug testing, physical testing, in-class and on-the-field training, got a couple days of work in and then bam. Laid off indefinitely. The price of oil per barrel dropped from $105 to $79, and $89 is usually when all the rigs get shut down. The price is back up to $84 now. The higher it goes, the sooner I get a phone call telling me to come back to the patch. I had a great trip out there though and absolutely loved the experience, but it really sucks being $9,000 invested and not having anything to show for it. I've been doing the occasional odd job at my old work but I've done everything there is to do so they really don't have a position for me. At some point soon I'm going to have to start handing out resumes somewhere. Normally I'd be doing something like stripping the interior to occupy time but thanks to my dad's excellent hoarding abilities, I really don't have the space.



Souvenir photo.

I have, however, been slowly accumulating engine parts. That way I won't feel like I'm useless. I now have a Crower camshaft, lifters, springs, and roller rockers for a Chev 250, Probe pistons for a 302, 240 cylinder head and connecting rods, SI 1.94 intake valves (exhaust valves are still on backorder), and an Offenhauser intake manifold. As Jeff knows I'm holding off on a carburetor at the moment but I will at some buy it. I'm also likely going to buy a NOS exhaust manifold off the F600 trucks to replace my Hedman header.

You may be wondering why I have 240 rods and 302 pistons. The 240 rod is longer (6.795") than the 300 rod (6.210"). At the sacrifice of a little torque due to the rod giving a little less leverage on the crank, the longer rod allows for a smaller, lighter piston. The pistons I chose weigh something like 360g each. It also gives a better rod length to stroke ratio, which means less piston side loading and therefore less stress at high RPM. My camshaft's redline is 6,000rpm and you can bet that I plan to take it that high, but special preparations must be made when your crank stroke is 3.980". I could build the engine for higher RPM yet quite easily, but I want to keep at least a little bottom end power and overall reliability.

Here's a couple diagram I drew up to demonstrate. I drew this up before buying pistons though, so there's a small error. The pistons I bought have a 1.175" compression distance, putting the deck clearance back to 0.040".

 

Great work Trozei. Those 6's can make tons of torque so this route may yield a good HP to Torque balance.

 

Torque isn't really what I'm after. I don't use the truck for towing and it is pretty light considering. I'm only doing this because it's different and I've never personally seen or heard a built inline six. Half the fun in it is that I have no idea what to expect from a 300 that revs to 6,000.