Today out of the blue I had a plug blow out. I called Ford and they can replace it for $219+ tax. They can't get me in till next week and I need to use my pickup for hunting mid October. A buddy of mine has had 2 plugs blow out on his pickup and suggested using a kit from Napa that he used. Seems to be made by Dorman and has an insert with threads, new shorter boot and a longer plug.
Have any of you used these kits? It was $54. My fear is will using it make it so the Ford shop can't fix that hole if need be. Hopefully I am worrying too much. I am going to wait till tomorrow to do this and hopefully research some more on it. I have watched a couple youtube videos and it seems to be fairly easy to do.
Any and all input is greatly appreciated.

 

Wait till the seasoned Ford technician can do it or risk head removal or replacement.

 

Based on what we are hearing in this forum , I would stay away from Dorman and Helicoil type repairs . Neither is a permanent repair and will complicate further repairs.
You did not tell us what type of repair suggested by Ford ( is this an authorized Ford dealer ?).
I would recommend you consider a Timesert repair or FullTorque ( a Ford Proprietary technique) repair .


Good luck,

 

Or the Lock-n-Stitch technique.

 

I wound up doing the Dorman repair and it seems to be working fine so far. Not Ideal I understand but it is working. I did some research on other shops that have done this and they said they have only had a few failures and those were on holes that were wobbled out badly.
The shops I called around here all use the Time Sert repair. For what it costs me to have one hole done I can buy the kit myself and do several if need be. I think I am going to go that route.

I wasn't aware of the Full Torque. Can it be done on the head while in the vehicle? If not I think I will still go the Time Sert Route. If I have to remove the heads to do the better repair I may as well find another set of heads, do all 10 holes with the Full Torque then replace the heads all together.

I was scared of the Dorman fix but a guy I know who has 2 V10 Fords has done it on 2 separate holes on the same engine and had no issues with either hole. One has been in for 3 years the other a little over a year. I do realize he may just be lucky.

As I write this I am thinking I may locate 2 new heads. Buy the Full Torque kit and do all 10 holes. Then replace both heads. I know it is costly. Other than a blown plug this pickup has been very good to me. In 4 years this is the first problem I have encountered engine wise. It pulls what I need and starts every time. If I sell it and go with another Ford I have to take the chance of the same issue happening again or dealing with someone elses repair for a blown plug. I have various reasons for not liking Dodge or Chevy and would rather not change. Buying an older pickup with a 460 is an option but then I have a much older vehicle that will have its own problems.

I do appreciate the comments I received. I do not think there is an inexpensive route regardless. I would love to find an older Diesel and go that route but unfortunately finding one some moron hasnt tried to make a dragster out of is very hard to do.

 

After doing quite a bit of reading on this Forum Site and a couple others I learned a couple things about these engines. Several people commented that it's not so much the plugs just blowing out all the threads out of the blue. It is that the Plugs loosen up eventually loosening so much that there aren't enough threads to hold the plug in and blowing those few out. They recommended torquing all the plugs on a regular basis. Well I sceptical but decided it was worth the effort to try. I opted to wait to change all the other plugs till hunting season is over just on the off chance something weird happened and I am without a pickup. I did buy all new boots. I retorqued all my plugs and was very surprised. 2 of the plugs were finger tight. 1 plug was much looser than it should have been. 3 were loose and took very little to torque and 3 were still at spec. 1 of course was the one I replaced. I feel pretty confident I dodged a bullet on 3 of them.
I am by no means an expert but I would encourage anyone with a Triton Engine to check the torque on their plugs.

 

Nice to hear that you were able to re-torque some loose plugs before they popped out . Nice work on your part.


1-Schedule re-torqueing at certain intervals (like 30k miles) since your engine has about 4 threads holding the spark plugs,


2- We hear in this forum that these engines perform well with only motocraft plugs (and its maker , the Autolite plugs). Having a weird looking dorman plug could be a concern. Its heat transfer rate could be different ,that may lead to other issues (like overheating and braking of electrode and causing engine damage ). I still suggest that you do it the right way after hunting season.
Good luck,


PS. Did you break any COP tabs while removing the coils ?

 

Just posting to come back. I've had two plugs blow out and have helcoiled both. I just want to be able to come back to show my dad when we work on it. Thank you for all the information. It really helped.

 

Ok so, i am taking a long trip pulling my 34 ft 5er next year. I have been worried about blowing a plug, would it be a good idea to retorque plugs before the trip?

 

It wouldn't hurt if not for just peace of mind. On my 2000 I checked them once before I changed plugs and a couple of times after a plug change but never found a lose one.

Denny

 

Well my hunting trip went well. On the way up I was on the Interstate and all of the sudden Engine started acting strange. Best way I can explain it was it seemed to be spurting the fuel or something. I am sure thats a technical term. I thought maybe I got bad fuel so I stopped at Walmart and bought some Heat and SeaFoam. I didn't seem to have any loss of power and it seemed to go away at higher RPM. Made it to camp and the problem continued. Finally I started checking plugs and coils. Discovered a Boot that had burned through and was allowing the spark to go to the head instead. All the boots were new maybe a week old. I kept some of the better looking boots I had changed out so I had extra. Replaced and fired it up. Problem solved. Hopefully this will be the last of my troubles for a long time. I cant really complain at all about this pickup. In the 4 years I have had it this is the first Engine related issue I have had. It always starts and goes where I want to go. I am thinking about buying a Diesel next spring for towing. I plan to keep my V10 for around town and hunting.

Wolfboro,
"2- We hear in this forum that these engines perform well with only motocraft plugs (and its maker , the Autolite plugs). Having a weird looking dorman plug could be a concern. Its heat transfer rate could be different ,that may lead to other issues (like overheating and braking of electrode and causing engine damage ). I still suggest that you do it the right way after hunting season."
The Dorman kit comes with an Autolight Plug. Goofy looking. Autolite Evolution HT1.

"PS. Did you break any COP tabs while removing the coils ?"
Nope did not break any tabs.