I have to agree. I have been riding motorcycles since the 60's and they all have had aluminum heads. Never used anti-seize, never used a torque wrench, just tighten them down. Never once have I ever had a plug even come loose. My Stihl chainsaws, weedwhips....JD power equipment..all aluminum heads...nada.

 

any hints for doing the timesert repair in frame? I will get my kit next week.

 

Blew a plug last year and decided it was not a job I wanted to tackle in my garage. Ended up taking it to a shop to have it tapped out and re-threaded. Total cost was right at $400. Worth it IMO because I didnt want to mess up the job in my garage.

 

Which cylinder?

 

Number 3, on drivers side

 

Q: Do any plugs ever come out/get loose when they've been torqued to 28ft lbs. or only when torqued at the factory 11 ft lbs. in manuals?

 

Last summer I had a plug furthest back against fire wall on passengers side pop out while about 1300kms into a 1700km drive. Luckily it was just a matter of screwing it back in. However the COP was damaged now and had no way of being secured to the head. I drove it that way for roughly 4 months before the plug infront of it 3rd back on passengers side blew out completely. This time I took it to my usual shop. They inserted a Heli coil and replaced the 2 COPs that were busted at the base where they secured to the head.
Anyway, now I have a light ticking noise I never had before. I'm positive its coming from that plug.

 

Guess nobody knows. Local Ford dealer said he's not aware of any coming back to his dealership once being torqued to the higher setting.

 

Both issues from this thread are TSBs. The head gasket oil leak requires an updated head gasket. The spark plug well...nobody really knows the why. What I know is that when I worked in fleet management we saw this all the time. Helicoils are great if you're just trying to sell the vehicle immediately. Shops don't give warranties on helicoils for a reason. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. I tend to let my husband handle the helicoils because he was a machinist for a while and he has the touch for it and his usually hold. I've only ever worked as a mechanic and well...don't really have the touch for it, so it's hit and miss. If you have both the oil leak and the blown plug issue, and you want to try a helicoil, take off the heads and when you send them out for machining try to find a machinist to do the thread repair for you would be my best suggestion. Alternately you could just do a replacement head and use the higher torque spec. I don't have any data on the efficacy of that either, though, so I'm not totally sure, Also a spark plug backing out and blowing out are not the same thing. Backing out is generally due to improper torque on installation and a lot of luck that it didn't work itself into a blow out. These blow outs happen regardless and always require head repair or replacement.

 

Timecerts are the way to go, not Heilcoils. There is not enough material for a Heilcoil to grab and stay in-place. Timecerts have a pressed bent over lip that locks them in-place inside the combustion chamber along with some red thread locker plus they are hardened and will not strip out or come loose in installed properly.

 

ekg 80...I was just wondering...I had the same problem this past weekend, my #4 spark plug and COP spit out. I was about 200 miles from home on a Sunday, when nothing is open as far as mechanics. So what I did was pulled into an O'Reilly's, bought the tools, new spark plug, and new coil pack. The old spark plug looked like it wasn't stripped at all, so I reinstalled it and it seemed to tighten up just fine. I removed it, installed the new spark plug and COP, and proceeded to drive home with no problem.

My question is, being that I did just like you and basically reinstalled the same stuff that spit out...have you had any more problems with that cylinder since then? Have you timeserted or heli-coiled that cylinder since? I'm just curious because my truck seems to be running fine...so I'm trying to decide if I should even mess with it, or just leave well enough alone...

Thanks for your input!

 

Hi Chris,
All i did was reinstall the same spark plug, and torqued it down to 25 foot pounds. I did not use a helicoil, or anything else, and no anti-seize on the spark plug threads. I havnt had an issue with it since.

Before the plug blew out on me, I would hear a ticking noise coming from the driver's side near the manifold, so I thought it was a bad manifold gasket, then after the plug blew out, and i re installed it, the ticking went away 100%. So i guess the noise I was hearing was the from the loose spark plug and not the manifold gasket.

If you got the plug in there tight, you should be fine.

Eric

 

ekg 80,
Thanks for the reply, and for the vote of confidence that it 'should' be alright. It's interesting to hear that you would hear the ticking, because I was hearing the same thing. But after having a manifold leak, I too thought it had just returned or I installed the gasket wrong and would have to redo it. But like you said, after I replaced the plug and COP, that ticking was totally gone, and the truck runs great. Glad you didn't have any more issues, and I hope mine will stay solid now for awhile! At least I'll know what's happening now if I hear that ticking again!!

If you don't mind me asking, how many miles did you put on it after your plug blew? Did you tow anything or pull any hills with the engine under a heavy load?

Thanks
Chris

 

I recently sold the truck, but it probably had 3k on it since i did the plug and coil pack. I didn't tow anything, but it did a number of wide open runs down the highway to 5k rpms and it was fine. Just keep an ear out for that ticking noise again, if you start to hear it again, check all the plugs, to make sure none are loose.

Eric

 

Sounds good...will do. Thanks for all the info!

Chris