I've had this 2006 5.4L since 2009 when I got it with 44,000 miles, and I assume the original plugs. One of my friends got the same truck (a 2008 I think) a few years later, and we planned on doing both our plugs. His truck started misfiring and throwing codes for the individual cylinders so one day we doused all the plugs with kroil and tore into them a day or few later (this was 2-3 months ago.

I did mine first since it was at my house and I have extra vehicles. The first one I did I used a 1/2" electric impact wrench & it pretty much shattered the thing & we got good practice for worst case scenario (extractor kit worked well). Then we went to his, & only hit the 3 that had misfire codes....all of his went smoothly & came out in one piece.

Tonight I got back into mine, changed 4 before it got dark. I still have the farthest one (closest to cab) on the passenger side - I think I'll have to remove some sort of electrical device to get at that plug, and then I have the 2 closest to the cab on the driver side that I think will be pretty easy.

Moral of the story? Don't wait until 133,000 miles to change your plugs. My engine is still running perfectly (with a tic it's had since I got it), this is just late preventative maintenance.

I'll try to find the threads on spark plug changes, I think I'll warm it up for a while next time....cant believe I had problems with every single plug I doused them all with kroil before I closed the hood for the night. Tips stuck in (just the metal, not the ceramic...the ceramic tip stuck in the very first one but not since), the threaded rings came out & left the tip & the ceramic in (pull the ceramic with pliers or magnet, then use the extractor tool to remove the metal tip). Pretty frustrating!

 

I watched a couple videos on youtube last night on changing these plugs, and one of the guys used seafoam in the throttle body to remove the carbon from the cylinder & plugs. I think I'm going to try that; if there's anything I can do to make these less-accessible plugs go easier, I'll try it.

I can't remember if there's a write-up on changing the plugs - I did a search last night and read several threads, most of them weren't going as good as mine. I didn't put anti-seize on the first 5, but I'll be sure to put it on the last 3.

I just found this one - he says to loosen 1/4 turn then spray some carburetor cleaner down to remove the carbon at the tip, which is where my problem seems to be. I'll post pics later.


Is there a sticky on this? I'm wondering if I should do this with the engine hot or cold - the extractor kit says to heat the plugs with a heat gun. My friend's truck was a little warm when we did his & they all came out clean.

 

Success! I drove my truck to autozone & got some liquid seafoam & sucked in about 35%+ of the container, waited <10 minutes, smoked out my neighborhood, then loosened the first plug (third from front, driver side) and it just spun right out so I didn't stop to hit it with carb cleaner. The driver side closest to the cab - it broke the ceramic & left it and the tip in the hole (let it sit for ~15 min w/ carb cleaner after I loosened it). I went to the 4th one from the front on the passenger side & I thought it was broken for sure but when I pulled the socket, the plug was with it.

Extracting the broken ceramic/tip from the 4th on the driver side was rough. The tip pressed through the ground strap & a small portion of ceramic fell into the cylinder. I was able to vacuum a good portion of that, hopefully all (connected a ~1/2" tube to a shop vac, then I placed a muslin bag between the shop vac tube & the shop vac, so I could see what I was able to suck from the cylinder. After I'd vacc'd the cylinder for a while, I fired up the truck & held the vac on/near the spark plug hole & let it run for a while.

I let it run a couple times during the process to heat up the engine, and the check engine light came on............for the first time over the last ~9 years of having this truck...not a good feeling. I cleared it once yesterday, cleared it again today, then after I finished I drove it for 50 miles through the city, then the freeway, & then up a canyon, and it seems normal - no increase in power, just normal. I track my MPG pretty closely (~13.5 - 14.5.....near 15 is rare) so I should be able to tell if there's any increase in fuel economy.

I also disabled the seatbelt chime, and last weekend I switched to Mobile 1 5w30. I think I'll run that for 1000 miles & then switch to Mobile 1 5w20 (with the FL-820S filter).

I'll try to post some pics before long....and any failures if they happen.

 

thought I'd post some pics

 

I've only driven it ~80 miles so far, I might notice a little more power on maintaining speed with cruise control on the uphill (maybe not), the check engine light's stayed off. Yesterday I poured a little Marvel mystery oil into the fuel tank but didn't notice anything.

I noticed some sludge in the oil cap, so I'm going to pour the MMO into it but thought I'd take some oil out of the drain before so I could check how clean it is. Since I used the seafoam I'm not sure what to expect.

I ordered the VCTs so I think I want to run some detergents (MMO or seafoam) a couple times before I install them. I'm going to have the tranny serviced again (been 60K miles since aamco last did it), and I'm thinking of doing the front & rear differentials again too.... not sure if they've been done, actually. I know the transfer case was done last time the tranny was done.