Ford v10 headers
Fleet Mechanic
Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 1,812
Likes: 88
From: Thousand Oaks, CA
A lot of us now torque the plugs to 20-25 ft/lbs.
I think most plugs that are blown are because they were OEM plugs torqued at the factory to 11-15 ft/lbs and not changed/checked for over 100k.
Leaving the plugs in for a lot of miles gives them time to work loose.
The earliest I've read of an OEM plug blowing was 68K, most go around 100-120k, some never go after 180k, some were 8 thread heads and a couple were 3Vs.
We bought our 2002 6.8l with 104k and it blew #3 at 108k just before I was going to change them.
I didn't know they were the OEM plugs, who leaves plugs in for more than 50k, they're only $30/10 and the boots are probably due, too, another $30/10.
All the plugs on the passenger side were a tad loose at 108k.
With the factory torque and changing at 50k there would probably not be any issues.
I do 25 ft/lbs with a torque wrench, change plugs/boots at 50k, no issues.
Moderator
Joined: Jul 2010
Posts: 12,064
Likes: 1,574
From: Media PA
But since it is my wagon, it's only my opinion that really matters and I happen to be very happy with it. 
Actually it doesn't need bigger pipes for the exhaust to flow, the single 3" factory mandrel bent piping is pretty well matched to the engines displacement and operating range. A 3" exhaust pipe is considered "little"? Too large of pipes can actually reduce the low RPM torque and since that big wagon is a dedicated tow rig for an 11K+ TT I am only interested in increasing it's performance, not giving any away. My vehicle usage and end goal with the exhaust is apparently quite a bit different than what you want in your truck. Mine only tows and it sees long travel days up to 12 hours on the highway in a day pulling a heavy un-aerodynamic load, so a loud exhaust with drone at steady RPM is the last thing I want.
I have driven my EX in every configuration of it's evolution (you have unfortunately not) and I can assure you that both the headers and the muffler have made small (headers more so than the muffler) but noticeable performance improvements noticed mainly while under high load climbing highway grades. The point of the headers was to free up the restrictive factory exhaust manifolds, the interior cross sectional area of the factory logs just after the fifth cylinder's inlet is only 15% larger than EACH of the Banks header's primary tubes.
Senior User
Joined: Apr 2015
Posts: 171
Likes: 2
Didn't mean to hurt your feelings, just doesn't sound very good. There's a ton of V10 6.8's that don't sound very good. Didn't need to write a book defending your exhaust lol. Mine used to sound awesome and now sounds meh....it happens.
Also are you sure the factory piping is 3"? I don't think it is.
Also to the OP, there is a entire page on this site dedicated to the 6.8 with lots of helpful people who know everything about this engine and might not look at this section very often.
Also are you sure the factory piping is 3"? I don't think it is.
Also to the OP, there is a entire page on this site dedicated to the 6.8 with lots of helpful people who know everything about this engine and might not look at this section very often.
Moderator
Joined: Jul 2010
Posts: 12,064
Likes: 1,574
From: Media PA
Lol, no hurt feeling here man, kind of hoped that would have been obvious by the smilies I threw in that reply above. .
Exhaust sound is very subjective, back when I was a young buck with a hotrod Camaro I ran very loud pipes and thought it was great, now that I'm an old goat my tastes have apparently changed a good bit. And as I explained above, loud and droney just wasn't gonna cut it on this big towing wagon.
I agree, that's why I searched out every V-10 sound clip that I could find before I chose the 3030XL, it met my criteria and produced a sound and tone that I liked. From reading your other posts about your truck I think that you would like the non resonator 3030 muffler much better, it a good deal louder but isn't as raspy as so many of the other mufflers out there. 
No books here, just enough of a reply to both respond to your post in detail and explain where your comment was a bit incorrect.
What happened to make it less than awesome now? Sorry to hear that you aren't happy with either of our exhaust sounds. 
Yes, absolutely positive that the factory '05 Excursion V-10 exhaust piping is all full 3" mandrel bent from the Y pipe to the tailpipe. Maybe the EX has different stuff from the pickups, but I always assumed they were the same.
Again, agreed that the 6.8 section is a very good place for some engine specific info. Overall I think that this forum is the best automotive forum around, at least compared to all the others that I have dealt with. 
.Exhaust sound is very subjective, back when I was a young buck with a hotrod Camaro I ran very loud pipes and thought it was great, now that I'm an old goat my tastes have apparently changed a good bit. And as I explained above, loud and droney just wasn't gonna cut it on this big towing wagon.
There's a ton of V10 6.8's that don't sound very good.
Didn't need to write a book defending your exhaust lol.
Mine used to sound awesome and now sounds meh....it happens.
Also are you sure the factory piping is 3"? I don't think it is.
Also to the OP, there is a entire page on this site dedicated to the 6.8 with lots of helpful people who know everything about this engine and might not look at this section very often.
Tuned
Joined: Sep 2014
Posts: 368
Likes: 0
From: Ventura, Ca
I did! This is my 2nd 2v and I do the vast majority of my own maintenance. I think the vast majority of the plug spitting issues come from not torquing the plugs to specs. Torqued my old truck plugs to 168 inch/lbs and drove 60k miles no issues. Even checked spec on them twice during that time. They all maintained 168 inch/lbs min.
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bigseadaddy
Modular V10 (6.8l)
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Dec 10, 2009 06:17 PM
