I'm rather new to the SD world as I just recently purchased a 2000 F350 with the 5.4l engine. The truck has over 118K miles and I'm the third owner, should I be worried about all this. I have not looked at the plus, so I have no idea if they are orginal or if someone did the "fix" you all posted about.

Should I do this "fix" as a preventative repair thing to be safe or should I just let it ride.....

 

Well last night I experience the spark plug blow out!! 2nd cylinder from the back on the passenger side let go, taking the coil with it. I am going to look tonight to see if it damaged the threads or not. The threads on the spark plug are clean and have no evidence of thread "tearage" on it.

 

Well I blew out a plug 300 miles from home on a Sunday and had to catch a plane Monday for a week long family vacation. Had it towed to nearest dealer and called them to check it out. They said it was beyond repair and I needed a new head $3200 or really a new motor $6500. This is on a 2000 4.6 expidition with 150K so I really didn't want to sink that much $$ into it. Now I'm trying to get it home so I can see about repairs here. I ordered a temp-fix plug to plug off the hole and plan to drive it home 300 miles on 7 cylinders. Anyone have experience in doing this, will I make it home on 7? Thanks for any advice.

 

I to have the same problem with a 2001 F250 w/5.4l. The local engine shop said they only use the Full Torque brand inserts and will put them in for 25$ each if I bring in the heads. However I was reading over the Chilton repair manual and there showing some specialized tools to hold the cams in place for one. Are these all neccessary or ? I have some repair knowledge, but not with tearing down an engine. How difficult is this really?

 

That's what I thought as well. Apparently, any preignition may exceed the strength of the 4 threads and cause this problem, or at least that's what they say on the Mustang Forums. I have to say that 4 threads holding a sparkplug in place is a pretty sorry idea. Amazing that they were easily able to fix this for 2003- on vehicles (8 threads) but are still maintaing that there is nothing wrong with the previous design? BS! They should have replaced the previous poor design on the affected vehicles.

Ford sales must be pretty good ( I doubt it) because they apparently aren't concerned with repeat customers!

 

I know this thread is old news, but I do have a question: why wouldn't something like this be covered under the 8-year/80k mile emission warranty? "Spark control components" are covered and if you think about it, the cylinder head is part of that because if a plug can not ground, it can not fire...making it a spark control component in and of itself.

 

That is great news! Awesome deal! Congratulations.

 

Better than what I got 3 years ago. Paid almost 1700 just to have them do the Timesert and replace the coil and plug. I needed a better dealership.

Don't go to Fairport Ford in East Rochester, NY.

That's all I will say.

 

Here it is 2008 and they have been making the 5.4's since 97? Has this problem been fixed in newer 5.4's?

 

I think the '04's and up had more threads put in the cylinder head section. The previous ones only had 4, the new ones have, I believe, 7 or 11.

 

The 04-up use a totally different head with 3 valves per cylinder and a very long threaded spark plug.

 

I just had a thought about the plugs. I bought the Motorcraft SP-479 plugs for my 2002 Expedition with the 5.4L. These will work for my application, correct? I keep reading about 2 different style/thread length plugs and wanted to make sure these will work before I take the old ones out to replace them with these. The older, short thread plugs were replaced by these, correct? Thanks!

 

4 threads is what the previous small-block V8 cars and trucks had as well. Not great but it all still comes back to taking care with installing spark plugs. I run a supercharger on these heads and the only plug I've popped is one I know I cross-threaded.


As for which plugs to use on these heads..you can use either the 4-threaded plugs (AWSF) or the 8-threaded (AGSF) ones IF your heads are originally 4-threaded. If you have the updated 2V heads you can only use the fully threaded plugs. Ford has stopped producing the AWSF plugs but there are still plenty in circulation.


For those who still complain about these heads: go swap plugs on a 3V engine then come back.

 

Hey guys, I have read tons about this spark plug issue, but I seemed to have missed what IS the proper torque on them? Does anyone have that number?

 

I went ahead and took the leap. The SP-479's were a basic match for the 94,000 mile AGSF22WM plugs which came out. Did all 8 plugs and coil packs at the same time. Computer threw a code evening before work was done, saying #1 cylinder miss-fire, bad COP - perfect timing, if you ask me. Day after the work was done, engine idles much smoother and is a bit more responsive. Hope fuel mileage goes up a bit now, too.