blowing plugs.
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5th Gear
Joined: Feb 2023
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blowing plugs.
What is cause of blowing plugs I'm these motors? They are always problematic. I habe a 2002 5.4.and it has done it 3xs. 1 time had to put insert repair plug n it. I don't beat truck and drive it easy. I've changed upstream. O2 sensors and coils , plugs etc. I'm really losing faith in these years with fords design with the 5.4. THANK GOD it's not a 3v motor. Like in 2003. Seems weak as a motor in general.. thinking about a 5.0 for old girl. Plus having issues with direct drum
Last edited by jaybob67; Mar 13, 2023 at 11:15 PM.
Hotshot
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 19,760
Likes: 1,079
From: St Louis
What is cause of blowing plugs I'm these motors?
Torque plugs to 25-28 lb-ft, twice the factory value, to prevent future problems.
Do NOT use the "el-cheapo" inserts to repair blown plugs as they re-fail with Congress-like regularity.
Fleet Mechanic
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 1,664
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From: Northwest
After the repairs are you going back after running the engine for a while to re-torque the plugs ?
From a mechanical point of view, the heads are aluminum and the plugs are steel. Dissimilar metals will heat / cool at a different rate. This can cause fasteners to work themselves lose. Spark plugs are similar.
In many applications, the thing that keeps a fastener from becoming lose is corrosion between the two dissimilar metals.
With aluminum heads, at times. when removing plugs the aluminum threads will "pull out" with the plugs due to corrosion holding the aluminum to the steel.
Lots of ideas and theories out there to prevent this from happening.
From a mechanical point of view, the heads are aluminum and the plugs are steel. Dissimilar metals will heat / cool at a different rate. This can cause fasteners to work themselves lose. Spark plugs are similar.
In many applications, the thing that keeps a fastener from becoming lose is corrosion between the two dissimilar metals.
With aluminum heads, at times. when removing plugs the aluminum threads will "pull out" with the plugs due to corrosion holding the aluminum to the steel.
Lots of ideas and theories out there to prevent this from happening.
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5th Gear
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jaybob67
Thanks for response!!! i should be re-torquing them after. they sure don't do that when u have it done at a shop. not as far a.s i have seen. the back ones are not fun either. But doable. i didnt want to helicoil the plug either. so, thats basically a big problem as I bought the old truck with elcheapo insert plug in it. i see a motor then in my future dont i? i hear of this issue constantly. i wish ford would have came up with a better solution. my old torino's never had issues like this 5.4 and the 4r70w transmission. the truck has 160k on it but i know original owner and he babies all his vehicles. literally. i am open to suggestions on transrebuild. I cant decide which way to go as far as drum replacements etc. i dont wanna do it again but to do it "tough like" is very expensive. thanks so much everyone. I REALLY NEED TRANSMISSION ADVICE AS WELL. DIRECT DRUM FAILURE SUCKS.
Moderator
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 6,099
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From: Southern California
Thanks for response!!! i should be re-torquing them after. they sure don't do that when u have it done at a shop. not as far a.s i have seen. the back ones are not fun either. But doable. i didnt want to helicoil the plug either. so, thats basically a big problem as I bought the old truck with elcheapo insert plug in it. i see a motor then in my future dont i? i hear of this issue constantly. i wish ford would have came up with a better solution. my old torino's never had issues like this 5.4 and the 4r70w transmission. the truck has 160k on it but i know original owner and he babies all his vehicles. literally. i am open to suggestions on transrebuild. I cant decide which way to go as far as drum replacements etc. i dont wanna do it again but to do it "tough like" is very expensive. thanks so much everyone. I REALLY NEED TRANSMISSION ADVICE AS WELL. DIRECT DRUM FAILURE SUCKS.
Tuned
Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 292
Likes: 25
I had a plug blow on the eve of New Year's Eve, I was in a tourist town on vacation. I saw parts of this town that a normal vacationer never would see. I was able to find a shop that got me back on the road for my trip home on NY's day. Knock on wood as this was over 10 years ago and I have the same truck, and plugs.
1st Gear
Joined: Mar 2023
Posts: 1
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I had the same issue with my 99 f150 5.4L. Kept blowing the back hard to get plugs and it turned out to be improper install from the actual Ford dealer (plugs blew 3 times after dealer install after 50 miles or so). Found a local shop that knew about this issue and said he fixes lots of these with out any issues. Now after 80,000 miles I have never had a plug blow out at all and he even used the heli coil method. So definitely want to find someone that knows what they are doing, one would think the dealer would know maybe some do but the one I picked sure didn't.
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