Just got a call from my wife and on her way to work her 99' Expedition started making a loud noise. She said first the service engine soon light came on and about 40 minutes later this noise started.

She says all the fluid levels are fine and it's running fine except for this loud noise. She said it almost sounds like the exaust broke loose because it's a very loud almost knocking sound. She said the noise is coming from the Engine compartment area.

I won't get the Expedition back here for another hour or so as she's pretty far away and driving it home slowly monitoring the gauges.

So i figured i'd post here and get all the brains of this forum going on what i should look for and what this problem could possibly be. Sorry this explaination of the problem is so vauge i can only go by what she is telling me over the cell phone.

Thanks.

*goes and preps the garage for incoming vehicle.

 

When the Expy comes home, start counting spark plugs. Anything under the number 8 is bad.

A couple of theories:

1. A spark plug has launched out of it's socket. As this action usually strips out the threads holding the spark plug to the cylinder head, I'm hoping I'm wrong. Unless you are willing to cross your fingers and find a good local mechanic who has experience using rethreading products such as HeliCoil on aluminum cylinder heads, you may have to replace the cylinder head. The price is not cheap. Given the age of the engine, and the potential for the problem to crop up on the other cylinder head, replacement of the entire engine may be the most economical move in the long run. No, I'm not kidding.

2. A less frightening possibility is that an exhaust manifold (or one or more manifold mounting studs) has cracked and is causing the exhaust to exit before it has a chance to hit the muffler. The headache is that this engine is buried a bit towards the rear of the engine compartment, making work on the heads or manifolds time con$uming.

3. Feeling lucky? Well, here's a much less expensive variant of problem #1: The porcelain part of the plug has seperated from the metal part, which could still be firmly attached to the undamaged cylinder head. Engine exhaust would still be blowing out the metal plug remnant, which would account for the racket.

4. A rarity, but possible: one of the oxygen sensors has blown out of its place on the exhaust system.

Wishing you luck, and hoping I'm wrong, at least on #1 and #2.

 

#1 it is. The sparkplug that went (#2) took out the coil as well. Threads are trashed. I'm going to try a helicoil kit on it first. It looks like the sparkplug was installed wrong to begin with because it was only in about 3 three threads (price you pay for buying a used vehicle from a private party). I looked into a steel insert from Timesert, but they are closed until January 3rd for the holidays. (Just my luck huh?)

I'm heading to the store to buy a helicoil kit, new sparkplugs (going to replace all of them while i'm at it) and a coil. I already have a tap and dye set and all other tools i'll need for this job AFAIK. I need to take some measurements first though to figure out what size the threads in the head were. Looking at the sparkplug and the way it fits inside there isn't much room for a helicoil from what i can see the tolerences are rather close.

I'm going to do some searching on this forum and see if anyone has a writeup on installing a helicoil for this problem. If anyone has a link handly or knows of somewhere else that has a good write-up on doing this job it would be much appreciated.

I believe this job can be done with the head in place. I'm just glad it was a sparkplug i can get to rather easily. Sure it will produce alot of metal shavings, but with all the plugs out and alot of WD40 i think they can easily be blown out.

It's worth a try to me anyhow if it doesn't work i'll look into other (more expensive options). I'll blow my wife's Expedition up before i take it to the dealership and pay their labor for this job though.

Time to break out the tools, restock the beer fridge and call my buddies!

 

Check out this company. I've heard good things about this product.

http://www.timesert.com/Triton-repair.html

 

Greetings,

Welcome to the VOTPE (Victims Of Triton Plug Ejection) support group. My #3 launched earlier this month and I just ordered the TimeSert today from a TimeSert distributor, "Wurth USA" in New Jersey at $260 for the 5551 kit and another $14 for the insert. True the company itself is closed until Jan 3, but they list a dozen or so distributors you can buy from. The one engine rebuilder in Texas quoted me $394 for the 5551 kit, so it sure pays to shop around.

I'm into week three with no wheels.................

I like my truck, I beyond ****ed with Ford.

 

I'm going to just try a helicoil and see how it goes. If it doesn't work or doesn't fix the problem i'll go ahead and purchase the Timesert kit and be done with it.

The expedition is in the garage so it's not going anywhere. I'm going to do some more research and see who and how long it will take to get the Timesert kit just so i know.

I'm not going to be able to start the helicoil repair until Thursday evening i have too much other stuff going on. I'll be checking back here though seeing if anyone has anymore suggestions, walkthroughs..etc.

Thanks alot for all the info and help so far you guys are awesome.

EDIT TO ADD: After looking over their distributor list one of the companies is within driving distance for me. I'm going to give them a call tomorrow and see if they have the kit. It's Wurth in Ontario CA. hopefully their price will be the same as the one in N.J.

 

How many miles on each of these vehicles when this problem occurred?

 

122k on my 99' Expedition

 

I would prefer using the Timesert repair, if I were doing it. The insert looks more beefy. I would also recommend inserting some type of lint cloth into the cylinder before drilling to help catch debris. Something like a parachute that you can collapse as you remove it, capturing the filings. They can harm your cylinder walls, valves, pistons, and rings. Grease up your drill bit to help hold debris.

 

I'm not sure if my expy is giving me early signs of this same problem. My engine light comes on once in a blue but the Expy is still running smooth. should i check my plugs?

 

My #3 blew out the original #3 plug at 104K miles.

I just completed the TimeSert repair this morning, the truck sounds better than it did before it blew. For the past few years I have had a pining when the truck started cold, a few minutes into warm up the pinging would go away. I had always attributed this to a warped manifold, now I can't help thinking that it was the #3 plug, although I can't imagine that it could have been loose for that long.

So far as I'm concerned the TimeSert is a lifesaver, the instructions were easy enough to follow and it worked as advertised. The only minor problem with the kit is that the tools don't lock into the handle, but held together just fine with duct tape. Also, the diameter of the stop collar on the reamer was maybe only a few thousands larger than the reamer itself, the made it harder to feel that you made it down to the seat. In hindsight, I should have put die or paint on the reamer so I could know for sure that I made it down to the seat.

To get to #3 I pulled back the wiring block off the fire wall and removed the quick connect heater hoses (take care to not let the 'o' rings pop off the hooses, there's two rubber 'o' rings sandwhiching a nylon ring that fit into the female connector). This gave me plenty of room to work in there, although I did have to work all the tools with a ratchet (which I'm sure is not the best way to ream and cut threads).

At this point, I'm not touching the rest of the plugs, I'm gonna sit here for a bit a ponder trading it in, or having Ford install a rebuilt engine for 4K.

 

Well i finally found and ordered the Big-Sert Triton Spark Plug Repair Kit it should arrive in 2 days.

I tried to call WURTH to purchase it from them for the $260 + $14 for the insert as mentioned above....not only did WURTH have no idea what this kit was or if they carried it, their phone system was so horrible i could hardly hear their costumer service people. I tried calling 3 different WURTH locations and had the same problems with all 3 so i'm guessing their phone systems are all tied together.

Anyhow, the best price i could find was $288.67 from Threads Kit Company in Torrance, CA. they has outstanding customer service. That price included the kit w/ 5 inserts... SHIPPED.
So now i'm waiting for it to arrive and making preps to do the job. I'm going to go ahead and replace the other 7 sparkplugs this weekend and check the coils so that the only thing i'll have left to do when the kit arrives is put the insert in/sparkplug and coil for it.

I'll update again when the kit arrives and the job is done.

 

You were'nt expecting customer service from a New Jersey company were you ?

Anyhow, you got a better deal than me my friend, good luck.

 

Is this Problem a Head or a spark plug Problem? I have a 99 Exped with 115k It works fine. I had the plugs changed at 80K.
Will I be ok?

 

Most of the more experienced guys than I seem to think it's a poor design, not enough thread engagement in the aluminun heads and that proper tourquing of the plugs is the key to survival.