Im getting ready to change my spark plugs on my Expy-'01 and was wondering how much work will I be looking at. Triton 4.6L. I've already changed the fuel pump and filter and had the injectors cleaned: continue to have hesitation but not as much as before doing all the other stuff mentioned. Any advice/input will be greatly appreciated.

 

Go to the home page of this site and click "tech articles" There, you will find an article on changing spark plugs on 4.6 and 5.4 F-150 trucks. As your 4.6 is a 2001 model, it has essentially the same ignition system and components as the 5.4 engines referenced within the article. A couple of my own thoughts: The cylinder heads on your engine are made of aluminum, which makes the spark plug hole threads more susceptible to damage from mistorqued or cross threaded plugs. If you have familarity with the use of a torque wrench and know the torque ratings for the plugs, I strongly recommend the use of such a wrench. The good old iron head days of "torque it until it feels tight" are long gone. Additionally, aluminum expands more aggressively when heated than iron. Do not attempt to remove the old plugs until the engine is room temperature. Pulling the plugs from warm or hot cylinder heads increases the risk of the spark plug threads being pulled out as well. You absolutely do not want to be faced with the prospect of removing the cylinder head and either having it HeliCoiled (threaded insert installed into hole) or replaced. Either prospect involves a lot of labor. $$$.

I toyed with the idea of doing my own plugs (1999 4.6) recently, but chickened out and let the dealer do it. Hope the tech knew what he was doing. BTW, cost for the dealer to do it was $300. Made me pine for the days of my 4 cylinder Mustang.

 

Thank you for the direction of the "Tech Articles", it looks/sounds to be very helpful. I am going to get started and will take all I've learned into consideration. I'll get back and let you know how it went.

 

Well I'm done changing my spark plugs and my Expy is running alot better, I think there is still a tiny, tiny bit of hesitation but don't know if it's just me or what, no hesitation like before at take off. Thanks for the assistance and direction.
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