Last week at work one of the foremen under me had the spark plug blow out of the no 3 cylinder on his truck on the the way in to work. It is a 02 250, 5.4 sc 4x4 (actually it is my old truck and I passed it on to him when it had 55,000 miles on it... it has 99k on it now). As I am calling around to dealers to get it fixed I find out that this is more of a problem on v10's according to them. I now drive an 03 250 V10 sc 4x4, and am starting to get worried about it happening to me (especially after searching the site and seeing that a lot of people have fought it). For the record we have four company vehicles with modular engines two expeditions: 99 and 05, and two 250's: mine and the one with the blown plug. This has now happened to two of the four: the 99 exp and the 02 250.

I see that there is something called a PI head out there that seems to have 8-9 threads to engage the spark plug instead of the 4-5 on earlier heads. Is this a factory upgrade that was used on factory engines or is this a motorsport thing that you have to put on yourself after the fact (in which case I will take my chances as is).

Just curious what the deal is and if there is any way to tell on your own truck.

 

2000-2004's have these heads.They stand for performance improved.That along with the intake and new pcm give it something like 35 hp more than 99's and earlier.I wonder how many of the FEW plug blowouts are actually caused by improper plug installation since they are hard to get to.

 

Like I said, it happenned to two of the four modular engines that we have, both of these were factory installed plugs.

You can call them "few" if you want, but that's 50/50 in our case... and the mechanic at tri state sterling said it was a pretty familiar issue with their service dept.

 

Still...that don't mean the plugs were installed properly.

We had this discussion many times in the past: Do those that install the plugs at the factory really realize that there is a technique to it, or do they just screw 'em in and bid them farewell?

Of the hundreds of thousands of Triton engines on the road, what percentage have plug blow-out problems?????

 

I fail to understand why anyone would stick up for Ford on this one. The fact of the matter is, it shouldn't be an issue at all. What is this "technique" for installing the plugs? If there is suppose to be some kind of "special technique" to install the plugs, Ford sure should make it clear to the people installing the plugs what it is.
If you had to spend thousands of $ to fix a spark plug blowing out of your engine at 55,000 miles I don't think you're going to say, "oh well, I'm one of the unlucky 3%." Then imagine it happening to two of your trucks or one of the plugs on the other side blowing out next month. I know I'd say WTF!

 

Well...as far as sticking up for Ford - I have said numerous times how poor this design is. It's there, they screwed up and now we have to deal with it. Just because Triton's designers came up with it don't mean they've worked out the bugs.

First off is knowing that steel and aluminum are always at odds in the metallurgic scheme of things. That's the bottom line. Install the plugs so that the mating surfaces can at least get along and to do that just add a dab of anti-seize. Is that in the book? Not in mine. Does it help? Of course it does, but it can't take the place of a poor design.

Again, I'm not taking up for Ford or for the technicians that install the plugs - as a matter of fact I'm gouging them a little.

And I'm still waiting for someone with an answer to the last question of my previous post.....

 

I'm sure they realize there is a procedure for them, the problem is they either forget over time, get lazy, do not recalibrate their torque wrench enough so there is a percentage of motors that are under-torqued (however small), the procedure itself from engineering is flawed, you name it.

It comes down to Quality Control - the more QC the more time/money spent NOT producing vehicles.

Even one or two individuals who skip recalibrations on their tools regularly can lead to across-the-board failures like this - who knows, maybe the same person is responsible for both this guy's trucks

Kindly write a letter to the factory where your truck(s) was/were produced, and ask them to re-certify/train the spark-plug tighteners

 

If you say so???

I don't see how it can be an installation issue if the truck ran 100k before blowing the plug. I say that it is more likely purely poor design... that is a much more logical assumption.

the dealer is going to helicoil the head. he said that he has done it to about a dozen and no complaints. He said when this happens under warranty they have to replace the head. He said that he has seen a lot of this.

That guy with the bad torque wrench really gets around that factory.

 

Don't take my word for it.

Just hang around awhile.
Even a blind hog finds an acorn now and then.

Poor design and sloppy workmanship - nuff said.

 

Hogs are pretty good at finding truffles too, and they don't use their eyes for that either

As for poor design, I really think it was a generally bad idea to put plugs in a motor that last 100K, make the plugs sit way down in the heads and NOT seal them properly to keep out moisture or specify re-torque intervals for them.

If we all had 25K mile plugs, the holes would be cleaner, the plugs torqued correctly more often and not sitting forever in an aluminum head (aluminum and iron have different co-efficients of expansion so they will eventually work lose NO MATTER WHAT).

So, it comes down to this: Check your plugs every 25K miles, take each one out, clean the hole before and after, use anti-sieze, and re-torque properly.

Sounds like everyone who had a problem was above the 25K mark when they went.

The most ironic part of the modular motors: Finally, Ford makes it easy to get to the plugs without having to fight A/C piping, air injection tubes, shock-towers etc. BUT - they put in 100K mile plugs, so you don't have to touch them, but when you do (or don't) mess with them finally, they blow out. Cute

 

How about this, Art: Plasma Plugs...with a feeding tube like blood veins originating at a "Coil Center", which is located on the firewall inside an intrinsically safe enclosure?

Heck, that Triton engineer that woke up from that nightmare didn't have a lick of imagination - either that - or he's never watched the earlier versions of Star Trek....

I think the plug checking at 25K is good idea - btw.

 

Sorry to bring this back up, but what is the torque setting for the plugs? I just got my 2002 V-10 and have no idea what the guy did/did not do, so I want to check the torque on them. Thanks StevenG

 

My '99 manual says 7 to 14 lb(ft). I would say that that measurement needs to be with anti-sieze included on the threads.

So 7 to 14 lb(ft) --- see what I mean? You can tighten them to seven or if you feel like it tighten them twice as much....... < Orn shaking head >

 

so, is Ford putting the PI heads on all the trucks now? If so, when did they start using the heads with the right amount of spark plug threads? I've sorta read that this problem is with the 99 thru 2001 range V10s. Are the 2002 thru 2005 also using the bad design or what? I am going to buy one of these trucks real soon, so if certain year is preferred over the earlier years, I'd sure like to know...

 

Evidently the later versions are having problems with plug-spitting. Look down the page, there's a thread addressing it.

Anyway, it's not just the number of threads, but the whole setup that needs to be re-engineered - dare I say - so to speak.