Well it finally happened to me, the infamous blown spark plug issue happened to me this saturday, passengerside rear plug blew on me, had my truck towed to a ford dealership and its going to cost about 3k to get new heads or 5700 for a rebuilt engine, mine has 115573 miles on it. So, I went into the dealership today to fill out a credit app to get the repair financed with fords quality card thingy and AFTER I get the thing filled out they find out that they dont have the machine they used to too run the credit apps for those cards because they are in the middle of switching owners, they have new ones comming but wont have them for about 2-3 weeks, mean time I am stuck with NO transportation as the truck is my only vehicle so I have been asking friends and coworkers for rides. Tomorrow I am going back to the ford dealership to see about trading my truck in for a car under 10 grand as I have a lot of bills to pay and cant really afford to do the repair of the truck anyway, but it will be saving me a lot of money especially in gas, I am currently paying about $250/month in gas and if I get a car I can get a cheaper monthly payment and my insurance will go down. Not exactly the option that I want to do but I really have no other choise which makes me REALLY REALLY sad. but life goes on and once I get back on my feet I will be saving up a down payment to get a 2004 f150 and sell whatever car I purchase.

So, I would like to say thank you to everyone on this forum for all your help I'v been a member for almost 2 years and this forum has helped out a great deal. Even though I wont own a ford truck for a while (very sad about that) I still plan on comming to this site because I love ford trucks. I wish all others who have not experienced this problem yet that you can continue the luck and for those of you who have I feel your pain. Thanks again

Kable

 

Thats crazy. That dealership should know that you can fix that problem. Plus if it were me, I'd pull the plug wire and injecter wire and drive it before having it towed. TIME-SERT makes a kit to fix a blown plug. Do a search of the fourm, it won't let me post a link yet. If you can change a plug, you can do this fix. Worst case, you can get a mechanic to do it for a couple hundred, and I think the kit is about $250 with 5 inserts.

 

Here you go!

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

I'd find a local mechaninc and tell that dealership where to shove it!

 

Yes, you will definitely be money ahead by finding an independent shop. They can do the job for much less than $1000. I'm having a tough time understanding how buying a whole new vehicle is cheaper. When you trade in a broken vehicle, you will get NOTHING for it. Even if you bought the cheapest Focus on the lot the difference will cost a BUNCH.

That dealer is using this incident as leverage to sell you a vehicle. Don't fall for it.

Best of luck,
Doc

 

If it were me, I'd at least try to go the insert route. Failing that, instead of getting a car, how about getting a Ford F-150 Custom 2-wheel drive. If you look around, you can get a new one just as cheap as or nearly as cheap as a car and you'll still be driving a truck. In any case, please check in once in awhile to keep us up to date.

Modoc ED

 

Kable, I also suggest going the timesert route. Worked for me. Did one plug and have my fingers crossed about the other 7. Question: Was there any warning such as a ticking noise just prior to the blowout? There was for mine. The only way I keep my sanity is thinking the engine will give me some advance notice before the next blowout.

 

be careful on trading youre truck. i doubt you will get fair value on truck needing work.

 

Kable
Get the hell away from that or any other dealer on this problem. They will put new heads on that have the same defect as your old ones!! If you like the truck and want to keep it get a mechanic, pull both heads and send them to a machine shop, put certs in all 8, valve job and mill, check blown plug cylinder for damage (it's been happening). You will need water pump timing gears chains tensioner and a few others cause at 115000 miles they are worn. Should be out the door under $2500 with a dependable engine, 2 good heads and no worries about the other 7 plugs. If you just cert the blown plug you better sell it cause the others are on the launch pad. I did all of the above plus cam lifters JBAheaders and more on my '97 F150 5.4L at 75000 miles and it runs really strong at 230rwhp. Cost $6000 but that's a lot less than a new Ford with a set of trick plugs. Granny would say I was dealt lemons and decided to make lemonade. Just my experience for you to chew on. It's too bad Ford is not as proud of their trucks as us owners are.

 

Is there any way to prevent the plug blow out from happening, besides proper tightening torque ??

 

Fasterhorses is offering generally good advice, but every engine is different and lives a different life. Depending on driving style, habits, routes as well as oil change and general maintenance frequency engines and parts thereon will wear at different rates. You should not just start replacing a bunch of particular parts because there is a certain number of miles.

There are some engines that are used for easy, flat country, highway miles that may have very little wear on anything at 115,000 miles while other engines that are driven hard in hilly country only on short runs that are worn out long before that.

The advice to go through the engine thoroughly and keep it on the road is sound advice IMHO, but I would not recommend just replacing a bunch of parts without inspection and measurement first.

My $0.02,
Doc
ASE Master

 

Don't the rest of you start worrying. Blown plugs are rare, especially on a 4.6. It’s most common on v10’s and to a lesser extent 5.4’s. And even then it’s way less than 1%. Don’t get me wrong, I too think ford should stand behind their trucks and fix this regardless of the mileage. They should also take care of the 97-98 4.6’s that spin a main bearing at around 100k, which is a bigger percentage than blow plugs. Plus it’s a fatal problem. Bu this too is rare.

Don’t worry (too much) be happy…

 

You guys are right about not just tossin' in parts but if you spend the money to tear down a motor some parts like a water pump you just replace cause to do it later by itself is big $$ compared to just the price of the pump during boltup. Also, you cannot determine if your other plug holes are okay because it's a Ford defect so you are playin Ford Roulette by not fixin all 8. My motor has to be dependable or it's worthless. To be stranded on a mountain road or steamin desert with horses in a trailer just because of a stinking sparkplug that won't stay in the head is not my definition of dependable. Don't get me wrong, I like everything else about this truck or I would not have fixed it and it runs now like Ford should have and could have done in the first place except for some pencilnecked bean counter that saved $50 on every 5.4 head by skimping on plug threads. What a jacka$$!!

 

gfreek -

I'm an old guy (61) who got my start with cars/trucks when there was such a thing as vapor lock and we used to put clothes pins on the fuel lines in the engine compartment to prevent it - don't laugh it worked.

I've posted before that I think Ford's 100,000 mile tune-up is a gimmick and that people should take it with a grain of salt. It came about not long after Ford's infamous spark plug fiasco with the Mustang that needed to have the engine lifted to have a spark plug changed.

As I stated above, I recently had my plugs changed in my F-150 with 5.4L engine. The emissions tag under the hood speced the plug gap as .052 - .056. All eight plugs pulled were .060 and over and that was at only 59,824.7 miles. My point is that by 100,000 miles the plugs would have been way way over spec gap.

I bought the truck used with roughly 56,000 miles on it. Had I bought it when new, I would have changed the plugs at 35,000 to 40,000 miles. That's where my age (old school background) comes in.

Vortech Engineering who makes the Vortech Super Charger recommends that after installing one of their super chargers that you replace the plugs at 40,000 miles and increase the torque by 30% - 35%. I think that is good advice even for a bone stock engine.

Just my opinion but I think many of the "blown plugs" could have been prevented had the plugs been changed at 35,000 to 40,000 miles and the new plugs been torqued with a higher torque value.

As stated by "mayhelm", the problem is not prevalent but Ford needs to step up to the plate for an unrealistic 100,000 mile tune-up interval. Their main reason for it was so that they could build engines without regard for parts placement and owner performed service. They know that by lulling people into a false sense of security with the high mileage tune-up interval that many problems encountered down the line (like the "blown plug") will happen after the 36,000 mile warranty and they won't have to pay/deal with it.

Modoc ED

 

Modoc - You sound more wise than old to me. BTW 61 aint old !!!

 

Modoc,
Right on about the 100,000 mile service interval adding to this problem. All that heat over all that time causes the aluminum to seize onto the steel plug threads and then strip when the plugs are removed. Most plug launches occur after plug replacement, me included and it was done by a dealer who looked me straight in the eye and said it was normal wear and tear to strip plugs. What a POS!