I was driving down the interstate heard a loud thump, smelt gas, and the check engine light came on. The truck drove like it was on 7 cylenders. I drove it 20 miles home at interstate speed, got out looked and the third spark plug back on the passenger side of the block had been blown out, it was gone.

My truck is a 97 4.6L 4x4 with 181k miles

Has any one had this experince? How much did it cost to fix? What all was involved in repairing?

Thanks any advice appreciated.

 

The Ford Motor Company recommended repair is to replace the cylinder head. However, some on this site report that they have had new spark plug threads installed in the old head through the HeliCoil or similiar method. Lots of posts on this topic, although for some reason the 5.4 engine seems more prone to this problem.

 

Repair Kit see attached website.


http://www.timesert.com/html/triton_repair.html

 

timesert is the way to go this is what i used on my f150 to repair my blown plug i current have my timesert kit for sale if your interested e-mail me or check it out in the classifieds

 

False alarm, local repair shop said there was no damage to my cylender/plug hole or anything, aparently when i had these plugs installed the place just didnt get this one tight enough. But thanks for the posts total cost 80 bucks new plug, new wire, cleanin the cylender and threads. Had my truck back in about an hour.

 

Got lucky, so when you the timecert does the head have to be removed from the block or can it done with the head on the block, in the truck.

Lance