I am looking for a late model E-150, with a 5.4L eng to tow my 7000lb sailboat and trailer. I am aware of the 5.4L blowing plugs. How big is this problem? Is it just a few. Quite a few? Why no recall? How much chance would I be taking if I bought a 98 to 2003 E-150, with 5.4L and 60,000 to 80,000 miles on it? How many are out there with no problems blowing plugs. Is this the result of backyard mechanics, or would it happen with dealer maintainance? I would appreciate any input.
I have had vans with 351 engs since they were first built. I love the 351, but alas, it has been discontinued.

 

I too would like to know what the percentage of problem engines is. There are a LOT of 5.4's out there. I've never heard of the problem outside this site. If it helps, in '03 I bought an '01 with a 5.4 with 91,000 on it with out hesitation. There is a matter of fact way of replacing the plugs on these. If an engine's plugs were replaced by someone who wasn't familliar with the procedure, it could be almost certain doom. I would say, if you find a van you like, test drive it, find out the maintenence record. If you like it and buy it, take it home and replace the plugs yourself, following the reccomendations from this site. The only bummer about it, (I just thought of this) is, it's a van. PITA. If I remember correctly, I think someone here said you get the #4 plug out with a looooong extension, through the right taillight.

 

In a van, just remove the cowl inside the cab, and there's the entire back of the engine. The FRONT plugs might give you a hard time

I have a V10, and have heard plenty of people talk about blowing plugs, but again, only on this site, so it certainly can't be a huge number.

I have two 4.6L's too... here's my experience:

Within 20K miles, the plug boots will be getting damp, and dirty. Soon, the top of the plug will rust. This will happen in 1-2 out of 8. Soon, the plug threads and the head start to interact and the plug can get looser and looser. If you leave it long enough, it WILL come out. This is with straight-from-the-factory-never-touched-again motors. The most notorious was the heater-hose leak above the #4 (or #5 in a V10) which would usually cause a misfire, but can also cause the plug to come loose.

I'd say, change the plugs immediately. Examine each one, make sure everything's cleaned out before and after, apply anti-sieze to the threads and re-torque to 14 ft/lbs (make sure that's right before you believe me about the torque #, that's what it was for my V10). If you pull ANY aluminum threads with the plugs, I'd make darn sure of the condition of the threads in the head before *****-nilly re-installing.

Use new Motorcraft plugs, nothing else.

I have no idea what the true percentage is, but it has to be pretty small. None of the regular V10 guys have had a problem with it, just visitors from time-to-time.

 

Make sure that those are Double Platinum plugs.
It's actually a very low percentage. Many after improper torque applied at plug changes.
I have never seen one personally myself. I have read about some on this site which is the largest Ford truck site on the web.

 

I'm with you krewat on the 14-15 ft pounds of torque for the plugs, too many times I went with what Ford said and torqued them down to 10 ft pounds and found out a couple of months later the loosed a little bit. There is a sparkplug thread grease out there that works really well, kind of looks like a crayon and is very firm, slapped some of that on the threads and cranked her down to 15 ft pounds, no problems since.

 

I was told 14 ft/lbs by Fredvon4 in the V10 forum. I read that somewhere also...

I believe I checked my Ford service manual (on CD) and it said the same thing, 14 ft/lbs.

 

Mine did it. 2001 F250 Supercab with the 5.4. Happened at 94k and then again, same hole, at 104k. Fought the dealer, got a discount, had to buy the kit from 'fulltorque' and it's running great. (crap, just jinxed it)

There is a guy in CA, a lawyer, who is compiling a data base. do a search for sparkplug blowout on the web. He'll come up. From what I hear, it is enough that it may mirror some of the other, more costly and lesser recalls. Ford does not want to acknowlege it as it can be an expensive repair. Two companies are working with Ford to be able to retro fit their inserts into the heads.

Look up Fulltorque and read their stuff.

 

To answer your question as to how common it is, the last I heard it was less than 1 in 10,000, or less than 0.01%.

Also, for repair look at the kit from Timesert - http://www.timesert.com/html/triton_repair.html - much less expensive than the the other kit mentioned in this thread.