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I got some friends with a 97 expy 5.4 on vacation that are stranded right now with a stripped out spark plug hole. One guy told me he could tap it without pulling the head. I find that hard to believe with the long hole the plug goes through and shavings probably getting in the cylinder. So we're gonna pull the head and helicoil it. Can the head be pulled without pulling the engine and are there any special things I need to know before we get started?? Is there any other way to fix without pulling head?? It's the third cylinder back on the passenger side, so its not easy to get to.
We're ending up pulling the head anyways. The guy it belongs to doesn't want to take the chance of any shavings getting in the cylinder. We might of had it off today but my harmonic balancer puller was too small for some reason and I work during the day and have only a couple hours in the evening to mess with it. Have to wait till tomorrow to get another.
We already have a machine shop thats gonna do it for him for $10.00 a hole so we're just gonna let him do it. We got the necessary gaskets ordered this evening for less than $100.00.
Researching this problem, I have read a lot about the lawsuits against Ford about the plug blowout problem.