Yes. I'm a bad boy. I know better. I should have done them at 100k. Honestly, It ran perfectly fine up until then. (and fine after plug replacement). It's running fine now with the repair (knock on wood).

 

I have fixed a few of these, to me seems like most are 90's and I think I did a 2001. I have used the Calvan repair kit, it worked perfect. I have never had one come back after it was repaired.

 

Probably a stupid question, and not truck related, but.....
I've got a '93 Lincoln Mark VIII with the 4.6, 32 valve.
Do these heads have the blowout problem or not?
(Gonna be changing plugs real soon. I'd like to know)

 

It happened again (not the same plug, though) !!
The days are numbered for this van of mine. This time it was the number 2 plug.

 

98 F150 4x4 5.4 the #8 went at about 180000.

 

Are all the 5.4l heads interchangable or wat can go on a 99 f250sd, 3v maybe???

 

This spark stuf is old news. I have a 2002 SD 4x4 crew 167K nothihg but mobil1 runs like it should and I am not easy on her. Blew 1 plug. I blame that on me the first plug change @ 60K . Guntight torque and no antisiege. Installed a timesert and invested in a in/lb wrench and antiseige . I torque them two increments and look at the plug bores while they are out. When you take your thousands of dollar invested car or truck to be serviced a real service tech writes you up. That's it!!!! he will never see your car/truck again.Some kid straight out of tech school or still going does the work . The truth is this style of head needs the upmost attention to torque and detail to plug R/R.I have never heard any blowing a plug before a plug change. I bet 85 % of the blows were are shade tree like me !!!!! ANY ONE CAN CHANGE SPARK PLUGS!!!!! IT's not the aluminum heads,Edelbrock,trickflow,brodix,chevy,dodge,m&ben s,honda,volvo,toyo,noneedtokeeptyping.

 

Excellent point. When I took my 2002 in to have the plugs done at my dealer I sat down with the service manager and head shop guy and insisted that their best man did the job. I also let him know that I knew "stuff" so there would be no "smoke and mirror" yes sir anything you want crap. I purposely left the truck there over night so he'd have a cool engine to work on and I told them to take as long as they needed. When I picked up the truck the service manager took me into his office and explained everything was ok and that they cleaned the plug threads used the correct torque setting (which I knew) etc.
So here's hoping you're right!

 

My engine spit the number two plug this morning on my way to work, to late to vote.

 

The poll should still be open?

 

Had it happen 3 times on my '99 between 109K and 118K miles
My '03 has 114K on it and no problems...knock on wood ((((raps head)))

 

Well I think I voted no on the poll last week, can we add a yes vote to 5.4 and remove a no vote?

 

Sorry, can't change votes.

 

My truck is an 03. It still had the 4 thread heads on it from the factory!

The trick is to torque to 28 and use NO Anti-Seize!

FAQs


"51.Q: Why do you prefer 28-32 foot lbs torque instead of the factory specification?
A: Over the past few years we have heard from many of our customers that they tightened their plugs to the correct torque but they still came loose. We worked with 10 other Ford Certified Master Mechanics and concluded that 28 foot lbs of torque would be satisfactory. We have been using 28 foot lbs of torque for many years and have never had one come loose or strip out. To verify that we would not damage the original threads we used a test cylinder head with good factory threads we applied over 100 foot lbs of torque to the spark plug without any failure.

52.Q: Do you use Anti-Seize when you install new spark plugs?
A: No, we always use Motorcraft nickel plated spark plugs to stop any issues with electrolysis."

 

Phil, where is that quoted info from?

Stewart