Hey everyone, new to the forum with a major problem.

5 years ago (at 20,000 miles) I was driving down the road and heard a "POP" and then a noise like a broken belt. Turns out a spark plug shot out of the head helicoil and all. Truck was under warranty, they replaced the entire head and I was good to go (mechanic at the dealership said it was a design error).

Fast forward to yesterday (truck is a 120,000 miles now) and the same thing just happened on the opposite head.

Questions:
1) has this happened to anyone else?
2) anyone out of warranty like me? If so how much $$$$?
3) I can tackle this myself, anyone know if the head can be drilled out and a new helicoil installed or do I have to replace the entire head? (I am suspecting the dealership took the "easy route" last time around.

You help is very appreciated!

Cody

 

unfortunately, this is a known issue with the early v-10's (I have one too, but so far no plug blowouts).

If its monetarily feasible, it might not be a bad idea to replace the whole head to avoid future problems, but I think a new head is in the $3500 range.

The next best thing is a steel sleeve kit from timesert. Its designed specifically for this engine/problem. here's the link - http://www.timesert.com/html/triton_repair.html

The cheapest thing is, like you said, a helicoil. It is likely less strong than option #2, but might be worth a shot if you're considering replacing the head anyway (if it holds, great, if not, you can go ahead with your plan to replace it, etc...)

On a more humorous note, you could always screw a little check valve where the spark plug would go, and you'd have a V-9 with an air compressor ;-)

Seriously though, sorry about the truck and good luck getting it fixed!

Isaac

 

Ditto on the Timeserts. Helicoils ain't worth a flyin' flip in aluminum.

 

haha yeah. helicoils on anything but steel are less than great, but I had to helicoil into magnesium one time, and so far its held... That was pretty hairy though.

Isaac

 

I have a 2005 V-10. I am aware Ford supposedly "solved" the problem on the later V-10 heads, but am curious as to how. Anyone know what they did to the later heads? Can I be reas. sure whatever they did...WORKS ?

 

I think they just made the heads thicker where the spark plugs screw in, but I'm not 100% on that.

But for the amount of $$ and time it would take to do anything about it even if it might fail, id just as soon leave it and see what happens, esp. Since you can still drive with 1 blown (although its kinda like driving on a mini spare tire...)

 

First off I'd like to welcome you to FTE. You'll find tons of valuable information.
As for your problem, I too have had a plug blow off on my 2000 Excursion with the 5.4. I had been out of warranty for at least 4 years, but luckily (I have no idea how) the spark plug didn't strip the threads out, so it was just a matter of getting a new ignition coil and sparkplug to get me back up and running. Definately use the Timeserts to repair it. To prevent it from happening again it seems like everybody says to, every once in while check and make sure the plugs are torqued correctly. Hope we can help you fix your problem.

 

Cody go with the Timeserts. I did one on my 2000 Ex the first one took a little time but pretty easy if you have air tools. I should have went and toqued all my plugs after the first one ejected itself from the head but I did not and sure enough a second one flew. The Timesert kit was around 400.00 it came with 5 inserts. If you look at it 400.00 to fix two stripped plugs I made out ok. I think I have around 10000 miles since doing teh fixes no problems with the Timeserts. Good luck with your fix

 

Looks like you are in AZ . . . not far from So. Cal. (The weather is really nice here . . . 75 today . . . tape the plug in and hit the road ) This company is in the San Diego area - looks like they will also come to you . . . for a price. The site also states: We also have a repair facility in Sahuarita, AZ near Tucson http://www.blownoutsparkplug.com/ Might be worth checking out? Good luck.

 

I just got my 2001 EX back from the dealer the day after Christmas. Ford had come out with a fix in October. The dealer has a TSB 07-21-2 on this issue. The dealer in the small town I live in doesn't have the repair kit that Ford rcommends. It cost the dealer $1000.00 for this kit and they said they don't do enought of them to warrent to buy the kit. They refered me to a dealer close buy in a larger town. They have did a few of them but they don't use the Ford kit. The tool company Lisle and Cal-Van both makes a kit just for this application. These kits run about $400. The dealer I went to uses the kit by Cal-Van. It cost me $750 labor. They remove the intake manifold to do this repair because it is easier for them to get in there to do a better job. They remove all spark plugs and inspect the threads and repair any that they feel needs to be repaired. I saved well over $100 dollars by buying the parts (gaskets, spark plugs & coil) throught the web site on here. Hope this is some help.