Well, the truck is 9 years old now, but only has 51,000 miles on it. Yeah, I know.... My motorcycles get ridden more for my work as they are good transportation and get 45-65 MPG respectively.


This truck has always been the best truck I've ever owned. I think when they built this one (Kentucky plant) they really took their time.

Anyway, I figured I'd check to see if any of the plugs were loose after all this time. Always am curious about the "blown plug" issue on the earlier V10's.

First I removed the COPS and blew out the holes with a compressor. I did one bank at a time, starting on the drivers side. All COPS came off easily. Then I used PB Blaster down the holes to loosen the plugs (just in case..). Starting in the front, I would loosen the plug several turns, and use the air compressor again, then remove the plug entirely. I used Autolite APP 103 plugs. I gave them a very light coating of anti-seize (yeah, I know some say yes some say no.) I always use it on all my engines with no detriment over the years. Plugs were torqued to 14' lbs. I used dieltric grease on the COPS upon replacement. I am always concerned on these older 3-thread heads to overtorqueing. The old plugs were definitely in harder than 14' lbs, more like 20. All went as planned. None were loose and all of the old plugs looked very good (see picture). The job took 2 hours. It actually was a far easier job than my Escape V6, in which I had to remove the intake manifold to do the back 3 cylinders

The only problem was the back cylinder on the passenger side. It took about 20 minutes to do that one due to the fact I really needed a 5/8" universal joint, which I didn't have. I got it done without it, saying a a few choice words along the way.

This is not a hard job, just a painful one due to the contortions of kneeling on top of the radiator. I would not hesitate to do it again.

The plugs are set in order of removal. The left 5 are the drivers side from front to rear. Same on the other side.

 

I have 55k on my 02. I'm thinking about leaving them in. How bad or good did your plugs look and did you notice much difference with the new ones?

 

If you look at the picture, you can see that the old plugs show virtually no corrosion. The electrodes were also in very good shape. I was mostly concerned with the "looseness" issue. I was also worried about them being rusted shut to the head after being in there for 9 years. They would have all been just fine if I had left them alone.

We have low humidity and no salt air here. That may affect others choices to do this work or not.

I don't have any report as to mileage difference as the new plugs have literally only been driven around the block.

One other point I forgot to mention in the original post is that when you put the new plugs in it is very helpful to use a clear piece of vinyl tubing (attach it to the tip of the spark plug) and lower the spark plug into the hole and twist it to start the threads. This will prevent stripping or cross threading the new plugs/head.

 

Good on you! I suspect this would be the most common report if EVERYBODY reported their findings, rather than only those with problems.

A tip for pain averse folks:
Plan to do the plugs at the same time you want to flush the radiator and change the serpentine belt. Then you can justify removing the radiator, shroud, and fan! Only takes about 15 minutes.
Pulling the radiator lets you do a very thorough flush, gives super easy access to belt, annnnnnnd..... leaves a great big space for you to STAND between the grill and engine and reach plugs easily.

 

I've changed the plugs twice (at 50k & 100k) on my V-10 Excursion. I found noticeable wear on the electrodes at both changes. Enough to make me question the wisdom of the recommended 100k interval. That said, others do and report no problems. I did notice an improvement in driveability both times. Any mileage improvement was too slight to notice. After 9 years, if you didn't change the boots on your coils it's probably time.

Lou Manglass

 

It's great to see you used the double platinum plugs this time.
I used the same because I noticed that my old plugs looked good but the gapping was wider than specification.

 

Just a word of warning. I did exactly the same thing to my V10 at 65,000 miles and no loose plugs. The plugs were in there tighter than 14lbs from the factory.
I set the new plugs up at 14lbs like they said to do and in 8,000 miles I had a loose plug.
I set them at 25-28 ft lbs like the blownoutsparkplug.com guy said and have not had thread issues, and have not had a loose plug again and now have 165,000 on the V10. I would check those plugs in about 5,000 miles if I were you and torque them higher than 14ft lbs.
Just trying to help you avoid the blow out down the road
Andrew.

 

i have seen on a mustang forum they are going to 30 ft/lbs with the plugs, that scares me. i like 25, and so far i havent had another blow on my v10 or 4.6.

 

today. I used a socket i got at advanced or the zone, but it has a built in swivle, and is magnetic instead of the rubber insert, worked great used a combo of 3 3" extensions, no issues with plugs.

torqued mine to 124 in lbs. coated all with anti seaze and di lectric and replaced #5 cop. I have a miss somewhere so i had one and put it back there.

Only problems i had were boots. I had one tear and about 1/2" stay on the plug. That was a bear, i fished with a coat hanger, got a regular deep socket, got it red hot stuffed it in there. blew the hole fished stuffed socket, repeated until i got enought of it out to get a bite.

The plugs looked new, #4 bot looked like it was rustey and smelled of antifreeze so removed that cop. all but one plug looked lean. fat plug was 8, so i think maybe that was my miss, so i threw that cop out, and brought 9 and 10 forward, will put a new one on 10 sunday.

Word of advice ppl, get new boots!!!! All my pass side should be replaced, all drivers side looked great, put next time i will get new boots.

 

truck runs like crap today. Raining and when i floored it it spun 3 ft seems like a steedy miss when cruisin, and when wide open, lacks punch.

left bat cables off and clamped together 24 hrs. new fuel filter, air filter plugs, 2x cops, removed and cleaned maf. Should run like new right? Or will it take awhile to reset? if so how long or how many cycles?

before tune up it would develope random miss, usually while cruising along at 55 when you floor it it ran great. It was never the engine i thought it should be.

drained back feul filter, and it was nasty btw 145000 miles

ideas?

 

Reddog,

I think you answered a lot of your own question when you said that your #4 plug was rusty and smelled of anti-freeze and you're getting a slight miss. I'd pull #4 plug again (I know it's a pain.) and check/smell it again. If you're still getting coolant on the plug, thats probably the cause of your miss and isn't time to run down the checklist for a possible bad head gasket or cracked head.

It's also possible that you've got a rich condition going on in #8 like you mentioned, if you have a failed, dirty, or stuck open injector on #8.

It just sucks for you that both your suspect banks are so far back in that engine bay.

 

hEY mIKE,

Take a look at the pic, the rust and smell were on the boot and outside the plug.

The tip looked a little rich same as 8. You can kinda tell from pic, the rest of the plugs were very light grey/white 4 and 8 were a little darker.

Today it is about back to the same miss as before, just when cruisin along. I am just not sure if i should go ahead and cycle the 2 cops i removed back in and keep exchanging them every day 2 at a time.