Ok, so, I finally got around to changing my plugs and coils over the weekend.

The boot on #2 was a mess. Looked like an explosion. (pic coming) That was clearly the source of my trouble. #4 was the hardest to do. #3 was an aftermarket coil and a different plug than all the rest but it looked ok. I replaced all of them no matter the condition. The whole job took me longer than I'll admit. Though if you subtract the time #4 took...it wasn't too bad.

No thread issues. None of the plugs were either easy or hard to remove. All the holes had light debris in them. I fabricated a vacuum hose/nozzle that worked like a charm. (pic also coming) I didn't find the air hose to be helpfull...with my nozzle..the vac did it all. Curse the engineer who ran so many hoses and hardware over the rear of the engine where it is hardest to manuever.

I have about $150 in the whole job since I found coils for $94 plus shipping for all 10.

Note to anyone who is chasing what they think is a driveline issue...check your plugs/boots/coils first! My symptom was a 'chugging' or 'stuttering' or 'chattering' under acceleration and load. It was the worst in the 35-50mph range. At idle it seemed fine. When I sought advice on it or searched the threads for similar problems...everything pointed to the clutch packs in the rear or tranny/torque converter issues. Lots of advice to add friction enhancer. Boy am I glad I didn't spend big bucks chasing that. My symptoms are 100% gone after the coil/plug swap. IN FACT...I probably could have just swapped the boot on #2 and been done. That's like a $15 fix for something I've heard people spend huge $ changing out their rear ends just to find they still have the problem. Can we get this added to a tech faq or something so people know to start with their ignition system?

 

cool man i just did mine at 295k and i am happy i did. i found 3 different brand plugs and i had 3 coils split up the side. the truck ran good but pulling my 26 foot enclosed trailer in the mountains around West Virginia the truck was lacking the power it should have. i put in stock plugs back on and coils off e-bay. i now am getting 13.6 empty and 9.5 with the car in the trailer. it's well worth it

 

Where did you find all 10 coils for that price? For that price I would replace all of them on my V10 as well. Thanks for the info.

 

Great info Rep points ... thanks for sharing..

 

Ignition Coil Ford 04 F-250 6.8 V10 coils packs SET 10:eBay Motors (item 270498389697 end time Jan-07-10 11:55:40 PST)

 

i ended up buying a code reader. these trucks seem to have a prob with coils.

 

Got 'em on ebay. Here is the link to the ebay store I bought them from... eBay Store - evalero1: H.I.D. LIGHTS KIT, Oxygen Sensor, Ignition Coils

At that price...easy decision to go ahead and swap them all. If you've never done it...
-have a mechanics mirror or similar handy. I stole a mirror from one of my wife's compacts.
-Lots of wobble extentions of different lengths will help.
-I duck taped a 8' length of radiator hose to my vacuum inlet and then stuck a 6" piece of copper pipe in the end to suck out the debris from the holes before removing the plugs. It was cool. It went down over the top of the plug and really got that gunk out.
-I used liberal amounts of dielectric grease even on the plug socket so it wouldn't stick.
-I used an air wrench to remove the plugs in the back since that was easier but I used wobbles and extentions with my torque wrench to reinstall. I'd love to find some torq sticks with ratings below 55ft-lbs...would have been nice to use with the air wrench on this job...believe me.

 

55 lb toqure sticks for this job? did you put your new plugs in at 55 ft lbs?

 

What code reader out there reads the exact cyclinder that is misfiring? I just had a friend use a labtop today to test my coils. I changed the thermostat and got radiator fluid in some.

 

never use air tools on spark plugs. do them by hand. that way you can feel whats going on. i use a blow gun first, brake the plugs lose then use the blow gun again. put some pb blaster down there. let sit for 5 mins and they thread rite out "most of the time" and dont torq to much. aluminum heads and steel plugs can go sideways really quick.

 

I have never heard of using PB blaster after you break them loose but it sure sounds like a good idea...learn something every day. Do you mechanic for a living?

 

yea i work at a international truck dealer

and put antiseize on the new plugs.

 

I only used the air wrench to remove the ones in the back. Not much room to work back there. I didn't use it to put them back in. I torqued them to 30. Read a lot of threads with a range advised torque ratings. I decided to err on the high side.

I only mentioned 55ft-lbs torq sticks because that is the lowest I've ever seen. Wish they made a large range. Jobs like this are really hard to do with the wide swing of a torque wrench. A 20, 25 or 30 torq stick would have been reall nice. I would have used the air wrench after hand threading a few turns. The threading felt very sure to me. Maybe it was because the holes on mine were relatively clean. #2 was the exception due to the blown boot. I used carb/choke cleaner on it once I had sucked out the debris and removed the plug once and then re-inserted it so nothing would run down in the cylinder. Didn't end up shiny like the others but it was pretty good.

 

Ive yet to hear any bad on the ebay coils. sounds like a great deal?

 

so far i have 3 months on mine it's my daily and i have made 2 trips back to MI form here in NC hulling my trailer. and i have 7 extra ones just in case ha ha