truck problems(spark plug)

[huntnfarm]

i know this is a tractor forum but you guys are pretty knowledgable. i have a 2000 f150 5.4 and blew a spark plug last night. it stripped the threads to the point of not being able to put a new one in. does anyone have expirence with re-threading?? how much of a pain is it and whats a good guess on price??? hatin life these days..................

 

[Kernopelli]

The common ways are usually either using a Heli Coil in the hole or taking the head off and retapping. I am an avid motorcyclist and recently saw in a magazine that Mac tools makes a tool called the Back-Tap...it allows you to rethread spark plug holes without fear of getting the shavings in the cylinder. You insert it and and expand the cutting threads and it cuts new ones on its way out of the hole, a mandrel catches the shavings. I think they were about $90 for a 3 size set or $50 each. I'm sure you can google it for more info.

 

[wdchyd]

++ TIME-SERT SPARK PLUG THREAD REPAIR KITS ++ spark plug thread repair kits spark plug problems thread stripped spark plug repair damaged threads in spark plug hole stripped out approved

 

[doall]

Those ford spark plugs are a horrible design. I hope you the best. Some shops won't even do spark plugs on the 5.4's because they strip out so bad. I've not seen one blow out though. hope the heli coil will work for you.

 

[brain55]

The correct way, and only way that I have seen have any success, is to take it to a reputable machine shop that will put in the proper inserts so it doesn't happen again. My machinist was doing them for the local Ford dealer because Ford's solution was to replace the head with the same design head. I was in charge of a fleet of trucks and equipment and as it happened to our F-250's we would pull the heads and send them out. It was much less aggrevation in the long run.

Brian

 

[Transit]

I highly recommend anti-seize compound on all fasteners.

 

[Diamondpilot]

This can be a issue on early 2 Valve 5.4 motors. The 3 Valve does not have this issue. The issue is there are only 3 to 4 threads there and many over torque the plugs and do not use anti-seize. They only take something like 7 ft lbs.

Make sure who ever fixes it knows what they are doing and has done 5.4 Fords before. There is some good fixes and some not so good fixes so chose wisely.

Same is true with the V-10 also. Older 2 Valve engines had this issue but it was fixed with the 3 Valve.

I have owned 6 5.4 F-150 trucks and my dad and brother-n-law have had another 10 or so F-150's and Expeditions and non of us have had this issue. I know lots of folks that have had them without issue but do know one guy who had it happen on a 01 F-250 with a V-10

Chris

 

[Egon]

From a complete lack of experience base I'd suggest removing the head and have a proper shop do the work.

When it's running again perhaps a different truck could be considered??

 

[Ford tractor]

From a complete lack of experience base I'd suggest removing the head and have a proper shop do the work.

When it's running again perhaps a different truck could be considered??

The advice I heard was to remove the suspect spark plug, turn around and insert it into a Chevy truck's engine then drive the chevy to a shop and have the plugs changed.


But seriously, fords are well known for the aluminum heads stripping out. Most any well stocked NAPA will be able to get you the correct materials to put in a thread insert.

I don't worry about getting the odd aluminum shaving in the cylinder. Sure, air gun blow them at 100 psi, but if one is in there, it will soon burn up or be shot out the exhaust. I helped a guy pull the heads on a small block chevy that he had dropped a brass air cleaner wing nut down the carb with the engine running. There was absolutely no sign of what cylinder ate it up, no damage at all and it ran good for 6-7 years until he totaled it.

 

[Diamondpilot]

The advice I heard was to remove the suspect spark plug, turn around and insert it into a Chevy truck's engine then drive the chevy to a shop and have the plugs changed.

I never had a GM last long enough to need spark plugs.:laughing:

Chris

 

[johnk]

I never had a GM last long enough to need spark plugs.:laughing:

Chris

Ougt Oh......... Here we go.

 

[kebo]

I had a long thread here about the experience I had with breaking off a plug in one of the cylinders on my F150 with the 5.4L Triton V8. It wound up costing me over $500 just to put a new set of plugs in it!!

In my case, the mechanic had to use the Ford Spark Plug removal kit, and then after getting the old plug out, he ran a small bore camera down inside the chamber along with a small rod and some sticky stuff on the end of it to get all the metal shavings out of the chamber.

But it's all good now. That is a real crappy head design, it should rank up there with the Edsel or something like that. The engineer that designed it should be sentenced to working at a Precision Auto Tune for 10 years doing nothing but changing plugs on 5.4L's!!! :laughing:

 

[buck12]

My BIL's F150 blew a plug at 170,??? miles. He used a repair kit (not sure which one) and has been driving it with no problems for the last couple of years. I know others with 5.4s that are pushing 200,000 miles that have had no problems. My 09 F150 has a 5.4 and hope Chris is right that the problem has been corrected.

 

[Ford tractor]

I never had a GM last long enough to need spark plugs.:laughing:

Chris

Me neither. Then again, I'm not sure where the plugs go on the diesel engine...:confused2:

 

[Egon]

That is a real crappy head design, it should rank up there with the Edsel

Hey now, there was nothing wrong with the Edsel mechanically.

 

[Soundguy]

I like diesel trucks and gas tractors...

soundguy

 

[Skyco]

The common ways are usually either using a Heli Coil in the hole or taking the head off and retapping. I am an avid motorcyclist and recently saw in a magazine that Mac tools makes a tool called the Back-Tap...it allows you to rethread spark plug holes without fear of getting the shavings in the cylinder. You insert it and and expand the cutting threads and it cuts new ones on its way out of the hole, a mandrel catches the shavings. I think they were about $90 for a 3 size set or $50 each. I'm sure you can google it for more info.

Northern Tool also carries that. Interesting tool but it will only clean up damaged threads...it can't make new ones in metal that isn't there

 

[tpic402]

There is a special tool set designed for just this problem,used it many times on v-10 ford engines it is a fairly good repair for a poor design, heavily loaded f-350-450 blew plugs out on a regular basis. If you need name of tool(pretty darn expensive if I remember right) I could get it for you. I hung up the tools and am no longer a professional auto tech.

 

[Verticaltrx]

I would just heli-coil it. I had to do that on a problematic spark plug on my '88 F-250, w/ 460. The heads were re-manned ones and one plug hole was not threaded properly. The plug would eventually unthread itself and shoot out. After doing this about 3 times over a course of a couple years the hole was finally so stripped it wouldn't hold a plug anymore.

I had another complete set of heads and even a gasket set that I could have just bolted on, but decided to give the heli-coil a try, a 1-hr job vs a 6-8hr job swayed my decision. I just greased the tap good and it caught most of the shavings. Some might have dropped in the cylinder, but nothing to lose sleep over. So far it has been working good, the truck is used exclusively for towing and hauling so it gets worked hard.

 

[doall]

I have a GM that I just put plugs in. 130,000 miles no other problems. But that back hole on the passenger side is a beast. Some Chevy's are ok Diamond.