Lots of good info. How do you identify if you have the early 2008 model with the plug problem. My 2008 Canadian Limited ends in VIN FA00056. Do I have the bad plugs ?

 

Look at the color of the cop boots....black indicates plugs with heat shields...brown indicates plugs without heat shields....
https://www.f150online.com/forums/4604078-post51.html

 

THanks 88racing for the info. Looks like I got the black ones. Luckily. I,ve only got 50 K miles, so I,ve got a ways to go yet before needing to do this job.

 

What are the best plugs to use in the 2008, 5.4 ? Are they the Champion 7989 plugs or is there something better ?

 

Thanks for the info, first time on here, have a FX4 04, with 260,000 miles on it , I bought it new and never have had the plugs changed, it will miss under load now, how much of a problem do you think I will have changing them myself now and what plug should I put back in, nervous in indy

 

Did mine today. 2004 Lariat with 140,000 miles. This is the second plug change. First was done at 60,000 at the Ford research and engineering center experimental garage to test the TSB.

Started working on it right after a long drive. Removed computer, took off one side COP's and cracked them open 1/4 turn. Used half carb cleaner and half PB blaster and let soak for about 30 minutes while removing cops and cracking open/soaking the other side.

Used Makita 1/4 inch impact with adapters to remove plugs. Broke 6. It was scary. Thank god for the lisle tool which worked perfectly. Passenger rear came out in one piece, but all driver side broke. The driver rear was the hardest.

used combination of shop vac to suck and compressor to blow out cylinders multiple times. Used new motocraft double platinum plugs because of the problems people were having with other plugs.

Also installed amazon.com COP's. 8 for $80. I think it was uneek on amazon.

I feel like I have a brand new truck. It runs so smoothly now. I must have been running on 7 cylinders for years. Hopefully mpg will go up.

Make sure to have the lisle tool before you start. also have the special spark plug socket. You WILL need both.

I also experienced very rough running for the first five minutes until the computer relearned the engine.

Took me 6 hours, did a oil change right after.

 

Just replaced mine on 2007 FX4. My engine started to miss. At first I thought it was bad gas. After purchasing 2 tanks of 93 octane, it had to be plugs. Purchased the plugs from Advanced Auto. They are expensive, but I saved a lot of money performing the work myself. (2) plugs were difficult to remove. I first attempted to tighten plugs before removing, and this technique breaks frozen plugs. If I didn't do this, I believe the (2) difficult plugs would have broken. I started with the hardest plugs first, facing engine - passenger side, the plug in the back and worked forward. Then driver side the rear plug and worked forward. All removed without issue.

 

I just recently tackled my plugs on 05' screw 4x4 with 72,600 miles. I was getting the bucking under load. I was scared to tackle them but when I got a quote from my local Ford dealership it was an easy decision.
I started off by adding a bottle of seafoam to half a tank of fuel, then, ragged the **** out of my truck till almost empty. Took the battery, comp and comp bracket off. Removed a couple of vacuum lines in the way and tied back some wires with bungee cords. Removed Coils. I got some computer duster with some plastic nitrous purge hoses i had, since I don't have an air compressor and just sprayed the crap out of the engine and in the plug wells.
I attached some rubber hose to my BP penetration oil and blasted some in the well aswell as some Carb cleaner. Not too much though. I just gently broke each plug loose. By gently I mean the rachet moved just a bit and I stopped. Took a nap for 2 hours after that. Then came the good stuff.I took the same computer duster and cleaned out each well. Finally it was time. I started by going 1/4 turn, or less, out and tightened 1/4 turn. 2 - 1/4 turns out, 1/4 back and did that for a while. Finally they started to smoothly come out and I didn't break one plug. After they came out I blew more compressed air in the holes just incase. Put some anti-seeze on the new 515's and started to put them back in 1 at a time. Here's where I messed up. I didn't torque them down. YOU HAVE TO TORQUE THEM DOWN WITH A TORQUE WRENCH TO 25FT/LBS!!!! If not, you'll be going back to tighten them down cause your A/C will pull in the gas that's being released from around the plug because they're still loose. I know, I just finished LOL. Just thought id throw it out there.

 

I was just searching and delphi coils now carry a 3 year warranty as of january 1, 2013. The part number for 2004-07 black boots is GN10182 and for 2008-2010 brown boots is GN10233. The coils cross to DG-511 and DG-521 copy and past links below to verify

http://am.delphi.com/products/parts/...gnition-coils/


http://delphi.mycarparts.net/product...n_id=993270452

 

I read the first page only and didn't see where someone explained why the head and plug design causes the plugs to break. The reason why is because of the carbon build up as well as the plug fusing to the head due to the pressure and heat from the combustion. ****ty plugs and ****ty design makes things harder for diyers. Like myself and most everyone else that works on their trucks or any other vehicle for the matter.

 

Only took about three hours actual work time. Before this I added two bottles of fuel injector cleaner to each tank of gas at fill-up, for three tanks of gas in all. This was an attempt to clean out any carbon build up after 120,000 miles on the original plugs. Oh yes, it was time to change them.

Not sure how hot the engine was but I ran some errands in the morning and by the time I got all the stuff out of the way in the engine compartment I suppose it was still somewhere between hot and "luke warm", as stated in the TSB. I removed just the battery cover, the computer, computer bracket, some wire harnesses, the evap control on the driver's side, and the pcv hose.

After removing the COPS I blew the recesses out with compressed air and gave each one a squirt with carb cleaner and aero kriol, not much at all really.

I did #1 with a torque wrench set to 30 foot pounds, turned pretty easy. I went back and forth 1/4 turn a few times until I was felt confident to go all the way. Came out fine.

I started #2 and it was definitely harder. The torque wrench clicked quickly without much movement on the plug. I backed it up and tried again a couple of times until I felt/heard something "gritty" with the small movements of the plug threads. Oh shoot! (or something to that effect!). Not sure if the porcelain was broken or not, and with no way to tell until the plug was out, and given how hard it was to turn, I went all in with the air wrench. I tried the lowest setting, no go. So I went all the way and it spun out in one piece. It must have been some grit that didn't get blown out of the recess. What a relief.

#3 - air wrench.
#4, #8 - torque wrench given the clearance issues.
#5, #6, #7 - air wrench.

There was very little carbon on the plugs. They came out pretty clean. Out of the woods now!

I went with the one piece double platinum champions in spite of what I've read about them. If they don't work out, at least I can take them out without having to worry about breaking any. Engine runs great, like new almost. No more backfiring through the intake at full throttle or bucking in overdrive at low rpms (when starting to go up a hill in overdrive). Obviously I was suffering a miss at high loads, not surprised given the gaps of the original motorcraft plugs, they could have been at least twice over spec, not surprised at all given the high mileage.

Though twice now I have had what seems to be stumble at idle (waiting at traffic light), but only when I have just begun my morning commute. Each time I have revved the engine up to about 2000 rpms for five or ten seconds and it goes away. I wonder if I used the wrong nickel anti-seize and it's temporarily shorting out a plug electrode to a ground strap? It may not have been high temp anti seize. I'll have to look at the bottle again.

Otherwise it's been great to hear my engine sing through the gears using an AEM brute force intake and a magnaflow catback without burping. Happy days!

Next I think I'm going to swap out the open diff to the Eaton sitting on my bench.

 

Glad it went so well. Not sure where you used the antisieze since you don't have the shank on the Champions. I have never heard of anyone having a problem removing the second set of Motorcrafts.

 

The Champions have the shank also. But the shank is part of the thread body.

The high temp antiseize compound will short a plug also, if it gets on the plug electrodes.

"Used" Champions:

 

They don't look bad at all!

I put the anti-seize on the shroud to prevent carbon build up and a little on the threads. Maybe too much on the shroud if I'm shorting the electrode. If it persists maybe I'll pull them out for inspection.

 

No idea how many miles are on them. They were installed by the previous owner. The truck had ~72K miles on it when it was bought. With COP ignition, all plugs get the same polarity spark, so there is no reason for double platinum plugs (both center, and GND electrodes have platinum). Here is a closeup of the electrodes:




I replaced the Champions with Motorcrafts, which smoothed out the idle.