Spark Plug Blowout in 5.4 Triton Engine

[alphahi]

Hope somebody out ther has heard of this one. I have a 98 F150 4WD with and 5.4 Triton engine. 85,000 trouble free miles till now. A montago it blew out the #3 spark plug (factory installed) Mechanic reiserted plub and replaced damage coil. Now one month later it did it again and the cost to repair this time will be $1100 just to helicoil the plug insert or $3000 to replace the head. Guys at the ehad shop said they see this all the time, anybody know if this is a common defect??? By the way Ford said no.

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[Dustoff]

This is becoming more and more of a problem. Try a search through the engine section - this has been discussed in detail recently.

[Don's Bolt]

It is indeed very common.

The problem there is only 3 threads holding the plugs in.

If they just recently fixed it for you and it did it again, it should be covered by the warenty fron the last repair.

[y2kxlt]

It seems to me that most of the spark plug problems are in the 99 and newer motors. This would lead me to believe that the problem isn't in the amount of threads but something else. Same thing with the head gasket problem. Seems that Ford is going backward instead of forward.

[wmcnally]

y2kxlt,

Is that true? '99 and newer? Does that mean it is more of a problem with the PI (power improved) heads?

[kaoliver]

Welcome to the blown sparkplug club alphahi. Actually I’m sorry to hear about your problem. I had one blow out on me about a month ago. Mine blew out at 66000. The one that blew out was the third one back on the driver’s side. I had my plugs replaced at 60000 by my Ford dealership.

You are right about Ford not being any help on this issue. I had called Ford’s customer service and they basically told me that I had to have my head replaced at my expense. The only one to offer me any help was my service advisor. And that was only after I complained enough about the fact that they do most of my service work and the fact that I bought three vehicles from them in the last 12 years.

The service advisor offered to replace my head thru Ford’s PO7(pissed off loyal customer) program. This program is used by service advisors at their discretion. The head replacement ended up costing me $600 with Ford covering the rest. The original estimate for replacing the head was $2800.

[y2kxlt]

I must be wrong because of the above post.

[Navi Man]

Do a search. This subject has been well discussed and you will find enough reading to last a few days. I'm not trying to make light of the problem , but we really don't need another post rehashing what's already been discussed. The search function is a great tool and many times your answer has already been made in this forum at one time or another. Good luck in getting your engine repaired.

[toddyman88]

"We really don't need another post rehashing what's already been discussed. "
Well I for one welcome the re-hash as it has beem called. I did the search yesterday and got a great deal of info from it on this sad subject. I dont belive that it is hurting anything or anyone for this to be discussed further to benefit newer members. I have noticed too that not all the posts from the past included vital info such as year models. The more this is out the more those of us with an intrest will be informed, and information is one of your best tools in fighting a problem like this with an opponent as big as ford. Besides, if its such a waste of time to "re-hash" then what is it for you to put your post on it?

[alphahi]

Thanks all of you guys for the timely replies... I knew this had to be a Ford defect...
Since I have had fout Ford pickups and now own this defective one and an Expedition, maybe Ford may pick up some of the cost of repair.
I am going to hold my local repairman tommorrow and work on the closest dealers Service Dept (an hour away)..
Will keep you posted..

[alphahi]

Thanks a lot for the info... As I posted on the thread, this is my fourth Ford F150 and I presently own an Expedition as well...Do you have any more clues as to ask for a repair under the PO7 program... My dealer is and hour away and I am thinking about holding repairs off locally until I follow through on this option... Thanks again for the info....

Originally posted by kaoliver
Welcome to the blown sparkplug club alphahi. Actually I’m sorry to hear about your problem. I had one blow out on me about a month ago. Mine blew out at 66000. The one that blew out was the third one back on the driver’s side. I had my plugs replaced at 60000 by my Ford dealership.

You are right about Ford not being any help on this issue. I had called Ford’s customer service and they basically told me that I had to have my head replaced at my expense. The only one to offer me any help was my service advisor. And that was only after I complained enough about the fact that they do most of my service work and the fact that I bought three vehicles from them in the last 12 years.

The service advisor offered to replace my head thru Ford’s PO7(pissed off loyal customer) program. This program is used by service advisors at their discretion. The head replacement ended up costing me $600 with Ford covering the rest. The original estimate for replacing the head was $2800.

[kaoliver]

Alphahi I'm not sure how often they can use this program. Like I said in my previus post they only offered it to me after I had complained about how often I do bussiness with them.

I know they had pulled all of my prior service records to see how I kept the truck maintained. I had also showed up with a tow truck to take it somewere else when Ford & the dealership didn't offer me any assistance with this at first. Thats when they offered to do the work under the PO7 program. The service advisor also had to have this approved by a zone rep.

If you do a lot of bussiness with this dealership I would ask them if them to see if you can have yours covered under this program. Your truck being a '98 with under 100,000 it should qualify for program if you can get them use it.

[Navi Man]

toddyman88,

I see that you are a newbie on this forum and I welcome you to this site. The great thing about the search function is that you can most of the time get answers immediately to a problem you are having, or a question you may have. If you have a specific question that hasn't been answered in your search, then by all means post it, but what's the use of people having to post the same thing over again, just for those that are to lazy to do a search. This forum is like a library and there is tons of information that is there to be used. You will soon learn that it can be your best friend on this forum.

[feefer]

Hi Naviman,

The "benefit" is that bulletin boards are about quasi-real-time interaction, as much as about being libraries for old threads. Many newbies to bulletin boards are put off by being welcomed with the school-marmish advice, "use the search engine".

Most internet users visit a site, look at maybe the first page, and that's it: not an efficient way of finding information, but that's just how people operate. Even fewer will post a question to ask, and few will use search engines (and fewer still know how to use them properly). Just the way most people operate.

So no problem with a person asking if something's a problem or not, IMO.

Naviman, you know that we're trying to collect accounts of how many people have been effected by the blown plug thing, and for some reason it seems to bother you. I don't know if you are a Ford employee or what, as I don't understand why people discussing this here seems to offend you as much as it does.

Alphahi, hopefully you've found the main thread discussing this issue ("blown plugs, damaged cylinder heads" on the second page of this forum) and have found the info you need, as well as added your account to the growing list.

Chris

[jwrape]

Yes, we are losing LightingGirl because of the very issue.
Check out Truck has a bad bad owie

See what all has been written. It's a eye full of info and discust.