To each his own. If there is a known failure rate with a certain product.. and your mechanic confidently used that product, what is to say his judgment was good on the rest of the tune up.

 

I've never have had a time sert come out on a plug change but I've had plenty of helicoils come out with the old plugs.....

 

With my truck, the two Helicoils did not blow out, but both plugs in those locations developed missfires. I didn't know the inserts were there, and removed the plugs. One plug was stuck and didn't want to come out - it turned out the plug had melted and the end of the plug was welded to the Helicoil. When I did get it out the Helicoil had messed up the threads in the head and the plug was in really bad shape - center electrode was totally gone. I'm not absolutely sure, but I think the plug may been sticking too far into the cylinder and got way too hot. The other Heilcoil was only put in partway. One problem with the Helicoils is that it seems to be hard to get them in exactly the right position. I believe they use a hammer to drive them in the last few millimeters.

I just finished putting Time-Sert Triton inserts in both of those holes yesterday. It went well. It took me most of the afternoon, but I also took out all the other plugs and COPs and then put them back in to check how the holes look, make sure the plugs were tight, grease up the COPs, etc. Total cost was less than $100 for renting the Time-Sert tool kit and inserts (not counting my time). The inserts look really good and seem solid. I'm going to post a few pictures in the photo gallery. One concern I had was getting all the cuttings out, but the truck seems to run great so far. Hopefully the Time-Serts will last and not cause missfires. I probably won't do it because of the time involved, but I was considering putting Time-Serts in all the other cylinders as a preventative measure.

One question for those who have used Time-Serts. Did you have to run a cooler plug in those cylinders?

Pictures: https://www.f150online.com/forums/me...ark+plugs.html

 

I've seen helicoils catch and ride in on plugs before too.....

You shouldn't need to run a colder plug in a time sert.....stock is good enough...

 

I helped/watched a friend use heli coils for exhaust stud inserts (aluminum heads) for a boosted application. They were a joke and none of them seated right. Needless, they leaked like a **** and didnt hold. They were removed and timeserts were installed at a performance shop. Car was last sitting at 786rwhp with no leaks at the exhaust, before it lifted the heads

 

Just an update... been a full day and no misfires or anything... truck actually runs a bit better than before. So I hope all is okay and the fix holds up. I just wish I read up and knew about this issue before cause I would've related the ticking to that and possibly caught it before. But it's in the past, so all I can hope is that everything is okay now. Although I'm still nervous driving the truck thinking it's gonna happen again

 

I'd be nervous too knowing that you have an inferior helicoil in there and not knowing what exact torque is on the plugs.

 

what engines is this on? My truck has an annoying tic and I'm running a 4.6 in my 99. I have changed the plugs before but it hasn't fixed the tic, for a while I though it was something in the engine itself, But after reading this I am kind of second guessing it.

 

If your questioning the possibility of it being a loose plug, a mechanics stethoscope ($5) can help pinpoint a ticking noise. Place it on each cop, injector, valve cover etc... until you find it.

 

A 99 4.6 has coil packs and plug wires, not cops. It's easy enough to pull the wires and retorque the plugs to 28 ft/lb.

 

i just can't catch a break lol. truck's still runnin great... no problems there. but yesterday i was lookin at my right front tire and i noticed it already looked like the tire was worn... i just had them put on not even 2 weeks ago. sure enough i looked harder at the wheel and there's no wheel weight on the outside of it! and there's one on every other wheel... cause i also notice the truck shakes slightly at some speeds... probably caused by this also. ugh so now i gotta go back and have em fix that and i'm gonna need a new tire since that one's already worn wrong

 

The wear issue is not balance-related - it's alignment and/or worn front end parts.

Just because there's no outside weight doesn't necessarily mean that it's balanced wrong.

 

Agreed....

 

Okay well there shouldn't be any worn out parts cause they've all been replaced and they are "supposed" to let you know if they notice any parts going bad... but I know that always doesn't happen. And if its my alignment... they alignmed my front end, supposedly so it would all be under warranty. And I just figured it's a balance problem since there's a weight on every wheel but that one and there's a shimmy at certain speeds

 

How do you know for sure it's not balance related? The truck shakes a bit at like 40-45 and if the tire's not in balance it would definitely cause it to wear excessively/unevenly. I'm not saying you're wrong and I know that's not the only factor that could cause wear... but what would make you say it's not balance related?