On Feb 17-2010,i guess i was one of the lucky owners.I have 28,000miles and decided to change plugs.I was told by alot of F150 5.4 owners to get Champion plugs and new coils.I had no problem taking those plugs out.Plugs looked new also.I used Aerokroil penetrating oil,opened the plug a 1/4 turn shot sum oil around plug and let it set for 5 min.Plug # is 7989.Engine was luke warm.I bought Accel coil packs as a kit from Jegs $232.00-part #140033-8.Dont spray alot of penetrating oil around plug because it will Vapor Lock the engine...i thought Ford had there **** together..i owned 2 Dodge Rams 1999&2001...No issues!!! i guess live and learn...Paul from Buffalo,NY

 

Welcome to the site. Not sure the purpose of your post. Did you hydrolock your engine? Many of us have successfully changed or had the plugs changed, though occasionally you hear of a nightmare. That is usually from not following the TSB. I did mine at 65,500 and went back with Motorcraft as a few had bad experiences with the Champion. A few have been fine with Champion, as well. The Accel coils have a bad history on this site. Also, why did you change teh coils? The OEMs are very good and seldom fail.

With the knowledge of how to extract the broken plugs, it is not usually the nightmare it was when this problem was first discovered.

 

I'm going to do mine in the spring when it warms up. So if i break a plug i can ride my supermotard to work. Im going to do mine the way Quintin does them. 14.4 volt Cordless impact gun. The way i figure is if there gonna break they will break no matter how care full you are. So im gonna give em hell and hope fully they pop right out. From what i have read there seems to be a high success rate doing them this way.
So let the game begin come spring. I will post my out come then.

 

I cant sense sarcasm on a message forum. Are you seriously considering using an impact gun on spark plugs?

 

Yes, he is. Several have with success. Look up Quintin's posts. He is a Ford tech at a dealership and that is the way he does them.

 

It certainly seems that an impact gun would increase the likelihood of the plugs breaking. But i suppose there must be more to it, since he is having success!

Ill look up the post, thanks.

 

I think the jarring must help break the carbon loose. As I recall, he says that with a luke warm engine, he breakes each plug loose 1/4 turn. Let's them soak with carb cleaner for about 15 minutes, then puts a cordless impact on them till they come out. He says it takes about 2 hours to change them. You have to remember, if one does break, it's not as big a deal as it was initially. There are now retrieval tools for the broken parts. I have to assume that is the way they do it at my dealership, otherwise, how would they change a set in about 2 hours?

 

i have a shop here who explained to me how he does it. he just soaks them in pb blaster, then takes a breaker bar and loosens them about 3 or 4 inches then tighens them again another inch, then loosesn 3 -4 then tightens. so on a clock hes starting at say 6 o clock,going to 3 or 4, then he comes back to 5, then to 2 or 1 then back to 3/4, he said if you just take a ratchet and unscrew them thats what breaks them.

 

That is the method described in Ford's TSB, but some have started using an impact with success.

 

Yup, I do.

Haven't broken one since.

 

Sounds reasonable to me if you compare that with a bandaid stuck to your arm - one quick fast yank hurts a lot less than slowly pulling it up and ripping the hairs out one by one.

Fortunately I got all mine out (the plugs, not my hair) in one piece 15 months ago at 48,000 miles following the tsb and the super-slow, back and forth method. If I knew then what I know now, I would have given the impact gun a shot.

Oh yeah, the Champions I put in are working fine.

 

The suggested change is 100K miles. I changed mine at 110,000 and they looked fine. Mine came out easy. Just took about four hours, lots of curse words and a tremendous pain in the ****. I keep hearing we should use motorcraft only.

 

Sir, with respect, if you are referring to your 2000 MY plugs, this is a different beast (2004-2006 5.4 3V engines only)

Also - without actually measuring the gap, you can't know for certain if the plugs look fine - barring any gross damage such as missing electrodes

Folks typically change them sooner on these trucks as the success rate usually goes up without undo breakage. And for me personally, I do not happen to believe any plug can last and function efficiently at that mileage.

Just my humble observations. Thanks for not flaming me.

Regards & cheers!
MGD v2.1d

 

Took mine to BP Amoco this morning, 119,500 miles, none broke and he says hes never broken any. Yes 05 5.4 3V. Don't be so scerred just be prepared.

 

So, what was the "nightmare"?