Ok so I grew a sac and tried it. broke 4 of 8. So my question now is since the back passenger side broke (ouch) and the electrode stayed in the head. how do you guys suppose I get it out? Also why is it that every person I talk to says "Its gonna blow out" seriously is it that much of an issue?

 

With the Lisle(sp?) tool. I think you can rent it from some auto parts stores.

As far as blowing out, I thought that was only an issue with some of the OBS style truck motors?

 

Lisle tool.

 

The Lisle tool is surely the way to go. But I'm wondering if his comment about the electrode staying in the head means that not only is the ground shield and ceramic stuck, it still has the center electrode in it?

I had 2 of my 3 plugs that broke this way. I would get some long reach, read 11 inches or so, needle nose pliers to pull that out before pushing with the tool.

This assumes you mean what I'm thinking.

Did you follow the TSB?

 

yep that's exactly what happened. I'm not sure. The ford dealer told me to break the 1/4 turn and spray the carb cleaner. So that's what I did. The 4 that broke have been in the truck for 101,000 miles so I kinda assumed they were toast!

 

Oh and the lisle tool is on order!! Woot!!

 

You can still use the lisle tool it will push the electrode down like it does to the ceramic, without any problems

 

Truck is an 11/04 build date FX4 built at the Norfolk plant. Truck has been kept in sunny CA weather and had 83K miles at the time of the plug change.

Just had a recommended mechanic who told me that he had experience with the broken spark plug problem on our F150 trucks. In the end, he broke three out of the 5 plugs he attempted. He took the three out with the MAC version of the tool, even though I told him the Lisle tool was cheaper. He refused to finish the last three plugs and gave the truck back to me with a misfire and his tail between his legs.

I then took the truck to Fairview Ford in San Bernardino CA (ask for heavy line tech Bryan). My buddy works there and I even purchased the truck from them, but it is 75 miles from my house, so I tried to get it done locally. He does not use all the steps of the TSB and insists that Bilstein type de-carb be done on the engine before he attempts to remove the plugs. The de-carb is an IV type setup that feeds into the engine while it runs for a couple hours. After the de-carb he had no problems getting the last three plugs out and even removed the all 8 plugs to check the other mechanics work. Once he re-installed the plugs, the misfire was gone and all was well.

I recommend you find someone that really knows how to get these plugs out and not take risks with an inexperienced mechanic (on the Ford sparkplug problem). Seriously... as a mechanical engineer and someone who has built engines for my Mustangs and has done 99% of the work on my cars, I should have tried it myself, since I understood the problem better than the first mechanic.

 

It is my belief that fuel quality has a lot to do with the plugs hanging up upon their removal. Running a good top tier fuel which contains a detergent addative such as Techron keeps these deposits to a minimum, which IMO makes spark plug removal a non issue on these 3 valve engines.

 

California gas is crap to begin with - especially Costco and Arco. Your best bet is a steady diet of Chevron. You get what you pay for.