Success.
I recently bought a 04 FX4 2 months ago,and being it had slightly over 100k on it i decided to give it a tune up.
The truck runs great other than a OD shutter,I've been searching this forum for a month or better getting as much info as i can on the spark plug issue.
According to all the records(car fax,Honda dealership where i bought the truck from) the plugs haven't been touched,so being **** as i am,i decided to do it my self.
My truck has 103k miles on it right now,so i was sweating bullets.I started at around 9:30 this morning and was done 2 hours later.I did purchase the Lisle tool and the OTC 9/16 socket,along with new plugs,Nickel anti seize and Aero Kroil.
I started with a hot motor,stated at the battery,then pcm,then the passenger side plugs,blew the motor off with compressed air,unbolted the cop,then went to town on the plugs,one extra tool i did use was a dewalt cordless impact driver 1/4".
I had the adapter from 1/4'' to 3/8'' socket and it was worth its weight in gold,i speed through everything with it,alot better then doing it by hand.
So #1 on the passenger side was the first victim, i stuck the OTC socket on there,put the dewalt on it with another 3" extension,and hit the trigger if the forward motion one time,then hit it in reverse and didn't stop till the plug was out.I was soooo happy when i seen the plug in one piece,oh and btw if it did make any noise coming out i couldn't hear it over the impact.
I did notice 2 or 3 did make a little noise when coming out,but every one of those stinking little plugs came out and not one broke.
I will tell you this,the two in the back i did brake loose by hand then put the impact on them,but still no breakage.
Ok, just so you all know,weeks before doing this i ran 3 bottles of that Chevron with Techron in a row with 89 octane gas,and i really think that helped alot,i did seafoam the truck 2 months ago when i first bought it,but that was awhile ago, so i don't think that had much to do with it.

Now my question to the forum is this,are PZT-2FE factory plugs? cause that's what i pulled out,and i don't see any signs of anti seize on any of the plugs.I replaced those with SP-507 single plat. plugs, and so far the truck seems more peppy the idle is about the same.
Another question that I'm throwing around is, that somebody already replaced them before i bought the truck,i say that cause the electrode on all the plugs looks good,as far as gap i don't know cause i don't have a gap tool to gap these types of plugs.
Ok here is a pic of my truck,anybody seen this before?,i bought it in Boulder, Co 2 months ago,but now back to Mo.
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Maybe the last owner maybe on here??/
And here are the plugs i pulled out
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So that's about how i went about it,got any questions feel free to ask,and also thanks to this forum for all the info and help.

 

Good job!

 

Those plugs dont even look that bad. Previous owner must have been good about using quality gas and such. Nice work!

 

Thanks guys,this was the most expensive tune up I've ever done on a vehicle.

 

Awesome, always nice to hear about a plug change that went well.

Now you just need to learn how to space after commas, and you're all set! lmao

 

HAHAH, my bad.

 

Good job! Those plugs look very clean, so they may have been changed previously.

 

Good to hear! They do look pretty clean. Hoping mine comes out that easy.

 

Those are factory plugs. You are DAMN lucky, it's the 04's that the factory didn't put antiseize on the plugs.

 

Good job dude. If you look back a few months, I had the same results using seafoam and a hot motor. My original 72k mile plugs looked cleaner than yours minus the electrode being burned off.

Seafoam and a hot motor is the only way to go, just don't use too much of that crap because it's hell on emissions gear.

IMHO the TSB on that was written by someone lacking a bit of basic WORKING knowledge of aluminum heads and only had the engineering side of the equation. Torquing them hot is a big no no as it will strip the threads much easier but removal is a completely different animal. I've yet to break a spark plug in a 5.4.

 

Good work, glad everything went well and no headaches along the way. I think i'm gonna buy plugs from the dealer soon and change mine out. I'll ask for new plugs for Christmas lol .

 

Good job!

Glad everything went well....

 

How many ppl here used the cordless impact method?

 

There's a thread about it in this forum. I believe a few have tried it with success.

 

Some of the techs at Ford dealerships have said that is the only way they do the job.