Man Won!

Anyways just wanted to share what I did and how it worked out. This might not work for some of you guys, but this is how I was able to get all 8 plugs out in one piece. The truck has 51,000 miles clock'd with it's fare share of good truck-use.

For the past 3 tanks I have ran Chevron with Techron, 91 octane. On the second fill of 91, I put in 16 gallons of gas and ran a can of Sea Foam in the gas tank. I figured this would really help loosen the carbon over the next full cycle of gas.

Fast forward to today and the TSB. I glanced at it, but really didn't read all that much of it I am more of figure it out on the fly kind of mechanic.

I used Chem Tool B-12 for my carbon-breaker solution. The Chem Tool worked amazing! I watched it bubble as it sat in the spark bore and turn brown.

Here are my steps

- Warm truck to 135
- Compressed air spray around the area
- Spray in some chem tool, wait a few minutes
- Break spark plug 1/4 turn with wrench, wait a few minutes
- Switch to impact wrench and gas it till it is out
- Repeat x8


Here is a picture below on plug #3. I had some funny, rinky-dink, generic branded impact wrench from some tool kit. The impact was finally useful on something as it has no ***** to break bolts loose



Can of the Chem Tool I used


And finally, all of the plugs.


I've been dreading this job for many, many, miles, but I am soooo glad it is over.

I'm starting to wonder if the tighter smog and gasoline standards in California have any kind of correlation with the amount of carbon build up. After reading all the horror stories on this board I thought for sure all 8 were going to break!

 

Congrats on the win!

I am at 48,000 miles and thinking about changing mine. You're win gives me hope.

 

Doubt it, half of mine broke and I only use Shell gas. But mine also had 103k when the job was done.

Congrats on the success!!

 

Interesting thread. I had heard of the problems with the spark plugs, but when I changed mine at 100K I just put a wrench on and turned. Granted I did have to use a ton of elbow grease, but otherwise had no problems. Anybody else change their plugs with no problems?

 

mSall, you could be right. I've used the biggest POS no name station a year ago really frequently. We used to joke that half your tank was pumped full of water. In the past year though I've only ran 76 or Chevron. I have not had good results on Shell with other rides.


Unclebubba,

The plugs on these trucks are a joke. If you do a search, you'll laugh how many threads you can find about broken plugs.

Time to buy a lotto ticket, lol!

 

I got 96,000 on mine and am thinking ill have to tackle this soon. I keep putting it off for obvious reasons, this post gives me hope though!

 

your are worse then mine, and i had 60,000 miles, btw how do you like the volant on your f150?

 

Congrats....

 

I still refuse to do this after my luck in recent weeks I sure as hell won't do it anytime soon!

 

Come on dude! Grow a set of --------!.........

 

What type of plug did you put back in? I am definetly going with the E3's as they are a one piece plug & people are having good luck with them.....

 

Maybe later next year you try tanking nearly 2k into axles, and looking down the barrel of a 2K+ transmission repair. Screw spark plugs at this point! I am glad Chris decided to go ahead and do it before I did, I know we have both talked at length about the dreaded plug change among the other problems with our trucks...

 

darkstar_420

The Volant is ok. If I did it again I would of bought the banks.

risupercrewman

I put the plugs that Whipple gave me back into the truck. I think they are a ford plug but a heat range colder. The truck is getting some boost.


Matt
Good luck, this is hit or miss...

 

Nice. I hope mine come out that easily, though mine have been replaced once before. :o

 

Congrats, those look good; wondering if your "method" was the reason or just your fuel over time.

I had 63K on mine when I changed them and had one break (last hole on driver's side), but pulled it out with the extractor.

It's absolutely insane that this is an issue in this day and age!!