TIP = CLEAR YOUR PLUG PORTS
shop vac, air, what ever it takes. Clean as much as you can before you pull the COPs.

TIP 2 = after you pull the COPs.... get a light and look in the ports the best you can. You won't be able to see in the back 2 without a mirror. So vac and blow all you can and then do some more.

I call myself clearing the area around the COP's before I started. But after pulling the COP's and getting the plug socket ready ...... this is what I found in the first port. No wonder the socket wouldn't grab the plug . It couldn't reach the plug nut.

This is a mixture of glass fragments and dirt. I may be a moron because all of this could not have been below the COP boot before I started. But this is what I found.

A lot of it appeared kinda packed in (so most of it may have been there before pulling the COP). I had to loosen some of it with a long flathead screw driver to vac and blow it out. It took some effort.

The glass (my best guess) is from a shadered windshield on my truck that had never been wrecked. I bought the truck with 20K miles and the dealer indicated that it had never been wrecked. Yes ..... he lied his arss off..

Overall... I can't be to upset. It has been a great truck aside from Ford's plug issue. AT 103,000 I've pretty much pumped gas and changed oil.

Hope this tip helps someone.

 

Nice tip....I only run into the debri packed in the back plug wells every once in a while....its a good thing to check for and clean out though, cause that crap ain't good in the firing chamber....

 

I would suck with a vac, blow with compressed air, then suck again with the vac, before taking off the COP's.

Then the same process again before removing the plugs.

Then again for each plug that broke, after crushing the porcalin, but before extraction.

After extraction I would do it again, for all cylinders.

Tedious, but there was alot of crap that blew out and I want my truck to last.