This weekend I am going to attempt to change the plugs on a 2010 with a 5.4 in it. It has 143,000 miles on it. Also, I want to change the coolant and fan belt, neither which have ever been changed.
Are there any pitfalls I need to know about with these procedures? I noticed that the spark plug holes are full of dirt from the years of crud flying up there. How do you all get them cleaned out prior to removing the plugs. Is there anything else I should be replacing?

I used to own this truck and I sold it to a friend, and now I get to work on it.
Thank you for any and all advice.

Take Care,

 

blow the dirt out with a compressor before pulling the plugs. Other than that it is straight forward. 14mm spark plug socket, new plugs and boots should be perfect.

Plugs

Boots

Ford gold coolant or zerex G-05

A gates belt or goodyear gatorback and you're all set.

 

Thanks for the info. We didn't get the boots. Probably should have.

 

Dont the 2010's have efans? Unless your just referring to the belt in general.

 

"Fan belt" is the old school term - it's now a "drive belt" whether the fan is engine-driven or not.

 

Sorry, I'm old school.
Well we got it done this weekend. Runs good, and everything went pretty well.
The amazing thing was that 6 of the plugs looked just like the new ones, but with a little more gap. The back plugs were eroded badly. That's with 143K on it. The "drive" belt was easy, and didn't have a crack in it. The coolant change and new t-stat weren't to bad when we figured out how to get the bottom elbow off the lower hose. The coolant was still oily but was starting to get slimey and thick. The catch tank was nasty. We put a little of gravel in there and shook it really hard and rinsed it out several times and looked almost new.
Ready for another 100K
Thanks for the help.

 

Sounds like someone changed the plugs before but blew off the 2 back ones because they were too hard to get at.

 

No, those were all original plugs. I got the truck brand new and drove it 106,000 miles and sold it to a friend of mine and he has had it since. It had never had any engine work done to it. The first 100K was all long distance driving across NE,MO,KS,OK. I drove hours and never touched the brake pedal. It was empty and I seldom ever pulled anything. So they were as easy as you could expect. Just changed the original brake pads on the front at 141K. Still haven't changed the rears.