Great work! For the rest of us stuck with alcohol laced gas, wonder how much gunk/crud coats the plug shanks in that time(72,000mi)? Think the non ethanol gas you have there in OK contributed to your successful extraction? I run Quiktrip gas here(top tier rated). Hope I get similar experience doing mine. Thanks for the writeup.

 

Two questions.......do you take the ground off the battery(can I plug in my 9v circuit maintainer to save radio settings,etc?)when changing out plugs since you remove/unhook the computer? After taking off the 7mm bolts on the COP's, do the leads just wiggle off the plugs old skool style? Guess thats 3 questions.

 

Lol, excellent stuff. I will be doing this in Tulsa (Broken Arrow, actually) this coming weekend. I have 60K miles on mine and have used almost exclusively QuikTrip gasoline. The times when I didn't use their gasoline were when I ran ethanol-free fuel. I have run a half-tank of gas w/Seafoam, then a half-tank with the Chevron stuff. I'm on my 2nd bottle of the Chevron stuff, too. I figured it couldn't hurt.

 

Job well done and great writeup!

 

To the OP.....

Good Job!

 

Good job and thanks for the highly detailed write up (oh wait, you can't have that yet) Here:



So what did you use the 10" fuel line for... guiding the carb cleaner down?

 

I used the 10" fuel line to guide the arb cleaner down to the holes. You will find it very hard to get the spray bottle down to the back ones. Trust me. Lol!

As for the ethanol gas or not.. I dot really know what difference it would make. I just stated it for the facts and I would think any well know big gas brand with good detergents would do just fine. My reason for using the eth free gas is for mileage and the fact that somebody told me over time it may hurt the seals, etc. If this is true or not I don't know.

I never did unhook the battery. Othe than unplugging the computer I don't think you would have any other issues with the radio etc. You might want to unhook to prevent damage it my cause, but I'm no expert on any of that stuff and I'm only stating my personal opinion. Although I didn't have any problems doing it my way I can't say just unplugging it would do the same for you.

Also yes the cops have a little button you push and they wiggle off then and you just let them hang.

 

One thing that put me off from doing it myself was that it just seems to be very tight in the engine bay on the passenger side. I was thinking to myself that would be a huge pain in the rear to do myself....especially if one broke. I guess it really wasn't as tight as I 'think' it is in there?

I just checked my old receipt. I paid $311 to have mine replaced in 2008 with 70,000 miles on the truck. I think $170 of that was labor.

 

i did the same kind treatment but used seafoam, and seafoam deep creep which i think is the best product on the market for cleaning carbon and still broke 6. the head mechanic for jack kain ford who is a friend of mine here in lexington ,ky told me that they decarbon all of them before they change the plugs and it is still a crapshoot. a small few will not break at all but most will average 3-6 plugs broken. the problem is which most of you know is the plugs were made in two sections and then pressed together.the newer plugs are made with a slightly smaller bottom which is supposed to stop this problem but i am holding on to my tool.the lisle tool i bought is worth every penny .

after figuring it out on the the first plug it really becomes very easy to use.after removal of the plugs i could take my finger and wipe the carbon off the plug base so i knew the treatment had worked.i think part of the problem is the shrinking and swelling of the plug cases causes the two pressed pieces to become loose which only leaves the ceramic to hold to the bottom of the plug and to make matters worse on two of mine after unthreading the plug i had to literally take a large screwdriver and break the plug off because the upper metal casing of the plug was spinning around the ceramic which had not broken. now that was a little scary before i figured out what had happened.i am glad you had such good luck and it sounds like you did everything right but i think you had a lucky day. you should have bought a lottery ticket.

 

So let me ask you guys this. The TSB on the plug issude came out a few years after the new 2004's were introduced, right? I had my plugs replaced at the dealer in 2008. Would they have at that time followed the TSB guidelines and put the anti-seize on the plugs when putting the new ones in? Were the new plugs they used in 2008 the newly designed plugs or would they have put the old design back in my truck? Finally, has anyone heard of plugs breaking again a few years later if someone decided to have their plugs changed a second time?

Thanks

 

my friend who i stated before is a mechanic for jack kain ford tells me that they make them differently but i am holding on to my lisle tool just in case .making the base smaller should change the problem if it is true . car maufacturers are notorious for not changing bad ideas especially gm .as far as putting something on the plugs who would know . that is why i try to do my own work.

 

They have not changed the two peice design. It is to my understanding that the "new" design is merely a heat range change or something of the sort. If you were to apply nickel antiseize to the bottom part I wouldn't forsee any future problems.

 

I know the heat range changed, but I was under the impression that the later version had a slightly smaller diameter insulator to put more space in between the cylinder head and the insulator to prevent carbon from locking between them. Either way, the nickel anti-seize should solve the problem. I'll compare the old plugs to the 515's I have on Saturday when I do the plug change.

 

Does anyone know how to get this posted to the technical articles? Or maybe just combine this and the other one in there for spark plugs? I feel that my method is a little better since it doesn't require 2-3 days...

 

The new plugs have a smaller sleeve and a hotter heat range. The 2 pieces are also crimped together a lot tighter.