Good writup. Just a note on our experience today. My son and I just performed this job this evening. Tried it two weeks ago following the Ford TSB to the letter but broke the second plug we tried to remove. I reinstalled the threaded 13mm collar as the ceramic didn't break. He drove the truck until my Lisle 65600 arrived in the mail and tonight was the night to do the job. The first thing we did was try pulling the unbroken ceramic from the hole of the broken plug using long nosed pliers. The ceramic broke off which was fine as now the Lisle was installed per directions and it worked extremely well removing the lower electrode housing from the hole. We noticed that the carbon was very thick, hard and grainy explaining why the plug would not come out and eventually broke. What we did was loosen all 6 remaining plugs one quarter turn. I put about one teaspoon of Gumout carb cleaner in each plug hole. We then went in and ate dinner which took about 1/2 hour. At that point I then put about one teaspoon PB Blaster in each hole as well and we waited 15 minutes to start removal. All of the remaining plugs came out with no problems. We noted that the heavy black carbon on all the plugs was basicly liquidfied on the lower end of all the plugs. Just thought that I would mention that the use of both Gumout and PB Blaster really softened the carbon fast and effectively. His truck is a 2006 with 78,000 miles and original plugs. Just our experience. Take care.

 

PB Blaster is some great stuff BTW for those of you who have not used it. Its helped me with MANY mechanical "Sticky Situations" when working on my sleds (snowmobiles), including spark plugs that didn't want to easy out of my RX-1.

 

This was my first time using PB Blaster, and it's not bad at all. I really did not use a whole lot of the stuff when I did the plug change, in fact I think the can still feels just about full. But now I have a full can of the stuff to use for other things around the house or on the vehicles. There are alot of posts on the forums that talk about PB Blaster, and for the most part the opinions seem to be positive. I still have not used the Kroil yet. I would someday like to be able to use it in some sort of a comparison battle against PB and see really what the scoop is.

 

Thanks for taking the time to post this. I'm at 89K on my 04, and I've been dreading this operation. It's good to see others having success on their own as I do not trust anybody else where I live to do this for me. I think the $200 is well worth the money.

I've actually considered trading in my truck on a new one just to avoid the plug change, but I think the 04-05 F150s are the best looking trucks ever made. The rectangular fogs and XLT grills are the bomb for me.

I will check out the recommended vids on youtube, but I really do appreciate those of you who are documenting these plug change-outs and sharing the experience with us.

 

engine light is on, and my cats are turning red and almost melting running lean in both banks 1 band 2. I have changed plugs and wires and coil pack, coil pack was an after market and I have been told they won't work very good on a ford.
It also was misfiring on 3 cylinders.

Please help motor is shacking! bad

 

My '08 only has 18,000 miles. At about 10,000 miles, I was going to take an afternoon and remove the plugs one-by-one and apply the requisite anti-sieze compound to the plugs and dielectric grease to the boots, but the maze of wires and hoses deterred me. I did this to my wife's '07 4.6L V8 Explorer at about 15,000 miles, but hers was easy. I just bought a True Flow intake to install on my truck, so maybe now's the time to "sack" up and finally try and prevent broken plugs later.

 

Hey Guys, just in case you aren't that savvy to tackle this kind of job, remember that if you look in your owners manual you,ll find that the dealers are required to replace any emission parts on your truck, including the spark plugs for 8 years or 80,000 miles. This is a federal emissions mandate, that I discovered from another f150 online friend when I started having a missing problem with my 05. Granted, the tech working on my truck had to argue the point with FORD for about 45 minutes on the phone but they finally agreed to replace the 3 bad plugs at no cost to me or the dealer! My process to a total of 6 visits to the dealer until I read that section in my owners manual, so save yourself a lot of money and heartache, get your truck into the dealer before the federal emissions warranty runs out. I found the best way to verify which of the cylinders that were having a problem was having the tech do a ride along with their computer hooked up while I drove the truck to reproduce the problem. I found the best way of showing this problem to the tech was to find a straightaway an open it up full throttle. It recorded any cylinder performing below the baseline and also showed the adjacent cylinders timing was retarded by the trucks computer attempting to balance out the flow.
P.S The tech tried to tell me the cylinders that were showing at or below 50% performance on the computer aciliscope was an acceptable perimeter but I told him I don't think so, so they replaced them too.

 

I'm coming up on 100,000 miles too. You said it was about 220 for you, does anyone know about how much it is to have it done?

 

There is a wide variance in price. You just have to check with dealers and see what they charge. Also ask about their success rate. It is a job that I would not go to my trusted, local mechanic to have done.

Here is a thread on pricing.
https://www.f150online.com/forums/v8...?highlight=pay

 

This has totally deflated my ego re: tomorrow's plug replacement on my '07. Since when do plugs snap in half three out of eight times? I live in the outback, and the nearest tool supply is over 20 miles away. Am I guaranteed of breaking some of these off? If so, I'm stranded.

 

I do not think that you are guarenteed of breaking plugs, but I would count on it. Prepare yourself properly with the right tools and you should not have a problem. I tackled this job about a month ago and was very nervous, but once I got going on the job and I did break 4 out of eight, I just followed the directions that I got from this site and the directions that I got from the extractor tool manufacturer. If you prepare yourself for the worst and have all the tools needed to be successful then how can you go wrong. Study this site if you haven't already, ask questions, and make sure that you have all your tools in hand before you even think about starting. Remember this, people that succeed 99% of the time will have a fully thought out plan of attack and stick to it, those that don't succeed, typically just do what feels good with no plan, or what we call, flying by the seat of your pants.

 

Just change plugs on my 05 F150 FX4 with 96000 miles on it. Have my truck sitting overnight with all coils removed and each spark plug hole soaking with PB Blaster after turning them out 1/8 turn and still 5 out of 8 separated. All carbon buildup look dissolved in liquid as i removed plugs but still separated. 3 out of those 5 came all out without breaking ceramic but metal piece remain inside cylinder head. Other 2 ceramic broke at the tip. Used tool from Matco Tools and removal of broken pieces was not a problem. Parts wise, got plugs from local dealer at $15.06 a piece (PZT-1F) and fuel filter (F89Z-9155-A) at 13.42 making my bill $133.90 and another $95 for Matco tool making my grand total at $228.90 and about 5HR of labor.

 

My parts, Plugs and fuel filter. $133.90

MATCO Tool I used to do this job. $95.00

 

Quick question. I was told the plugs changed in the 07-08 Models. Is this true?

 

With the early 08s. The way to tell is if the coils are brown instead of black. If brown, you have the new, one piece plug design.