Well, I recently had the opportunity to change the plugs in my 4.7 Dodge and help my buddy change the plugs in his wifes 5.4 Expedition. I also changed the oil in Mom's 2.2 Malibu and the wifes 1.7 Civic... Ugh...

Well, the Dodge plugs looked a little difficult, but I thought I'd just take it slow, and see how it went... Piece of cake. I had plenty of room to get a wrench on every coil retaining nut (not bolt!), and every plug. Took me roughly 45 minutes in the cold to change the plugs...

Okay, then comes the Expedition. What the hell was Ford thinking??? "Bring it to us, we'll take the body and fuel rail off, and charge you out the ***"??? It took both of us nearly 4 hours, and we broke the mount on one of the coils. The hardest part was probably getting those stupid bolts back into the holes in the intake for each coil... AHHH! We finally got it, but hope to never do that again. We epoxied the broken coil, and moved it up front where he can keep an eye on it, and replace it if need be...

So, on to oil... The wife's car has the oil filter up high on the back of the engine. A good place to get oil on you, but otherwise, no big deal... Mom's car however, was a breeze. Didn't have to jack the car up, and the filter is just a filter, no canister. I just pulled the pan bolt, opened up the lid on the filter housing (top front of engine), and it all just drained right out. Then pull the lid, pop off the filter, install the new one, and screw the lid back on... I really wish other engine designers would take a look at this...

okay, that's all...

 

I broke one of the bolts on the coils too. Absolutely MORONIC thinking on Fords part. The only reason I can see them justifying it is that their dealerships will make more on labor.
FYI, the bolt I broke off was the third one back on the passenger side, too far back to drill out and re-tap without removing teh entire engine. I tried epoxying it, but the coil is still a bit loose in there. NOt much I can do though, its been that way for a goo d80,000 miles... had to replace the boot about a year or two ago, hope to do it again if necessary to keep from pulling the engine until it really needs it.

 

I'm going to do plugs and plug to coils on the dollar fifty soon. So should I start spraying all the bolts with PB blaster now? Would that help keep from busting a nut/bolt when I do, do it.

 

5.4s are easy after you've done a few. I can usually get 'em done in about an hour just screwing around, maybe half an hour if I moved like I had a purpose. A long (I use a 12" and 24") 1/4 drive, locking extension and a 7mm swivel magnetic socket makes the coil bolts a lot easier. I don't remove the fuel rail either.

You haven't lived until you've done a V10 Econoline.

 

PSS, the issue (at least for me) wasn't with teh bolt not coming out, it was that I overtightened. Damn things squeak going in and out so you dont really know when its all the way out.
Don't forget I wrote this:
http://www.rmftc.com/howtos/sparkplugs/sparkplugs.html

 

The biggest problem for me was trying to get the bolt placed back in the hole after reinserting the coil. That and no socket/swivel combo was short enough to fit under the fuel rail on coil #3. I think that's how I ended up breaking the coil, because I had to kind angle the socket. I probably didn't get it very tight either, because I just couldn't...

Qunitin's "7mm swivel magnetic socket" would probably have saved me a LOT of time...