Im gonna change the plugs and wire, which would be the best plugs and wires to go with. Truck has 110,000miles

 

Your truck has COP, no plug wires.

 

and if you have the 5.4 be careful changing the plugs..they break off in the heads..and the COP's will be HIGH if you decide to change them

im still running the factory ones with 151k

 

oh thanks, so what would be the best plugs to go with?

 

MOTORCRAFT!!!!!!!

do you have a 5.4?

 

yeah its the 5.4

 

That depends, since he is driving an 04 it could be a heritage model in which case he will have the other problem of making sure he doesn't over tighten the plugs and strip the heads out.

 

Its the 04 New body style fx4

 

i think those heads were fixed in 03..

unless you are VERY confident and have read over the plug change procedure i would take it to the ford place to have the plugs changed

 

Wouldnt that be the worst choice since thats whats in there from the factory and theyre the ones that break off?

I also need new plugs but I plan to stay away from Motorcrafts.

 

The plugs you can buy have been fixed, I can't remember which model years started getting the new plugs but I think it was like 08. The new plugs are not supposed to break in the head.

 

Birddog, you are misinformed. The 2v heads are short threaded, so you have to torque the plugs to 28 ft/lb to prevent blowout, you aren't going to strip them. On the 3v's, the heads were redesigned in 08 and they take a completely different style plug that will not fit the previous heads.

The stock replacement Motorcrafts for the 04 shouldn't stick and break if they are replaced as per the TSB - nickel antiseize on the ground sleeves - and are changed every 60k. It's just the factory plugs that are a bear to get out.

Champion and Brisk make 1 piece plugs for the original 3v's, but they both have their downsides too. The Brisks are non-platinum cold racing plugs and only last about 20k, and the Champions are having some reports of premature fouling.

 

At least somebody got it right lol.

 

Is that not pretty much what I had said? I said if he has the heritage(2v old body style) model he has to watch out for over tightening, my old 97 had the plugs changed by a local shop and had 1 plug overtightened and it striped the head, they then bought me a new one. Also I said that the replacement motorcraft plugs had been changed I believe it was 08 but that may not be the case, and that they are not supposed to stick anymore. I didn't realize the heads had been changed in 08 but because neither he nor I have an 08+ it really doesn't matter to us. Either way there really isn't a "best" plug out there for these trucks.

 

They must have seriously overtorqued it. The factory torque spec is 15 ft/lb, and the guys at blownoutsparkplug.com are the ones that recommend 28 ft/lb. They also say that they have personally tested them up to 100 ft/lb without damaging the threads. I don't see how you could apply 100 ft/lb with standard 3/8 drive wrenches - they must have been using an air tool. The other possibility is the threads were already weak from a previous partial blowout.