My buddy took his truck into ford to have his spark plugs changed yesterday. Well by the end of the day the results weren't very good. He told me after leaving the dealer he had to run a few errands. His truck is stock all the way down to the paper filter. Well on his way home he heard a loud bang and the truck ran like crap. After telling me that, I was hoping it wasn't the unexpected . He couldn't tell me which one went because he had no idea what he was looking for. He's having it towed back to the dealer this morning to find out what happened..I told him I hope it wasn't the notorious launching plug issue. If it is, it seems like the dealer would gaurantee the work being new plugs were installed the same day it happened. He doesn't have a warranty being he has 40something K miles on the truck. I'm curious to see what ford would do about this if he does need a new head..
He is very ticked b/c other than his bike and wife's car, thats his only transportation for the winter.. Any of you guys have an idea on how the dealer may go about handling this situation?

 

The repair would(should) be completely covered by the dealer.

Please see if he can find out what caused it to blow just after being installed. My theory is(and has always been) that some (most?) of the blown plugs blow because they are tightened too much--over-torqued, not under-torqued. But this is the first one I've heard that blew out that soon after being installed.

Dan

 

sounds to me like the dealer will have to accept responsibility for poor workmanship. But being out of warrantee they may try to get away with a rebuilt head, either as a complete rebuild or just the casting, and re assemble it at the shop. Im getting mine replaced new under warrantee but Ford refuses to use the newly designed head with more threads. Good luck to your friend . Hope all turns out OK

 

Any more details you can provide such as what year the truck was, which motor and what dealer did the work? This sounds like it should be the responsibility of the dealer instead of Ford. As for opinions on how the dealer will handle it is almost impossible to speculate unless somebody has some experience with that particular dealer. Dealers are all different and how they handle complaints are different from one dealer to the next. Good luck to your friend and hopefully he will come out of this ok.

 

If the dealer has to pay for it I'll bet they helicoil it. Cost =$10. New head and labor and gaskets=$1K+. Good Luck.

 

He has an 01 lightning w/out any mods. I don't really want to give out the name of the dealership b/c I get excellent customer service from them and very reputable for good work. Like mentioned earlier, this could have stemmed from poor workmanship. I kinda felt a little bad because I suggested that he took his truck there. When I take my truck in I only let one guy go near it whose an SVT tech and really good. I'll find out if he heard any signs before it went and all the other details and keep you guys posted..

 

Thats a sure bet! I would be standing right next to them the whole time, and after hes done ask him how he's going to get the shavings out

 

Funny, I was just talking to my service manager this morning
about that same topic. They have had about a dozen "launchers"
including all 5.4 L engines, and they had one exactly like your
friend's happen. He told me they had to spring for the head.
So it does happen. No dealer intentionally wants to pi$$ off
a customer, IMHO, so repairing it wouldn't be the same as
replacing the head.

Good luck ...

 

Gator: I know you know this but some others might not.

The tap they will use will have a longitudinal groove running from the tip of the tap up through all the cutting threads. The mech will apply some grease into the groove which will 'catch' and hold onto the shavings. Granted, a few shavings might not be 'caught' by the grease but I don't think a few soft, aluminum shavings would hurt anything in the combustion chamber.

Heck I've a had a hard piece of carbon break loose in my Z281LE a few years back and all the mech did was rev the eng. a few times and you could hear the carbon piece banging its way out through the exhaust. It had gotten caught between a valve face and its seat and made the eng. sound like it had broken something in the valve train but all it was was a little piece carbon. Cost me $200 to carry it back from the track on a roll-back wrecker but nothing to 'fix' it.

Dan

 

How reliable is a helicoil or repair to a head compared to stock? Is the chance of a spark plug coming out again less likely?

 

I hope mine don't come out...

 

Why would they not use the new heads with more threads???

 

Many times the car manufacturers only produce certain parts for production that are solely used for complete engines when they are first built. As they begin to produce more heads, then you will probably see them available at the car dealers parts counters. There could also be a compatibility issue. If they have changed other aspects of the head, then they may not be able to change out just one side.

 

ok... gotcha...

 

I SERIOUSLY doubt that the dealer would try to helicoil it. if they do, just let me know and I'll send you a copy of the Service manual where FORD MOTOR COMPANY says that this is NOT AN ACCEPTABLE REPAIR.

also, new head, labor and gaskets is more like $2K+ I think the head alone lists for nearly $1200 depending on the dealer. in any event, they should replace the head for you.

as far as them using a reman head or bare core, I don't think these are even available.

and about them "refusing" to use an updated head with the new threads, if I'm correct, they can't refuse to do this. because weather they know it or not, the part numbers have not changed. they won't know how many threads the head has until the open the box. they'll just order a head and you get whatever comes in the box.

good luck.

later,
chris