I have an 03 and was told it only happened up to 02?
Is this true.
Did Ford change the # of threads to 8 in 03?

 

yes ford changed the heads in November of '02 for the '03 production run as far as L's are concerned.

8 threads in the plug hole instead of 4.



later,
chris

 

so all of 03 have the 8 threads?
How about some 02s?
Are these helicoil or are they machined with the 8 threads?
And what exactly are helicoils and whats the difference between them and time-serts?

 

I assume the plugs are still the same, so did Ford increase the thickness of the block where the plugs are?

 

as far as anybody knows, all '03s have 8 threads. Job 1 date for '03 Lightnings was around the 2nd or 3rd of December 2002.

These heads started being produced on or around November 12th (or 18th?) 2002.

so it's certainly possible that a few early L's got the old heads, but reports from at least 1 early build '03 L owner would indicate that this was not the case.

'02 Lightning production was over long before these heads were being produced.

a heli coil is a metal thread insert that is screwed into a larger size aluminum threaded hole. generally used to repair damaged threads, but also used to strengthen threads in aluminum parts. the ford heads are not heli coiled, they are just cast/machined with more threads.

the plugs are still the same. spark plugs don't screw into the block. they screw into the cylinder head. yes, the machine work and apparently the casting is different in this area on the new heads.

 

for some reason I think the plug is different for 03. I could be wrong though. Anyone know for sure??

 

AGSF-12FM1 or something like that

 

how do I know when my L was built??\
Can I tell from my VIN#?????