I'm not sure , but if a good tight fit is required to close the electrical circuit between the plug and individual coil pack, then a loose spark plug might explain the miss-firing condition.

I never thought of that but you're correct. The shell'threads of the plug complete the circuit to 'ground'. Good observation!

Ixtac: If you're close to WR, I'd be glad to help you check out a couple of plugs if you don't have the tools.................email me if you want to.

Dan

 

Mine popped the #4 plug- last one back on the passenger's side.

Truck was down 12 DAYS while the dealer replaced the entire cylinder head.

Sucks.

Happened at 34,800 miles.

 

Thanks Dan, you have mail!

Johnie

 

damn,your truck looks awesome!!!!

 

easterisland,

i blew the #2 plug at 28,000 miles.
truck was is the shop 5 days $2100.00's
worth of damage

 

Are self-removing plugs an "L-Only" feature?

 

Lost my #3 at 17000miles,5days and 1 set of heads later it ran
great!Yes they replaced both heads

 

you would think that ford would realize the problem and go ahead and build new head castings with more threads holding the plugs in? especially on a "flagship" svt vehicle such as the lightning, its been happening since 99, they've had a while to do something.....i just got a 02 and don't want to worry about blowing plugs, maybe its just fords way to get you to buy the extended warranty???

 

Add another to the list....#5 which is the plug i checked two weeks ago to make sure it was burning a nice shade of tan.
Well,it shot out of the head going 5mph just before a stop this morning.
With my ported heads and built motor,i am considering going the heli coil route.
Crap like this makes you want to sell your L

 

Was the ticking sound the spark pluyg or the valve springs? I'm going to go the helicoil route since I'm going to have the engine out again this week...

 

I too would be very interested to know:

1) Miles on Truck
2) Mods
3) Plugs last changed / checked
4) Brand Plugs (Stock, NGK, Denso???)
5) Plug blown under boost (Yes/No)
6) Covered under Warranty (yes/no)

I also have a hard time trying to listen for all of the different sounds over the damn injectors

I, like the rest of you, love my L, but the constant paranoia of identifying sounds, smells and constant visual inspections of gauges is growing old fast.

Would be interesting to see too, how many plugs have blown with zero mods under "Normal" driving conditions.

 

The important question should be....how many of these happened on STOCK trucks?

 

....when the # 3 plug popped out. The only indication we had just before the plug excaped, was a intermittant engine mis-fire. We took this truck to a dealer twice and the Techs were not able to find the mis-fire with the diagnostic station. No codes or nuttin!

Approx. 100 miles after the shop visit....KA Boom, # three was out a there

 

Easter,i will let you know for sure on the springs after i repair the head.
The ticking i had/have was more than a slight ticking and could be heard over the injectors on the drivers side.

Andy, there was around 5k on my rebuilt motor with 8# lower 2#upper and my #5 plug was checked around 350 miles ago as this is the plug i check most often for a plug reading.
The plug was tight then and after i reinstalled it.
There was no boost when this happened as i approaced a stop sign going 5mph and there had been no boost for the previous 5-6 miles as i was driving in a 25mph zone.
The plugs were denso it22's but plug brand and/or mods are not real important when this has happened to stock L's and n/a 5.4 tritons and also 6.8 liter v-10's.
It would be covered under warranty if it were not for my ported heads and built motor ect.
The tech i talked to on the phone today said that he has done quite a few n/a tritons and a couple of v-10's,so this is not just a problem with L's.

 

Hi all,

Add my name to the list of blown plugs/cylinder head.......

Mine is a 1998 F-150 V8 5.4L with 82,000 miles. It is stock (guess you guys don't consider a K&N air filter as a mod, do you?)

Driving down the street at 35 mph when a plug blew (don't know which one, yet, and I didn't think to ask the mechanic), and suddenly my F-150 sounds and runs like a two-stroke lawnmower.

Of course, the aluminum threads of the cylinder head were completely stripped; it'll be in the shop until next Friday (Labor Day weekend and all), and he estimated $1,500 to $2,500 for labor.

When I bought the truck, I had purchased the extended warranty for an additional $1k, but of course it expired 7,000 miles ago.

The non-Ford mechanic said he'd only seen maybe (3) blown plugs in the 10 years he's been running his shop; that statement is what led me on a Yahoo! search to this site. I come here, only to find plenty of other F-150 owners who had the same problem.... Nice, Ford.

After reading other's posts, I now realize that the hiss I heard over the past few weeks and thought was a small exhaust leak was probably a compression leak around the plug.

These are the original factory plugs: I had not replaced them yet, so it can't be blamed on over-tightening, etc. Their torque was the result of FoMoCo torquing during manufacture.

I called the Ford dealer (who were quite accommodating before I laid down $34,000 to buy it) and talked to a mechanic is the Service Dep't: he denied knowing of any problems or a TSB being issued pertaining to the aluminum cylinder head/plugs.

I'm obviously not a mechanic, but is it reasonable for an aluminum cylinder head to have only 4 threads holding the plugs in such a powerful engine? If this problem is as common as it seemingly is, isn't this something that should be subject to complaints to NTSB and/or a recall, especially if Ford offers no reasonable response?

Griping on a bulletin board is OK, but where do you go to lodge a formal complaint in writing with either Ford (initially) or elsewhere?

Chris