Well I made the serious mistake of washing my Screws 5.4 Saturday. - Big mistake - Water made it's way into the sparkplug holes and it would barely run.

I limped home and after deciding I needed to remove all of the coil packs, dry them off etc.. I further decided to go ahead and change the spark plugs given that they had 98K miles on them and were due.

Needless to say, I finally finished this project after about 5 hours of cursing, busted knuckles etc.. Now it runs great.

But, to the sicko engineers that designed an engine where you have to actually remove the fuel rails to get to the spark plugs (at least on the drivers side) and then planted them about 6 inches into the engine, who replaced a coil and sparkplug wires with a 8 x $100.00 a piece Coil on Plug setup - A curse on your house you sadistic bast*%d.

I hope santa gives you a big bag of coal for christmas.

 

Somebody had a bad day.....

Tony

 

My other vehicle is a LT1 Corvette. Optical distributor mounted under the water pump. Wash the engine or have the water pump go out and they are $600.00 a pop (plus labor). If we could force the design guys to work on them for a little bit, I bet the designs would change!

 

When test driving my truck a few months ago a few days before I bought it, the truck didn't have a lot of pep and was idling a bit rough (02 5.4 with 37K miles). I told the salesman it ran rough and to call me when they got it running better, then I'd make an offer on it. The salesman called me two days later and told me they replaced all the plugs because the detail crew got them wet when detailing the motor. Needless to say I will never wash this motor again. I might wipe off a few things but I'll never fire up a water hose and point it under the hood.

 

I'm telling you washing a 5.4 Ford motor is akin to washing your TV set out with a garden hose. Definetly not designed to be washed. The dinky little rubber plug that extends from the Coil on Plug caps into the Spark Plug holes is not water proof by any means. Any water will fill up the spark plug holes and will short out that cylinder in short order.

It would've probably cost ford an extra dollar a cylinder to make this an actual rubber plug that was totally waterproof.

This motor will never see water again. (from the top anyway)

 

Fuel rail removal is not needed to change plugs or coils.

 

There is absolutely no way you get the back Sparkplug out of the Drivers Side without loosening the fuel rail and pulling it up about 3 inches - I didn't have to take the fuel hoses loose, but I did have to pull the rail off the injectors.

 

Wash mine all the time, 70K miles and no problems. You just need to use common sense when directing your spray. Electronics and floods do not mix but remember your truck can be driven in the rain so Ford has thought about it a little.

 

Hell I agree with rex when water gets into the engine (I don't even know from where) it causes the engine to become practically dead. Something needs to be done!

 

You think doing it on your own guys time is bad, try doing it by Ford Warrantee time....:santa:

You dont need to move the fuel rails to do em either, it just makes it a tad bit easier....