A thousand years of painful hemorroids for the a-holes who designed the sparkplug placement on the 4.6...2.5 hours yesterday literally head first in the engine bay, with every extension and swivel in my tool chest...skinned knuckles and back spasms...I had to zip tie the heater core hoses out of the way just to SEE the rear passenger plug...thank God my sockets stay tight on the extensions.

I'll sell it before I do that again. 60K miles, and the plugs must have been original (2nd owner), they were corroded on the outside and dirty as hell at the tip.

Truck idles smoother now with the new G-Power plugs, and would seem to have more power.

Moose

 

Can you imagine being a new graduate and the shop making you only do spark plug changes? he he

 

Just drop your pants next time you change plugs and you'll be mooning those Ford engineers.

 

HA! HA! HA! This is a GREAT message thread! Since I changed my plugs a few months ago, I know exactly what you went through. I love my truck, but the Engineers at Ford would not want to hear what I called them during the plug change.

 

It always amazes me how the items that need to be serviced always get engineered to be next to impossible to access.

 

The plug change on the 4.6 really isn't that bad of a job as long as you follow the science behind it. I don't even use a swivel, I have a long extension, a short extension, two plug sockets and a ratchet. One plug socket has the rubber boot inside of it, so when I take the plugs out, they stay in the socket until I pull them out. The new plugs fit good inside the socket without a rubber boot, and if I try to put them in with the rubber boot socket, the socket sticks on the plug and won't come out of the plug well. What you have to do is put the socket with an extension on it down into the plug well hole, turn it by hand until it is on the plug, then snap the socket on, then loosen the plug, then take the ratchet back off, and pull the old plug up by the extension, and just disassemble the extensions/socket until you can fit it out, then reassemble it right over the next plug hole. It takes about 45 minutes to change all 8, but you just have to be patient and keep taking your racthet/extension/socket apart and putting it back together so you can get everything down in there where you need it. It is crazy to make everything you have to work on so hard to get to, I agree.

 

Plug changing is a real bitch on many cars and trucks. Thank heaven for 100,000 mile platinum plugs.

Anyone remember the late '70's Chevy Monza compact car? Similar car also badged as Olds and Buick compacts. Most had 4 bangers or small 6's. But on the 305 V-8 version, to get to one of the the back plugs, you reportedly had to loosen the motor mounts and move the engine!

 

YOU really haven't lived until you change plugs on a
thunderbird supercoupe
on couple of the rear plugs it's from the bottom with
a trusty open end wrench
mitch

 

I had to change the sparkplug on my lawnmower.

Do you have any idea how many extensions it took to do that from the recliner in my den?

I had to borrow from everybody in the neighborhood.

 

I had a Chevy Monza with the 305 V8. Goodyear had a special going on; V8 only $49.95 - any vehicle. IT literally took the guy over 4 hours to replace all 8 plugs! Since then I got rid of the Monza and they changed their pricing structure - ha, ha!

My 2001 Supercrew 4x4 with 5.4L with Kenne Bell supercharger takes about 1 hour to replace plugs. I have to remove the bolts holding the fuel rail over the injectors before replacing on the driver side. I've gone from 2 hours to 1 after several tries.

 

I changed all 8 of mine on my 1998 F-150 within 15 minutes.. while the engine was still hot! This coming from someone who is completely inexperienced in mechanics!

How? I just bought the extensions reccomended by the experts on this site.

 

I can tell you from first hand experience with the design aspects of engines Vs. Body. Thats not the way it was engineered.

Currently the body is designed first and then the engine has to compromise to fit under the hood, only under extreme situations will body give up room to the engine...which obviously wasn't the case in this situation.

 

Pickup Man. That's exactly what I had to do on our BMW too. The plug change from Hell. First I had to take apart all of the cosmetic engine cladding. Then I had to take the coil off of the top of each sparkplug hole. The plugs were about 10 to 12 inches down inside the head. (Hemi head and DOHC). I wound up using exactly the same procedure you describe. It takes 2 sparkplug sockets; one with the rubber and one without.

 

This is one of those things I think it's worth the $240 for the dealer to do!

 

Expy. There is sense in what you say. But isn't it kind of galling when you can't even change sparkplugs without getting exasperated?