Ford's new spark plug design

Thank you very much, Mr. Engineer for this unique design!

This however does not meet simple serviceable standards, so Mr. Engineer the service industry will no longer be needing your service. You have designed your last thing that makes absolutely no sense.

Some of you may already know... some may not.

Ford has a new design plug for the 5.4L 3 valve. Oops - It's not THAT new - been out a couple of years - but what’s new is now these spark plugs are making their way into our repair facilities for replacement.

Happened to talk to an old friend Bob, that had a 2004 F150 come into his shop with 108k miles with a faulty ignition coil. Bob, always trying to perform a complete repair, thought he would just pull the plugs out, to take a look. Bob wasn’t really fond of the fact that this spark plug uses a 9/16” socket, and costs $17.00 each. But What REALLY worried Bob the most was the rust on them. This truck is only a year old, with 108ks indicating this truck was used and not just sitting in the driveway. Yet there was enough rust build up on the sides of these plugs to "squeak and creak" the entire way out, had to loosen, tighten, loosen, tighten, loosen each one to get them out. Then # 8 plug was the worst. We thought it was going to snap, that's how much rust had build up on these plugs.

That made Bob think.

1. What happens to most vehicles that would take up to 5 years to run mileage up 100k?
2. How about the clients that wait till the mileage is at 150k or so before replacement?

I’m speculating that there will be plenty of these spark plugs snapping the extra reach off, down into the
cylinders when trying to remove the plugs.

The upside is that if the PCM is removed it opens up the right side of the engine for better access.

To Make Maters Worse

I counted 9 or 10 threads on the spark plug head. I guess they wanted to make double insurance that the plug wouldn’t blow out, but the real question is “how many of the spark plug threads are in the cylinder head”
I have noticed that the older spark plugs use approximately 4 threads in the head and the replacement plugs have about 8 -9 threads, but the extra threads on the new plugs pass through the cylinder head leaving the thread exposed to the combustion chamber.

I've already talked to another repair facility that services a fleet of 3-valve 5.4s and also services a lot of off road units. They had three trucks break off spark plugs, on three separate occasions.
They are now pulling the cylinder heads, trying to remove the plug if the plug snaps. The taper and ‘bullet’ can now be removed from the head using a large hammer and Punch. Be careful with this.

They are now advising all their clients to replace the spark plugs every 30k. This saves removal of the cylinder heads. Lots of fun, boys. Lots of fun!

 

I would say pull plugs and add anti-seize compound to the threads immediately!!

 

Loosen the plugs 1/8 to 1/4 turn on a semi warm engine, spray your favorite penetrating oil into the well (Ford recommends Kroil), not too much, just enough to cover the hex of the plug. Wait ten minutes and spin 'em out.

 

Haha, you had better believe we tried that! It got to the point where Nothing could be done -The bullet had fused to the head, there was no feasable way to even crack the threads. It's not just myself, I was bringing to light an 'epidemic' of sorts. There is a TSB on this I believe, I will look it up as soon as I get some time. Any other thoughts?

 

How can you snap it if you can't even "crack" the threads? At least they don't blow out.

 

You're a day late and a dollar short, there's a huge thread somewhere in the '04+ forum about this.

 

Nothing to see here, folks.

Keep moving.....

Move along, move along.....

 

I removed mine and anti-seized them just for that reason. With 30K miles on my 2005, they were a little tight and rusty. I had two of them that I heard "snap" free. Put them back in with a gob of anti-seize and I should be set for a while.

 

Again, old news.... It's been an ongoing problem. They're finding that it's not a thread issue, but it has to do with the bore that the snout of the spark plug passes through in the head. The tolerance for the runout of the plug tip is greater than the bore that it sits in, and it's a tight fit to begin with. The main problem is a carbon build-up in the combustion chamber around the spark plug which locks the tip of the plug in place. Come tiem to remove it, it takes an act of God to get them out without breaking the plug. It's a whole combination of problems that adds up to a royal pain in the **** come replacement time.

I'll be sitting this generation of modular motors out, thank you very much.

-Joe

 

I guess Ford will have to redesign the head so a NORMAL plug can be used. Then they will have to design an extension long enough to reach the plug now that it will be so far down the hole. Echo, echo, echo.......


JMC

 

Call me crazy......but wouldn't it be easier to make the end of the spark plug a little smaller in diameter?

 

I suggested the same thing, but the carbon will still accumulate around it, plus, then you start running into heat dissipation issues. Supposedly that was the smallest diameter they could go and not melt the end of the plug off.

-Joe

 

What would happen if say it's tune up time, you take your truck to the dealer out of warranty, and they break off a plug or two while trying to get them out?? Would that be the shops problem or yours??

 

That depends on your dealer. Some might say you're SOL, pay up, some might take care of it. I've been told by higher powers that if we (the dealer) were to run into broken spark plugs during replacement at higher miles, after warranty assistance was okayed for the repair (i.e., the dealer and Ford would pick up all or some of the repair bill). Beyond that, I dunno what Uncle Henry's gonna do. Rumor has it Rotunda's developed a tool to remove the broken inserts without having to remove the head, but I haven't seen this tool myself yet.

 

Hey Quintin have you had any trouble getting these plugs out, do you think it is necessary to start pulling plugs at 30K and use anti seize?? On my 04 I sure can't see any rust on the engine anywhere of course I am not off roading either. Also was wondering if you have seen any problems with the 5W20 oil in long term high mileage vehicles???Thanx