I've read your horror stories about "Blown Plugs" . I think I'm one of the lucky ones with a 01, 5.4, with 48 thousand miles. I've had no problems. Just wondering if I should go ahead and replace them myself. Looks to be quite a job. Any suggestions on plug type, and tips would be greatly appreciated.

 

I would wait till 100,000 mark if I were you and I would use motocraft.....I had the ford garage do mine and its fine had it done at 112,000 miles good luck

 

if it makes you fell better changing them, then do so.
when i changed mine i used autolite, basically the same as motorcraft.

i think the plug problem is a little bit too hyped up. i have blown one but don't know of anyone else except from this site who has.

 

Definitley go with motorcrafts Gap @.054 and they will last along time 100k + ..Personally I don't go past 60k on any set -proformance & milage begin to suffer at this time in my opinion. Although I would put off changing the plugs in this modular motor for as long as I can .. WhataKnuckleBuster!!! & PITA!!! - 167k No blown plugs yet (knock on wood)..

Wait!! AUTOLITES??? I can't believe these worked for you Lee!! I tried the autolites double or triple platinums (can't remeber exactly) - anyway drove about 10 miles and had a misfire and soon after multiple misfires..Went with motorcraft and didn't have anymore problems. I have a 98 5.4L - Maybe the non-PI heads have something to do with that..

 

Thanks for the info. I've always used the Bosh Platinum plugs, but I've heard nothing but good info on the Autolite/Motorcraft plugs. A friend of mine said, If it aint skipin, don't change em. He has the 4.6, with 160 on them......Thanks .

 

Thanks for the info. I've always used the Bosh Platinum plugs, but I've heard nothing but good info on the Autolite/Motorcraft plugs. A friend of mine said, If it aint skipin, don't change em. He has the 4.6, with 160 on them......Thanks .

 

My '01, 5.4 blew a plug at the 65K mark. The dealer was going to charge me $3000 to replace the head. All becasue of an UNDER-ENGINEERED head. Do the research on-line about others who have experienced this and you will be changing your plugs asap. Doesn't matter if MOST people don't have a problem. The fact is MANY people have had the exact same FAILURE. Change the plugs now, make sure they are properly torqued and you will be good for many more thousands of miles.

I had a lot of conversations with the dealer and the service manager, who in turn called the MoCo and they agreed to eat $2,500 of the cost under the
PO7 program. PO7 is insider language for Pissed Off Customer. It is a KNOWN defect that the company will not accept responsibility for and you can read in this forum many stories of people paying anywhere from $1,500 to over $3,000 because of a lousy spark plug that doesn't have enough threads holding it in the head. When heads were iron that was fine...torque those babies down. Now you have steel plugs in an aluminum head and the plug threads just clean the head clean when they blow out.

The one that blew out on mine was #4. That's the passenger side, rear plug.It is such a pain in the *** to change the head that the mechanic removed the cab of the truck to get to it. I have to hand it to this guy..he is one heck of a good wrench. That truck was stripped down to bare bones at 8:00 a.m. and at 3:00 p.m. he had it ready for pick-up. Since the truck had been there for OVER 3 weeks waiting for parts and for it to be scheduled for the mech to get to it I told them to keep it overnight and make sure it was CLEAN when I picked it up.

Bottom line: Take it from someone who has been through the pain-in-the-*** experience of a blown plug. Change them at 50K.

Semper Fi,
Steve....Pensacola

 

P.S. I was a member for along time previously but changed my password recently. I have many, many more than just 1 post.

By the way..the plug problem was fixed in '03. The problem was with the '98 - '02 engines. They re-engineered the block in '03 and went to full threaded plugs so they must have realized they had a problem...but you won't get Ford to own up to it. You can do a search on the internet and you can find other forums talking about it, newspaper articles, and even news footage documenting the problem.

Steve

 

That's nuts!! herd good things about Autolite's and compared them to Motorcraft's and uses Boch platinums ?? In a Ford modular motor?? What forum is he from? Researching this forum I've read just about nothing works but Motorcraft's , Iradium's and NKG's. Boch??? great products , but the plugs don't work very well if at all in the 5.4's and I personaly experianced Autolites- NO WAY!!

 

PO7 is just an internal coding for after warranty assistance. It's the dealer's discretion whether or not to use PO5 or PO7, Ford doesn't really have to get involved.

Back to the issue at hand though, FWIW, I didn't change plugs on my '97 5.4 'till a little over 100K miles. At 122Kish, #3 popped. Apparently I screwed up somehow, since it made it 100K+ trouble free miles on the original plugs, and less than 20K on replacements before one blew out. It's now at 174K something and it's about due for another set.

 

Stick with the Motorcraft plugs or the Denso Iridiums if you feel like paying a bit. My Motorcrafts lasted me 105K until I changed them myself, and put in some Densos.

 

Hi,
Is this plug blowing just on the 5.4 engines?

My 1998 truck has 53k and most likely the original plugs, should I change them soon?

Thanks!

 

It seems to be more prevalent amongst the 5.4/6.8 liters. I've seen a handful of 4.6s in cars that blew out, but for every one of those, I've seen three or four 5.4 liters.

 

From what I've been reading I take it that it will be tough to replace them myself?

The problem is caused by not enough threads on the original plugs?

Are there other issues with the 4.6???

 

4.6s are easier to tune up than 5.4s are, IMO. Take your time, it's nothing that can't be accomplished over an afternoon.