I have a 1997 F150 4.6 that I bought 6 months ago. I was getting some "sputtering" while driving so I ran some fuel cleaner through it and changed the plugs and wires. This seemed to work until the plug boots started popping off the plugs. At first 1 and 3 were doing it, so I crammed them down as hard as possible and for 2 months it ran fine. Now 7 is popping off and even after shoving it down onto the plug it pops off every 3 or 4 miles and the engine now "sputters" constantly during acceleration...any ideas?

 

Get new wires... maybe when you put them back on, you bent the connectors. I did that on a lawn mower once... so I got a new plug wire and it worked perfect.

 

What would cause the boots to pop off though? I'm an aircraft mechanic, so I'm not totally wrench-ignorant...but cars are not my forte.

 

Make sur the plugs are tight maby its blowby. I am also an A&P(I do not run into many online) but these plus are a pain. I discover DC4 is a must. They also only really fight on way only. Atleast my wire set but I did not put new ones on. They may be age formed.

 

make sure they are a good quality wire.some of the cheaper wires have different boots, so when you press down you think its in all the way when its not. found out the hard way on my crown vic.

 

ive got a set of autozone wires less than 8K miles on em if u want em ill sell em for cheap

 

Had the same problem on a 98 4.6. The #4 plug kept popping off. Problem was the plug ceramic was busted/cracked & the compression was blowing the wire off.