I ended up bringing it to the dealer sunday afternoon. . . I talked to them yesterday around 5 and they had gotten 1 out - not sure how long they were working on it. Hopefully, if they follow your approach, it will be finished today sometime. . .

 

all 3 are out and it took them 6 hours ... not too bad I guess.... better than paying for them to pull the heads.

 

Sorry for your nightmare, but glad it is better than it might have been.

 

Hey everyone this is my first post but I'm far from a newbie to the F150 scene. I am new however to the spark plug issue as I broke 2 off myself last week and have been riding my bike ever since. So let me get this straight, you're saying that the porcelain actually slides down inside the sleeve or you have to bust enough porcelain out to tap the sleeve?

FYI, I will never own another piece of junk like this that requires such special attention. My truck has done me exceptionally well for 5 years now but I'm drawing the line here....

 

Hate to ask you this, R1, but did you do your homework before trying to change the plugs? Thare's a TON of threads here on this issue, and there's a TSB with specific procedures to remove the plugs.

I personally would never own a Ford with a 3v engine that has the plug sticking issue, but I won't go so far as to call it a piece of junk. It's a bit sad that it took them almost 5 years to redesign the head to accept standard one piece plugs that don't have a long ground sleeve but this issue HAS been taken care of.

 

No dude I'll be honest, I didn't do my homework, I didn't even know about this website lol. How many times do you really read up on something like this before you try to tackle it? I am a very mechanically inclined guy but for some reason I or no one that I know has ever even heard of the plugs breaking in the heads like these do. My dad has been a mechanic for nearly 50 years and it blew his mind when I showed him what had happened. I then got on the net and searched for some reputable information and this is the best website I could come up with. He took what was left of the plug to our local dealership and you could've heard a pin drop. It was like they were hiding some kind of problem they had known about for a while, kinda like having skeletons in the closet. I am pretty upset that Ford wouldn't send out information to the owners of these trucks informing them of the issues, if they did I never got anything. I've owned my F150 since Oct 18, 2003 and had I known anything about this I would have pulled the plugs every 20k miles. I now have a broken down daily driver with 92k miles and let me tell you it's getting cold riding to work every morning.

Sorry for venting guys. You just have to understand the frustration I'm dealing with. I was going to do some routine maintenance to my truck and now it's turned into moving a mountain instead of a mole hill. I'm just looking for answers lol...

 

hey rider, after the plug broke off at the base of the threads it just leaves the sleeve in the head and the porcelain inside the sleeve. The steel sleeve will not slide into the cylinder because of a lip on the top. The steel sleeve and the porcelain most often brake off flush to each other. I would chip away what I could (you need at least 3/8" clear so you can tap threads). sometimes I could chip away that much but sometimes it was easier to tap the porcelain down in the sleeve. Like I said earlier you will feel the porcelain move about 1/8" then get trapped on the tip, tapping some more will brake the tip and allow the porcelain to move some more, the broken tip (sometimes called the bridge) will actually hold onto the porcelain pretty good. after I got the plugs out it took a pretty good pull with needle nose to get the porcelain out of the steel sleeve. As you work at it just feel along the edge of the sleeve with your punch and you will be able to tell when you are at 3/8". 4 threads is all I needed to tap in the sleeve to get it pulled out.

 

Thanks, I guess I'll give it another try. I tried the easiest 2 that I could get to which is the front plug on both sides so I'm thinking once I get these 2 out I'm just gonna leave it alone. As I stated I was just trying to do some maintenance that was not "needed" but rather precautionary. I guess this goes back to the old statement "if it ain't broke don't try to fix it"....

 

By the way sorry to hijack the thread, just figured my questions would fit pretty good here...

 

Drive it down to the dealer on 6 cylinders and let them finish the job. Just unplug the injectors for the 2 dead cylinders. It's gonna cost you but they have the tools and technique to do it. If they tell you they need to pull the heads, they are full of it.

 

It's funny(though in a twisted way) to see people chime in here saying it's the first they've heard of the plug issue on the 3v 5.4. I've known about it since early 2005 and I've been reading time and time again where others are breaking plugs off trying to do it themselves, even at early mileage. I've come to the decision that I'm waiting until right at 100k(not over) and have the DEALER change them. Two good reasons: 1) Ford screwed it up so their ASE Ford mechanics can change them 2) By that time, the DEALER will have had ample opportunity to deal with many a 3v engines.
I plan to deal with this change one time and one time only. After the 100k, it will go until 200k before seeking to deal with it again.
It may not be the best thing to do in many people's eyes, but I don't see asking for trouble before it's time.....
Besides, the local media and Lord knows who else is going to be hearing from me if they screw up my truck and expect me to pay, esp being a maintanance item and isn't recommended by Ford to be changed until 100k.
To each his own I guess.

 

I whole-heartedly agree with you until it's time to pay the bill because even though THEY may break the plugs YOU will be the one stuck paying the extra labor charges for them to remove what is left of the plugs that THEY broke.

 

We've got the tool kit coming tomorrow and we're gonna try it rather than pay the going labor rate of $65/hr (i think) at the stealership.

 

Before you try to pull the other 6 plugs, do your homework this time! I'd be soaking the crap out of them with the solvent right now.

Good luck. Make sure you know exactly what to do with the tools you are getting.

 

labor rate at the dealer in town was $88 / hr. * 6 hrs = $528 *.06 = 31.86 $528+31.68= $559.68

I was a lot happier with that then $1800 to pull the heads.