Having a hell of a time with changing plugs in a 04 5.4 truck. I did mine a few months ago and only broke 2. Changing plugs in a buddy's truck and have broke 6 so far. The 6th one broke the porcelain and the electrode that goes thru the porcelain down to the ground strap. Not sure if I should use the pusher tool to push the porcelain piece down with the metal pin piece in it or not. I know the old kits use to glue a piece to the porcelain and extract that way. Not sure what do now. Any help on this one would be greatly appreciated.
Kev

 

Update - well after some picking at with an awl and couple light taps of a screwdriver to free the center electrode I finally got it out. Damn lisle tool is worn out and I am going to need a new puller screw to finish the last 2 plugs. There is an engineer out there that needs to be kicked in the ***** for that **** poor head/plug design. Enough of my ranting, wish me luck on the next 2.

Kev

 

I have pulled well over 20 broken plugs out using my Lisle tool and its still in good shape. After you push the ceramic down use a shop vac to suck up the broken pieces of ceramic. Those pieces are damaging your extractor threads. Also make sure you turn the extractor in far enough so as many threads as possible catch and yes you must remove the electrode before using the extractor or the threads will not start or catch enough to pull the shield out. good luck.

 

Agreed. The Lisle tool is one bad ****. It saved my butt.

 

Thanks guys. Yes the lisle tool is definitely worth its weight in gold. I was trying to help a buddy out with a plug change. What PITA! I did mine at 60k and only broke 2. His truck has almost 130k on the clock and 7 have broken. Still working on #8. I cracked it last night before I went in for the night and put some b12 carb cleaner down the well to let it soak. The ceramic does tear up the puller screw but I think I can still get the last one out. I have been doing exactly what you stated - vacuuming out the well of any loose pieces then pushing the porcelain down then vacuuming again. That electrode gave me a little scare but was able to pull it out after some screwing around. My advice to anyone doing plugs is not to wait until 100k+ miles, do it at 60k like ford wants you to.

 

Another thing that helps a lot is have a Motorvac or BG job done before the plug change. If you don't want to spend the money, at least run some Techron through the gas and drive it like you stole it.

 

I've got 2 stangs and 3 f150s scheduled for Saturday morning.....and they're all over 110k+..........and I agree that those engineers should be kicked where it counts....

 

If this was my truck I would have had the motorvac service done with that kind of mileage on the truck. I told him to run some techron but I don't think he did it in time. He left the truck with me while he is out of the country. He watched me do my truck and said he would rather pay me then a shop but I just want a case of beer or 2. What goes comes around so hopefully he can help me with a favor in the future.

Good luck this weekend 88, wouldn't wish 5 plug changes on my worst enemy. I agree though run some techron thru them engines. Seems to help when I did mine.

 

I think if I had to do it over again I would get a can of Aero Kroil. The stuff is like PB Blaster on steroids. I had to take my exhaust pipe off the manifold recently. I was reminded of Areo Kroil when I found a can of it at a Nuke plant I was working at. Bought a can on Amazon. I sprayed the studs on the manifold and got the nuts off without heat. The truck had about 110k miles at the time. I also broke loose the clamp on the crossover pipe without breaking it. Again, no heat. I broke 6 of the 8 plugs when I did my change but wonder if things might have been different if I had used this stuff.

 

Ford originally had Kroil in the TSB but later changed it to Carb cleaner. The carb cleaner is better on carbon where the Kroil is a better lubricant. I have always thought both would be good together.