A spark plug on my truck lost it's grip and shot up killing a plug-over-coil. Now I can't get a new plug to thread. What do I do. How does Ford deal with this. How can I get this fixed for as little cash as possible. HELP PLEASE!!!!! I'm in Cromwell. Thanx.

 

I hate to be the one to tell you this. The only fix that Ford has for a stripped out plug hole is to change the head.

There was a time when you could Helicoil a plug hole, but not in these engines.

 

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Hell of a place to get stuck, eh? J/K. I would guess that you are dealing with the situation right now, but I would like to know more about what happened. When you get a chance.

I would help you out. It's more than a hop, skip and jump from here to Cromwell though.

Good luck!
Tom

 

Call me, I most likely have a thread repair that will work. and can get a coil pack as soon as one can be had. John 860-620-2503. Or tffperformance@snet.net............I'm 10 miles from Cromwell anytime!!

 

Was just wondering. What if he disconnected the coil and pulled the wire from the injector. Could he still drive it without the plug? Might be enough to get him home? Check Engine Soon light would be glaring, but wouldn't the engine still run?

 

Well....I hate to say it.....and do it. But tomorrow I'll be towing my Hippo with....with....WITH A CHEVY!! *wraps self in sack cloth*. Oh well, gotta do what I gotta do and none of my friends drive Fords.

In response to wittom, it basically sounded like the serpentine belt broke and started slapping away, but I knew different as soon as I smelled gas. It continued to pop away until I got the engine killed and pushed it into the parking lot.

In response to Denis...I thought about doing that, but my buddy who was a mechanic, and knows quite a bit about cars didn't find the idea appealing in the least. So why drive the cost of repair up any higher than it has gone. Tomorrow I'll have the truck home and start tearing the head off to see what exactly the problem is.

Wish me luck.

 

Good Luck! Hope it's not as bad as it sounds.

BTW, read your manual if you're going to do a wheels on road tow. There are some cautions and how to's in there.

 

Thanks for the heads up Dennis....I obtained a trailer....thank goodness. I hope the head is salvagable...I don't need this. Espescially the way the economy and all the layoffs are going....I don't want to be in the red at a time like this. Thanx to all for your help...I'll keep you posted.

 

Good luck on your repairs hope you get it fixed and running soon.

 

Well, it's 3:15am...just got back home from haulin the Hippo home. I'll edit this post in a bit to tell you about a tool I found. See what you think.

I need to know if the heads on the 5.4 are iron or aluminum. If they are iron, I found a tool at Napa that you insert into the plug hole. You then expand the head which is threaded, and reverse tap the plug hole. The tool pulls the filings out as you pull out the tool, only requires a few good threads to work, and has a magnetic tip to catch anything that gets by. The guy at napa said that several people have used it with great sucess. I just need to make sure the head is iron so the magnet can do it's thing. Thanx.

 

88,

I hate to be the barer of bad news but the heads are made of Aluminum. Under warranty Ford replaces the Head. If your warranty is up you might try a helicoil.
http://www.emhart.com/products/helicoil/Default.htm

Regards

Jean Marc Chartier

 

Yeah...that's what I was afraid of. With 130k on the truck, my warranty died 45k ago. Can't ever catch a break. LOL.

 

I have an Aluminum head thread repair you can try. You haven't anything to lose. Let me know. JCA

 

Well...this is where I'm at right now.....


Now this is how you change a spark plug!!!