hey guys never posted here before. my 98 truck with a 4.6 blew the number 1 spark plug in october 2004 i had bought it used in 2002 with 37K miles on it got 3year/36000 mile warranty well when it blew it had gone 36250 a measly 250 miles over. had the original plugs in it they had never been changed.ford says not until 100K you know. the sick part is i had bought a set of plugs and was waiting on a set of 9mm race wires to come in. well being the number 1 cylinder the truck wouldn't run i left it at a ford dealership for 2and 1/2 months before getting my cousins husband to put a helicoil in . a friend of his that owns a machine shop hooked up a vacum line to the tap and sucked all shavings out as he helicoiled it. i was so pissed off about the whole situation i forgot to give them the new plugs. now i am to scared to mess with the plugs at i sit at 99K miles. my truck never pulled a trailer with anymore than a lawnmower on it. i guess my point of ramblin is has anyone ever changed plugs on a helicoil

 

forgot tomention earlier my helicoil has lasted 25K miles knock on wood. how many people have this problem on after 2001 models when ford changed their heads to have deeper threads and decide to only use their drill bits for half the time they were using them previously

 

Well I got my truck back today after having that fusable link installed for the cruise control recall to prevent the truck from catching on fire.

The fellow said the engine was leaking oil. I said I knew all about it. I said I had my truck scheduled under warranty with them to mill the heads and install new gaskets and they were supposed to call me for scheduling (about 3 years ago). I said I called them a year later and asked what the holdup was. They said they new nothing about doing the work and my truck had gone off warranty by then. I did not have any paperwork so I basically was basically screwed (SOP for Ford service?). He quoted me a price of $2800 which he says consists of milling both heads, installing helicoils for all 8 spark plugs (while the heads are off), a valve job, new head gaskets and new head bolts. He said they use brass or copper helicoils (Im not sure which) and that the helicoils do not get hot enough to cause pre-ignition in the engine (like I need more bad news). He also quoted about another $2000 worth of items that needed to be addressed like ball joints, battery, tires, brakes etc.

My truck is a 99 F150 with 50,000 miles. Guess I should have bought a Toyota truck instead.

 

Why buy a Toyota?

So you could spend the same amount of money, and still have a piece of junk when your done? A foreign piece of junk!

Get real.

 

Ok Im aother new guy here. I am thinking of buying a coworkers 98 F150 with the 4.6. This truck has never had a problem with the plugs since he bought it, and this truck hasnt been beat (hardly used to half its potential even) This thread is scaring me off and I only read 5 pages of it. Is there anything I can check for when I look it over. I dont know how many miles were onit when he bought, he got it used about 4 years ago, from a Toyota dealer.

 

My 99 f150 5.4 blew a plug about two months ago during an early morning drive home from the bar with my girlfriend. (3 a.m.) No one answered the phone so we had to walk a mile to a hotel. It had about 120k miles on it and my dad and I had changed the plugs 9 months earlier. Like other guys I had noticed a noise that I thought was an exhaust leak for about a week prior to this. Luckily my dad was able to repair it with a helicoil relatively inexpensive. I also had to replace the spark plug boot. I love my truck but now I'm a little leary and worried if maybe I should trade it off for something newer before something major and expensive happens. If that happens I'll be screwed for sure because I still owe almost 2 years on it.

 

so was this issue fixed, or is ford neglecting this like they did the cruise control fiasco and crown vic deathtrap?

 

Please become more educated.

"It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open
it and remove all doubt"

-Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)

 

i am wondering why no one has just used a heli coil or insert and pay only $100 instead of a new or used head. All ford is doing with the head they take off is putting inserts in it and selling it as a used one and make alot of money.i had it happen twice and both times it cast me $100 dollars and now i am pushing 170000miles.

 

I used a heli-coil brand solid insert. Worked farely well for a while till i guess the hot spot it was creating burned up the bottom of the plug and created a miss. When I pulled the plug the insert came out with it. So, i used a shorter one in its place and it worked fine till the motor blew another plug and seized. The advantage of the timesert is the locking pin that positively will set it in place for good.

I thought I had read a bunch of threads in the lightening forum where they were saying the heli-coil coil inserts were better because they did not create hot spots.

 

I could read through 200+ threads, or you could answer the question

smartass

so again:

was this issue fixed, or is this still an issue with the new 5.4's?

 

Chalk another one up. 99 F150 5.4 L 135K miles. Pulling a 5000lb trailer. I was 700 miles from home. Problem not fixed yet, i am trying to make it home, I AM ALMOST THERE!!! From what I gather, if a heli coil is installed properly it can possibly fix the problem or just delay further damage. This could be a good time to do a rebuild. Is there a rebuild book anyone recomends for the 5.4 L

 

If what your actually asking is if Ford has recalled all these heads or not to fix them, the answer is no.

Individuals who come here asking for help are taking it upon themselves for the most part to fix their own trucks. There are several options for a "fix."

Those who do not have the smarts to do anything other than go to the dealer are getting fixed as well, but at much higher costs. Sometimes the dealer will help with costs, other times they will not.


I would suggest you read through the threads to educate yourself a bit if you have a truck that is a potential problem.

 

Im not asking for a fix for a bad truck, I am just wondering if this is still an issue with new (05/06) 5.4 engines, or if this condition still exists

I find it hard to believe that ford hasnt been sued over this if they are still putting out a known defective product. This has apparantly been an issue for years. Do the 2006 5.4 engines still do this?

 

yes, they did fix the problem. Somewhere in '03, they put more threads in the plug holes.

The 05/06 engines have the complete opposite problem. People can't get them out without breaking them!

Ford has been sued, at least in California and the lawyer has posted all over this site and sent us problem truck owners emails.

If you interested enough to post three times, read the thread.