If you smoke in those plugs, really twist them in there (damaging the threads in the process), or if you start having massive detonation problems (like the clatter on regular unleaded all 4.6's are known for), it is possible. With pinging/clatter, you reach the same cylinder pressure as an engine which is pushing 2000-2500hp! So, yeah, if those threads are damaged, it is possible on any engine.

That being said, I am running AFR's on a turbocharged Kuntz & Co built 427 small block and I have NEVER had ANY problem with those heads spitting anything.

And BTW, you and your friend should never change the plugs if your motors are even warm. You should let them sit over night before doing so, they need to be at ambient temperature.

I'm JEALOUS!!!! I would LOVE to get my hands on a 351C and work it over. Those little motors have a lot of potential! Lucky dog!

 

I wouldn't worry about it to be honest. This problem only ever affects a very small percentage of 5.4's.

If you ever start hearing what sounds like an exhaust leak, take special notice though. And if you ever spit one, it is likely you will spit another. Have it sert'ed, and go ahead and do all 8 while you are at it. If you are feeling adventurous, go ahead and follow the instructions in the link a couple posts back. The worst thing you can do is hopefully keep it from happening. But, even so, I have seen them spit even after the plugs have been re-done with proper torque and anti-seize. So it would seem that if it is going to do it, it's just going to do it, and not a whole lot you can do is going to change that.

I have all my aluminum headed motor's sp threads replaced by my builder when they are torn down. Mostly because I need to be able to pull my plugs and look at them while at the track, without letting the cool down over night. Plus, pulling the spark plugs all the time wears those threads down. My AFR's on my turbo car went a couple years without any problem, but when I had to replace a bent valve on one, I had all 8 holes done, a 5 angle valve job, all seals, springs, retainers, etc. while they were in the shop. My 5.4 DOHC race motor which is being built will have all it's threads done too..

You have to be careful with aluminum threads in ALL aluminum heads. IMHO, anything I can do to mitigate that, I will do, if given the opportunity.

 

You make it sound like you've never seen a Romeo head. I have, and they have about 4 threads per plug. Certainly BOTH of mine only have a few threads.
And what makes you think there was any detonation involved in my engine??? For the record - there wasn't. The most abuse was extended high-speed (~14 continuous hrs near 100mph), but it was running perfectly up to the point of shooting a plug out.

 

Some CV's did have Windsor motors. Yes, the 4.6 Windsor did find it's way into CV's. VIN #6, L=Windsor motor

So, I suppose, yeah, it is possible your 99 CV might have a Windsor.

I will tell you this though, my heads off my 2000 Romeo are sitting out in my shop, and they have 8 threads. So whatever man. If you want to argue about it, go right ahead.

 

My '94's original engine was a Romeo; its current engine is a Romeo. My '99's engine is a Romeo, & it blew the #6 plug.

So either way; your assertion about Romeos NOT blowing plugs, or about overtorquing NOT causing it, is wrong. If they have 8 threads, then certainly the only way for mine to have blown was for someone to REALLY overtorque it. And if it only has 4, then they're just as likely to blow as Windsors.

 

Number 3 blow out recently going 60mph. Dealer repaired for 800 with no guarantee of the repairs. I do not recall hearing any unusual nosie other than the regular tap, tap that engines make.
99 F150 5.4l v8 89000

 

Anyone ever take the heads off, have an aluminum welder fill up the rest of the plug hole between the top of the OE threads and the shoulder where the plug seals then have the entire hole re-threaded so you have full instead of half the threads on the plug? Gotta be better than some kind of inserts.

Yes, my 4.6 98' FOU computer code pings on cheap gas. Any solutions for that? If I were to slap a turbo on my rig what can I do besides putting in lower compression pistons?

 

No way. Welding on a head is axing for trouble. TimeSerts are faster, cheaper, safer, & better.

 

The same thing can happen with turbo or a blower dont add the right amount of fuel and you create a lean condition and then melt down from extreme cylinder heat its not the nitrous that is to blame its the combination of not enough fuel and what ever power adder you have on your car or truck

also a little anti seize never hurt when installing your new plugs and then make sure to torque them to the required setting of about 14 foot pounds then when installing your coils onto the plug use a little aqua net hair spray on the boots it makes them slip right on then when it dries it holds the plug from working its way loose which is the most common reason that they blow out because they loosened after time im not saying that there is not a problem just trying to help you solve it for now or before its to late like it was for me also but i bought the kit from time sert and it was easy to fix took about an hour and its as good as new and i did not have to pull the head off but i used a shop vac to retrieve the chips that had fallen into the motor then cranked it over with the plug still out to blow anything it did not get out and it seems as good as new i ran a compression leak down test on it two days later or about 500 miles and its the same as the other cylinders so im happy at least until i have to do another

 

The same thing can happen with turbo or a blower dont add the right amount of fuel and you create a lean condition and then melt down from extreme cylinder heat its not the nitrous that is to blame its the combination of not enough fuel and what ever power adder you have on your car or truck

also a little anti seize never hurt when installing your new plugs and then make sure to torque them to the required setting of about 14 foot pounds then when installing your coils onto the plug use a little aqua net hair spray on the boots it makes them slip right on then when it dries it holds the plug from working its way loose which is the most common reason that they blow out because they loosened after time im not saying that there is not a problem just trying to help you solve it for now or before its to late like it was for me also but i bought the kit from time sert and it was easy to fix took about an hour and its as good as new and i did not have to pull the head off but i used a shop vac to retrieve the chips that had fallen into the motor then cranked it over with the plug still out to blow anything it did not get out and it seems as good as new i ran a compression leak down test on it two days later or about 500 miles and its the same as the other cylinders so im happy at least until i have to do another

 

I have a 2001 F150 5.4 liter v8 with 113k miles. This week I towed the truck into the ford dealer who told me cylinder number 3 had blown a spark plug from the head. My options were 4000 dollars to replace the head or 6000 dollars to replace the engine. My reaction to this was neither to both of these options because they would replace it with the same faulty head and engine.

Does anyone have a recommendation to fix my truck problems? the prices given by the dealership seem very overpriced and I was wondering if there is a way to do it myself ? Are they are trying to gyp me?

*Thinking of getting a Chevy*

 

For starters - read the thread you just posted in. The obvious answer is already in there - Timesert at least the blown plug hole; or do all eight if you are keeping the truck.

 

Wow, that's a lot of money. I have a complete truck I'm going to be selling for less than the price you were quoted on the head. I have a 97 F250 4WD 5.4 with 92K miles that was recently rolled. Prior to being rolled, I felt it ran as good on that day as the day I brought it home from the showroom brand new. It still runs and drives and none of the air bags were even deployed. It has captains chairs, a center console and the stereo and alarm still works. I was thinking of letting the whole truck go for a couple thousand dollars. The top and sides are dented and the glass is broken from the roll (hood and tailgate are fine), but the mechanics were solid. Fluids (engine, trans, x-fer case, diffs, p/s, brakes) were always changed regularly and logged in a book along with every tank of gas. And I just put brand new bilstein shocks and Dueler Revo tires on a few thousand miles ago

 

Good grief. Who gives a flying poop about your rolled truck and it's features (that are not relevant to this thread.)

I might be a black duck in here (I've got a '98 Navigator with the 5.4 - unsure of mileage because it had a mileage discrepancy when I bought it)... but my Nav - just like yours - ****WAS*** "as good as the day I brought it home", blah blah blah ... until it sent a plug into orbit on Sunday.

Until Sunday, I had no desire to drive a 2005 Navigator (as I have not read for sure that all of the 2004's were in the clear) - but I'm rethinking my options right now (which brought me to reading this entire thread). I'm waiting to hear back from the dealership here in Denver. So far, they've told me that my 3 year extended warranty (which I bought 2 years & 352 days ago!!!!!!!) is going to cover this one. But after reading so many posts about second and third events... I think I need an exit strategy to get away from this defect.

Anyway, I was told earlier today that they use an insert kit to fix these. So I called a friend who is a diesel tech at another Ford dealership and he tells me that they have successfully used helicoils and not seen the repaired vehicles back. He mentioned the brand of kit as Lisle (or Lilse) as being effective for them.

...and for the record, my extended warranty deductible is less if it goes back to the mothership (dealership where it originated at) than if I go to any other service location (including other Ford garages). If that were not the case, I'd have this friend fix this thing. And before this is over, if the mothership gives me any gazillion dollar surprises, I will probably wind up having this friend fix this thing on the side.

The ironic (and annoying) thing is that I brought my car into the dealership last week to get all of the warranty stuff looked at before the warranty dies on June 13th. On the list, was a "tapping" (somewhat snare drum like sound) in the engine that had just started to happen. I was told that the techs couldn't hear it (so they didn't do anything about that, I guess!) When I picked the car up last Thursday, I didn't even get it off of their lot without going back over to the service writer to tell him that the tapping was still there. But, because we were waiting on an odometer/tach array to come in and be installed on this coming Thursday, they just told me to take the car home and they'd look into the tapping on when they fixed the odometer array on Thursday.

Nice, huh? But I'm wondering if I'm in a little better shape (as far as the extended warranty or the dealership being responsible for this) because they have a work order still open from a week before the launch day with the tapping being reported but not acted on.

And... As much as I love this car and how wonderful this dealership has treated me over the past 3 years - I am annoyed that they didn't check the plugs last week when I was in there. Possibly (by what I've read here) that one of them could have been loose. And I would think after reading all of these posts here that a tapping sound (my son thought it was possibly a lifter) can signal the countdown to launch of these plugs, you'd think they would take the report of that sort of sound seriously when a 5.4 is involved.

I've read everything about these plugs flying when they are being started in driveways, and just popping off at stoplights, as well as highway speeds. As for mine, I was dragging a 7,000 pound work trailer up a hill here on I-25 (rolling along at about 60 MPH) when my Nav went POP and then sounded like an old farm tractor.

A few months ago, I tried trolling around the internet looking for the possibility that someone has put a diesel into a Nav body. That would be my dream work vehicle. Now, after this, I'm going to revisit that search as well. I'd rather spend the bucks on a diesel into my '98 body than have to go up to a 2005 to get around this problem.

Simply put, I sure don't trust this truck to take it any distance, now.

Thanks to everyone that posted in this thread - this forum has had more info on this issue than any other place I've found on the internet to this point.

If anyone hears any info about a class action that is really going through or if they have heard somewhere about a diesel going into a Nav, please email me through here or send me a message on http://myspace.com/satorri

THANKS

 

I too just blew a plug in my 2000 Excursion V-10. It was the passenger side second from the rear. All I can say is WOW!

Jack