Hi all,

Well, almost three weeks since the blown plug, and my truck is still in the repair shop..... Possibly ready tomorrow.

Mike: jeez, now you post that good advice about spending $500 more and getting a new engine with warranty.

Guess it's too late for me, but I agree that may be the best way to go. I'll be paying almost as much for a cylinder head repair, and then I have to wonder if this'll happen again, perhaps on the side of the other cylinder head.

FYFordFreak, from my research, it seems to be a problem for 1998-and-later 5.4s, not so much for 4.6s. However, if you hear the subtle sound of a compression/exhaust leak, you'd better check for the plugs. It's potentially an expensive mistake to not check the plugs, and that's a mistake that even experienced mechanics have made.

Guys, I'm way beyond being disgusted by Ford's lack of assistance and direction in this matter: criminy, look how I'm forced to get good advice on the this repair from a bulletin board, and not Ford's service managers, etc. Where's my spitoon? I've gotta spit.


Chris

 

Chris,

I feel your pain bro. I am a month now without my truck and I am told today is the day. They said it started right up and ran well yesterday but they wanted to keep it til this afternoon and double check everything before turning it back over to me. It is still a shame that as good a care I take of my truck that I lost the motor with such low mileage. Thats my luck I guess...or maybe there is more to it. Time will tell as more and more spark plugs go a-flyin!
Mike

 

hey guys,
Just got a qoute froma mechanic i trust for $150 to do a rethread on the head.Plus the $50 i spent on the ignition coil.$200 bucks isnt too bad.I just hope he doesnt find that the head is damaged.I now have to find someone to tow the truck 50 miles to the mechanic.Does anyone know how long a rethread should take????I hope the 5 mile trip home after the plug blew out the side of the head didnt do any damage.Ill keep everyone posted on my results.

 

Hi BGY and all,

I've read that the helicoil is not a recommended procedure by Ford; they won't allow their own repairs shops to use them. But still, if it were an option for me and it were my $$$, I don't know what I would do (my decision was easier, as the threads were pretty much gone).

After 3 weeks, I'll be picking up my vehicle tonight.

Guys, here's a similar thread I started at another Ford site: more accounts added, and one apparently is a Ford employee who also questions the use of 1/2" vs. 3/4" plug thread depth on the spark plug cylinder heads:


I work in a Ford dealership and we stock 6 cylinder heads for the V-10 engines. We also see the 4.6L and 5.4L threads fail. My personal feeling is the cylinder head and plug are contracting and expanding at different levels and this works the threads. They soon become weakened and eventually fail. I don't know why the head threads are only 1/2" in depth. It seems the plug and head would be better off with 3/4" thread depth. I have had failures on the above engines with factory installed plugs and after having plugs changed. Because of the tapered seat design
if the plugs are over torqued you can not feel it and it starts pulling up on the threads. Authored a memo with plug torque specs for my techs and two days later had a 2001 with 7000 miles on it come in with number five blown out.

Notice the bad news for those 4.6L folks: they may not be out of the clear on this issue.....

The full thread:

http://warnerrobert.com/ubb/ultimate...&f=18&t=000179

Chris

 

Hi all,

My truck is back home now. Turns out they pulled the right bank cylinder head, and sent it to a machine shop; apparently they decided to install spark plug inserts in the passenger side head. Total labor: $1,320, parts: $530.

I'm guessing the expense was due to the labor involved in pulling the head, replacing the gasket set and broken coil, head bolts, replacing all spark plugs, and helicoiling all passenger side plugs? I'm guessing that $300 figure for helicoils I've seen here involves just putting them in without removing the cylinder head? I dunno....

At any rate, I got some interesting info. from the mechanic: they've had two more Fords come in for repair with blown plugs in the past few weeks. One was an Econoline van, and the other a 1997 F-150 5.4L with 100k miles on it. And this is a small town (Rosamond, CA) in the Mojave Desert.

According to the repair mechanic, that 1997 F-150 went into the Ford dealer for repair of a blown plug less than 20k miles ago, and apparently they replaced the cylinder head at that time for $3k. The guy recently blew a plug on the other side this time, but apparently wasn't so lucky as it took out other parts of the engine (I forgot exactly what components he said), with estimated repairs of $4k. Poor guy: he must be pissed....

The delay for my repair was due to their not having the right tool required to remove something (the cams, I think he said?); they had to borrow the tool from a Ford service center. He thinks they'll be buying the tools, because at this rate they might be needed again.....

This is clearly not an isolated incident, and plainly not uncommon; possibly it's just a matter of allowing sufficient time for the problem to become manifest..... This is an iceberg, it's just not clear if it's the tip or not.

I think I'm going to have to take a break from this: it's not healthy to focus on such negative stuff, and there's only so much time in the day.

Next step will be researching the practicality of a class-action lawsuit. With such compelling evidence, and with the F-150 as the best-selling vehicle in the world, I'd think a class-action law firm might be interested. I'll be in touch when there's something to report.

Chris

 

This thread has me very worried!!!!! I have a 1999 4.6 with 66,000 miles on it. At 65,000 miles I installed a Magna supercharger. When I replaced my sparkplugs I torqued them down at 10 foot pounds.

Haynes Repair Manual for Ford Pick-ups and Expedition 1997-1999, page 1-3, "Torque Specifications", states in part, "Spark plugs........84 to 168 in-lbs." When this is converted to foot-lbs. , we find 7 to 14 ft.lbs.

Does anybody know, exactly how many foot pounds of torque should we use on the spark plugs so that they are not too loose and blow out the head, nor too tight and blow out the head?!?!?

 

I just got my truck back yesterday afternoon and everything seems fine, almost like nothing ever happened. I thought I might mention that on the floor of the repair shop to which I took my truck was (3) 4.6 motors all having blown plugs with internal damage. It seems this is not just isolated to the 5.4's.

After removing the head from the old motor(factory), I have finally come to a conclusion as what tore up the piston and cylinder wall. When it happened, the plug was not blown completely out of the head, and by that I mean the coil pack stayed intact and in place by the small retaining bolt. Judging from what the #3 plug position looked like on the head, the plug sat there and bounced up and down destryoying the bottom of the plug and dropping pieces of it down in the cylinder. I am glad this is all over but I think I will be hanging a for sale sign in her soon and get me one of them new 6.0 powerstrokes with iron heads...

 

Hi all,

I went to NHTSA website, and after using their search engine to look for complaints, it seems NO ONE aside from me has bothered to file a complaint about this issue (or at least I couldn't find any others). Therefore, there's no reason for them to investigate, and no chance of a recall or remedy.

Part of the problem is that the plug issue is spread out over different years, different models, and the NHTSA site offers too many sub-categories (for instance, there's a category for the F150 and the F-150?) .

Even the link to this thread that I put in my complaint didn't function, as the thread ID had apparently changed since I filed the complaint on-line. So you can assume they have no way of seeing any of the compelling evidence that exists here......

Despite popular belief, I read on the NHTSA site that manufacturers aren't required to pay for repairs for a problem that were performed before a recall was announced. Manufacturers MAY do so, for reasons of goodwill, but there's no requirement (unlike during a recall). Therefore people like me who've paid for repairs out-of-pocket are probably screwed, and Ford wouldn't have to refund repair costs EVEN IF a recall were issued today (which is obviously unlikely).

And if this happens to any of your currently uneffected F-150s, you'll be in the same boat as me: there's been no significant activity from those already afflicted to bring this to anyone's attention .....

Final kicker: I got my truck back yesterday, and was not surprised to see the tiny hairline door crack on the driver's side door (nothing on the passenger's side, yet).

Chris

 

Hi Iron Horse,

Ever heard of Ralph Nader's book, "Unsafe at any Speed"? I'm writing a sequel for the F-150 called, "Unsafe at any Torque".

Really, there's no one who can tell you the correct torque in light of the blown plug issue, as apparently no one with the proper background and training has looked into a fix.

If you read between the lines of what that Ford mechanic posted at Blue Oval (quoted in italics in my post about 5 posts up), he saying he thinks the problem is not due to improper torque per se, but a fundamental problem with the tapered bore cylinder head design and Ford's choice to go with 1/2" plug thread depth (i.e. 4-5 threads) in the cylinder head bore, vs using 3/4" thread depth.

An expansion and contraction of the steel plugs is wearing out the 5 aluminum threads, REGARDLESS of the plug torque. The different densities or 'hardness' of the metals, combined with their different coefficients of expansion when heated, means the aluminum and steel expand and rub together every time you run the engine, and the aluminum threads WILL become fatigued after 'x' number of cycles. Tighten or loosen the plugs to any torque you want: it may not effect the inevitable, and you're probably only re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

Interesting that even the steel threads on my blown spark plug were significantly stripped or worn in places; I would've liked to have seen the aluminum head threads (although someone has already posted a pix of their stripped head on this site). I can post pictures of my plug and coil pack, if anyone wants to see them.

Chris

 

feefer,

Great Post! Very well thought out and articulated........NOW I am even more worried!!!!!!!!! ha!

Yes, please post the pictures. Thanks again for taking the time and making the effort with your response.

 

i got the truck back three days ago it cost $267.$210 for labor and 37.50 for heil coil plus tax.The truck drives like it is brand new.I just hope this crap doesnt happen again.

 

I, also, had this problem about one month ago. The ticking noise started a few days before, sounded like an exhaust leak.
The plug blew while I was pulling away from a traffic light. 46,000 on the truck (extended warranty to 48,000). Ford replaced the right head with a new one. Now I'm just waiting for one to let go on the other side.

 

Hi all,

Sorry to hear of more experiences with this. Those low-mileage blowouts are actually a blessing in disguise, as at least you're covered by warranty (at least for that incident).

Even after paying $2k for essentially the same job (helicoil, but they removed the cylinder head first), I still feel my engine does not sound or 'feel' the same as before the incident.

Unfortunately, Ford still has not acknowledged a problem (and there's good reason why they never will do so willingly: $$$), and apparently no other F-150 owners have even bothered to take the 5 minutes to file a complaint with the NTSA. So it's dead in the water.....

That means if the cylinder head thread problem occurs on any of your (7) other plug bores, you can expect to pay for the repair out-of-pocket (and the fix may not be as simple as a heli-coil the next time, if any plug bits get into the cylinder and destroys the pistons, etc). You'll be in the same boat as one owner I know of: it happened TWICE (on the other side), and did serious damage the second time (out of warranty).

Obviously, take the time to file a complaint (as mentioned in the thread), because this problem is not on anyone's radar right now, and that's to Ford's advantage (and your pocketbook's disadvantage).

Chris

 

Hello All:

I am now a member of the blown spark plug syndrome ! I have a 99 ford F-250 with 104K miles and a plug blew the other day. It was towed to the Ford dealer and he has informed me the repair would be about $3300.00, that hurts. Like some of the others I contacted Ford and they said there was no assistance available for me (financially). These were original plugs as well. I have browsed around (it took awhile) and found a scattered collection of many others with the same dillema, I'm sure there are many more as some don't have time or interest to post or even a computer. Yes, I filed a report with the NHTS people, but there are'nt many others, which brings me to post here (this is one of the places that the search engine turned up). I would like to start a website or forum where we (and anyone) can go to either post their situation or find info. that may help to bring this to a more national and recognized position. I personaly believe that there is a problem here (my dealer has had 3 in three months) and we need to put all our info. in one place so that others can easily find it I will bear the cost of running the site (forum) if necessary for 1 year minimum to see if we can get greater awareness about this situation. It will not work without the input of all those concerned....so PLEASE help me get this started. The more numbers of incidences we can find the better our chances of getting results. I am not a "computer person" so any thoughts, ideas, etc. would be greatly appreciated as what type of site or forum to set up and what should be included (links, etc.).

Awaiting your input,

Paul

 

What is the address of the site in which I should make my complaint? I tried to find it but I am not having any luck.

Mike