Near Miss-Ford truck stripped out Spark Plugs

[bjr]

I was visiting with a mechanic friend of mine and he made the comment not to walk to close to idling Ford with the hood up as you may have dodge a spark plug that could come-zippin' paste your nose. Seems as though all the newer '97 an' on up engines have aluminum heads and the spark plugs have only 'bout three threads holding them in and they have a habit of stripping out at the most inopportune moments. Do you Ford owner have keep thread repair kits along with your complete set of tools and lights (for when this happens at nite) in yours trucks to put a spark plug back in? How could Ford ever carry a warranty on something like this? bjr

 

[Loadstar]

That is nearly a two decade old issue that's had a resolution nearly as old. Work on vehicles much?

 

[ovrszd]

It's a real problem. You can buy a repair kit. Not technically difficult to fix and can be done in just a few minutes.

As to dodging flying plugs, he was surely laughing when he said that?

 

[milligjg]

If it's got a 5.4 V8 in it, RUN!:thumbsup:

 

[ovrszd]

If it's got a 5.4 V8 in it, RUN!:thumbsup:

Yeah, they are only good for 250K, then you gotta replace em.

 

[Snobdds]

What a fine mechanic you have...

This is how one of those..."I heard it on the internet so it must be true" stories start.

 

[murphy1244]

What a fine mechanic you have...

This is how one of those..."I heard it on the internet so it must be true" stories start.

Yea and what brought this on??

 

[Snobdds]

A bad mechanic who grossly paints with a broad brush...

 

[ovrszd]

Yea and what brought this on??

I think he's referring to the mechanic friend mentioned in the first post.

 

[Stimw]

If you google and read the instructions for "Time Sert" repair tool kit it says that the tool set covers Ford 4-6-8 and 10 cylinder engines from 1993 thru 2004.
Now that is a flat learning curve!
In 2005 Ford went to a two piece spark plug. While they stay in they are prone to carbon up and break off when trying to remove, BUT they don't blow out!
If you have ever heard one of those engines being driven with the plug blown out it has a LOUD whistling sound.