truck problems(spark plug)

[johnk]

I never had a GM last long enough to need spark plugs.:laughing:

Chris

Ougt Oh......... Here we go.

 

[kebo]

I had a long thread here about the experience I had with breaking off a plug in one of the cylinders on my F150 with the 5.4L Triton V8. It wound up costing me over $500 just to put a new set of plugs in it!!

In my case, the mechanic had to use the Ford Spark Plug removal kit, and then after getting the old plug out, he ran a small bore camera down inside the chamber along with a small rod and some sticky stuff on the end of it to get all the metal shavings out of the chamber.

But it's all good now. That is a real crappy head design, it should rank up there with the Edsel or something like that. The engineer that designed it should be sentenced to working at a Precision Auto Tune for 10 years doing nothing but changing plugs on 5.4L's!!! :laughing:

 

[buck12]

My BIL's F150 blew a plug at 170,??? miles. He used a repair kit (not sure which one) and has been driving it with no problems for the last couple of years. I know others with 5.4s that are pushing 200,000 miles that have had no problems. My 09 F150 has a 5.4 and hope Chris is right that the problem has been corrected.

 

[Ford tractor]

I never had a GM last long enough to need spark plugs.:laughing:

Chris

Me neither. Then again, I'm not sure where the plugs go on the diesel engine...:confused2:

 

[Egon]

That is a real crappy head design, it should rank up there with the Edsel

Hey now, there was nothing wrong with the Edsel mechanically.

 

[Soundguy]

I like diesel trucks and gas tractors...

soundguy

 

[Skyco]

The common ways are usually either using a Heli Coil in the hole or taking the head off and retapping. I am an avid motorcyclist and recently saw in a magazine that Mac tools makes a tool called the Back-Tap...it allows you to rethread spark plug holes without fear of getting the shavings in the cylinder. You insert it and and expand the cutting threads and it cuts new ones on its way out of the hole, a mandrel catches the shavings. I think they were about $90 for a 3 size set or $50 each. I'm sure you can google it for more info.

Northern Tool also carries that. Interesting tool but it will only clean up damaged threads...it can't make new ones in metal that isn't there

 

[tpic402]

There is a special tool set designed for just this problem,used it many times on v-10 ford engines it is a fairly good repair for a poor design, heavily loaded f-350-450 blew plugs out on a regular basis. If you need name of tool(pretty darn expensive if I remember right) I could get it for you. I hung up the tools and am no longer a professional auto tech.

 

[Verticaltrx]

I would just heli-coil it. I had to do that on a problematic spark plug on my '88 F-250, w/ 460. The heads were re-manned ones and one plug hole was not threaded properly. The plug would eventually unthread itself and shoot out. After doing this about 3 times over a course of a couple years the hole was finally so stripped it wouldn't hold a plug anymore.

I had another complete set of heads and even a gasket set that I could have just bolted on, but decided to give the heli-coil a try, a 1-hr job vs a 6-8hr job swayed my decision. I just greased the tap good and it caught most of the shavings. Some might have dropped in the cylinder, but nothing to lose sleep over. So far it has been working good, the truck is used exclusively for towing and hauling so it gets worked hard.

 

[doall]

I have a GM that I just put plugs in. 130,000 miles no other problems. But that back hole on the passenger side is a beast. Some Chevy's are ok Diamond.