Blew spark plug out of head

[Bill H]

hopefully my misfortune will help someone in the future. clearly this is not an isolated issue....sure wish ford would step up to fix these....oh well:

It happened on a downshift at about 2 mph. Saw a little puff of smoke from the roof vents and then a loud intermittent pop pop pop sound....just like an exhaust leak...except coming from the top of the motor. Nursed it home and pulled the code...cylinder 3 misfire. When i removed the coil, the plug came out with it. the threads on the plug were damaged and the spark gap was reduced to 0. a new plug would not thread into the head....just spun.

so i just bought the ford timesert kit....it is what ford service depts reportedly use. $400.

http://www.timesert.com/html/triton_repair.html

i confirmed that i do have the 1L2E problem head casting on my 2001.

http://www.timesert.com/html/pi.html

so i am going to attempt the over the fender repair during this 4th weekend. i'll let you know how it goes.

there are lots of other ways to fix this, 14mm head rethread kits and helicoil kits....i chose timeserts because of the head casting problem.

this car is second only to kids for the emotional highs and lows it brings. this isn't one of the highs though.

[sally4ponies]

Sorry man, good luck with the repair!

[vista blue]

Originally Posted by sally4ponies

Sorry man, good luck with the repair!

+1 on that,sounds like a real pain,how many miles on the car and is it a daily D?

[Roushinator]

Originally Posted by Bill H

there are lots of other ways to fix this,

Get some new heads..

[Bill H]

Originally Posted by vista blue

+1 on that,sounds like a real pain,how many miles on the car and is it a daily D?

its a 2001 with 35K miles. its not a daily driver, just a fun toy. definately not a trailer queen. its been well maintained; this is just a problem with this particular head casting.

its more prevalent on the lightnings but a lot of mustangs and F150s suffer it too. If you google it, you'll be amazed how much its happened. i think its mostly attributed to under and over torqueing spark plugs. i changed mine in December and it happened in June.

i really considered pulling the head and either replacing or putting inserts in every plug hole. i may as well pull the motor if i was going to do that....and i already have a project 4.6 in the garage.....just no room or desire to do this right now.

i'm surprised there aren't more examples here on fnsweet.

[Mustanger]

It has been pretty common on the F150's & I have been reluctant to change my plugs on my 02 ....it has just passed 100k miles & needs it I'm sure although it still drives the same??

[Bill H]

Originally Posted by Mustanger

It has been pretty common on the F150's & I have been reluctant to change my plugs on my 02 ....it has just passed 100k miles & needs it I'm sure although it still drives the same??

if you take a small mirror and look on the driver's side, between the dip stick and firewall....just above the exhaust manifold, you can check your head casting. if it has the 1L2E numbers in it, you've got the problem head with fewer threads.

if you change the plugs when its cold and torque them properly, you should be ok. i am not sure my trq wrench is accurate at 7-12 ft lbs. but i sort of agree with you....if it aint broke dont fix it.

[roushstage2]

Originally Posted by Mustanger

It has been pretty common on the F150's & I have been reluctant to change my plugs on my 02 ....it has just passed 100k miles & needs it I'm sure although it still drives the same??

Isn't that on the new 3V motors though? I haven't heard any issues with the '03 and earlier models.

[Bill H]

just the opposite i think. the head was redesigned in 03 (i think) to add more threads.

but according to ford its not a design flaw. grrrr.

[Mustanger]

Originally Posted by Bill H

just the opposite i think. the head was redesigned in 03 (i think) to add more threads.

but according to ford its not a design flaw. grrrr.

Yeah it mostly is the older design fault...I love how a manufacturer can just blow off major problems like this.

[roushstage2]

My dad has an 01 and has changed his plugs no problems several times. Wasn't thinking about the thread issue though. There is another major plug problem with the 3V motors that has a TSB and is costing anywhere from $1000 to $2000 to get it fixed at the dealership. It has to do with the one piece plug breaking off in the head.

[Bill H]

i finally completed the repair. using hand tools in the garage by myself, it was not fun. it probably took 10-12 hrs over 2 days. the most tedious part was counterboring and reaming the hole. i had to pull the fuel rail on the pass side to get a good angle to work.

i coated the flutes with axle grease, and then i would count 20-30 quarter turns of the cutter and then remove and clean. i did that about 20-25 times on the counterbore alone. arm burner for sure.

i had a short run of 3/8 fuel hose taped to my shop vac to try and get any loose shavings. if you used enough grease, there really wasn;t too many strays (that i saw).

i will say the timesert kit is expensive but worth every penny. the tools worked perfectly and i was glad i got it when i saw the insert sitting nice and tight in the plug hole when i was done.

of course it started raining just as i fired it up and cleared the old misfires codes. it was great to hear it run and idle again in the garage. maybe tomorrow the weather will cooperate.

since i had all the other plugs out anyway, i was sure to clean the threads and retorque them hand tight and then just a touch with the wrench to snug them down.

i hope no one else has to do this, but now i've got some experience to help the next poor sob.

happy fourth folks!!!

[Wickedride]

sorry to hear that. i have had to do it twice. my experience was the same as yours. comin to a stop then a loud pop like an exhaust leak. got home and found out what it was. i was not very happy when i found out about the short thread issue in the heads and it was raining too....fixed it and have not had a problem since. knock on wood!