Blew a plug

[C_2g]

Guys I recently had the experience of a lifetime. My dad recently passed away so me and my family had to travel from Oregon to New Jersey. As I was passing through Iowa I stopped at a rest area to stretch and that stuff. Well when we all loaded back into the Expy I got on the interstate and the engine started sounding like the exhaust manifold cracked or something. It was really loud almost like an unmuffled lawnmower. It was around 12:30AM so we had to wait until 7:00AM to get any service. I called a full service garage and told them what had happened and what I thought it was and they referred me to this exhaust shop. So I had the Expy towed and they looked at it and told me the exhaust was fine and thet the engine had blown out a spark plug. They could not fix it because they were not equipped to do that kind of work. So I had taken it down the street to a NAPA car care center and it took them 3 hours to remove the rest of the plug and install a new one. They told me that the threads were stripped and they had to put a helicoil on the new plug. I was wondering if this has happened to any other Expy owners out there? I spoke with a friend of mine who is a mechanic in North Carolina. He told me that this is a known issue with the Ford 5.4 and the 4.6 engines.

 

[XLTman]

I have had that happen to me but not in a expedition. I was drive up a steep hill in a ford ranger and heard a loud popping or like a crackling noise.I had looked at later and it was a spark plug that popped out

 

[pronstar]

It's somewhat common on the early 5.4.
Happened to me at 140K miles.

A helicoil can be used, or a Timesert (http://www.timesert.com/).

2 or 3 hours to do the job is about right, depending on which cylinder it happened to.

Many shops will tell you that you need to remove the heads. If anyone tells you this, find another shop.

Glad to hear that you were charged about the going rate for this repair.

 

[C_2g]

Originally posted by pronstar
It's somewhat common on the early 5.4.
Happened to me at 140K miles.

A helicoil can be used, or a Timesert (http://www.timesert.com/).

2 or 3 hours to do the job is about right, depending on which cylinder it happened to.

Many shops will tell you that you need to remove the heads. If anyone tells you this, find another shop.

Glad to hear that you were charged about the going rate for this repair.

Yeah I felt that the price was fair. Considering of where I was and where I was trying to go. It was the #3 cylinder that blew the plug. I dont want to look forward to this happening again. I guess its time to get rid of the Expy. I only had this thing for about 6 months and it did not fair well on this cross country trip.

 

[chuck s]

This is a spark plug issue, not engine issue. I'd think new plugs would help prevent this.

-- Chuck

 

[4x4Dude]

I thought this was an engine issue as the engines weren't threaded deep enough causing the plugs to blow out? I could be wrong, it's just what i heard

 

[chuck s]

The plug body was still threaded into the head according to the author of this episode. Or did I read wrong? Still on the first cup of coffee this morning! Appears it was cross threaded/stripped as well.

-- Chuck

 

[pronstar]

Originally posted by 4x4Dude
I thought this was an engine issue as the engines weren't threaded deep enough causing the plugs to blow out? I could be wrong, it's just what i heard

Yup...Only three threads hold the plugs in.

As an alternative to buying a new vehicle, it may be far chealer to preventatively have the time-certs done to the other cylinders, in case they do decide to go.

Keep in mind that many of these 5.4s never have plug blow-outs.

But most engine builders will do the time-certs pre-emptively when they do high-performance builds with these early heads, just to make sure it never happens.

 

[AvroAero]

Company I work for has a 97 ex and a plug blew out on it also.

 

[slo-ryd]

We fixed one that blew out of a 5.4 van hauling a pallet load of tile.

I personally had one blow out of a '99 Lightning truck at 95 mph and under 14 lbs of boost....which is a life changing experience