"Don't try to replace spark plugs!" 2008 Why not?

[thomas]

i need some help find a lift so i can get 35's at a good price and what are some good mud tires

 

[01yellerCobra]

i need some help find a lift so i can get 35's at a good price and what are some good mud tires

I'm going to guess that you clicked on the wrong thread.

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[FisherPete]

My 99 5.4 spit plugs twice. I believe the issue was that there were only 3 turns on the thread holding the plugs into the aluminum head and the dealer didn't pay close enough attention to the requirement of specific torque settings. Later models of the 5.4 have 8 thread turns holding the plug in to the aluminum head, so they are less likely to blow, but still must be properly seated and torqued or they could cause problems.

I'm only 8K in to the life of my '12, so I haven't had to deal with it on this one yet. But you can be sure that whether I do it myself or have a dealer or shop do it, I'm going to grill them to ensure they have done MANY before and fully understand the need to use the torque wrench!

 

[01yellerCobra]

I replaced the plugs yesterday. It wasn't too bad. Took me about 1.5 hours. And I was moving slow because I was tired from working on a Topkick earlier. After seeing the plugs at 52k I wouldn't want to wait any longer to replace them anyway. They were pretty wore out already.



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[jasonlmarsh]

ugh, I'm not looking forward to that at all. For all I know, mine have 107k miles on them... Any idea if Autozone has the plug removal tool in their loaner tool program?

 

[01yellerCobra]

I haven't asked. I've been lucky. I've done two sets of these style plugs and they both came out in one piece. I think the trick is to make sure the engine is warm. I pulled the coils on the passenger side, broke the plugs loose, then sprayed PB Blaster into the holes. I did the same on the driver side. Once the driver side was soaking I went back to the passenger side. Number 3 was giving me a bit of a hard time, so I went slow. The rest of them came out by hand.

 

[jasonlmarsh]

yea I've seen a few posts and videos and they all seem to say do it on a warm/hot engine. I also read somewhere that a cordless impact driver helps too.

 

[ptmares]

I removed all 8 with out any breaking using a 1/4" dewalt cordless impact. I took an hour. I did put about a 1/2 teaspoon of MC carb cleaner in the spark plugs wells. I let that soak for a week while I continued to drive.

A week later, with a hot engine, I removed cop's and went at it with the cordless. Was scary until all eight came out.

I bought the removal tool from amazon for $65 I think. That was the cheapest I found. Didn't use it though.

 

[jasonlmarsh]

Yea I think it may have been your post I read about the 1/4 cordless. I have the same one, any trouble getting to the back plugs?

 

[ptmares]

Yeah, the two back plugs on each side were a pain. I ended up using a couple of long extensions. It didn't really work that well. All I was able to do was crack the plug loose with the impact, and than removed it by hand with the extension on it. The others I zipped completely out with the impact.

It was also hard to torque the back ones to spec when re-installed.

Let me know if you have any other questions.