Fuel smell and spark plug torque

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sesmith

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I haven't seen this on this forum so I thought I'd put a post here.

I had a local shop change the plugs on our 2007 xlt last summer (about 7k miles ago, had 100k on it then). This winter, at times, I noticed a raw fuel smell coming inside when driving, especially when stopped at lights. I found no fuel leaks. I saw something mentioned on one of the F150 forums about spark plug torque, so I checked them all today with a torque wrench. Sure enough, 3 or 4 were loose. 2 were loose by 1/2-3/4 of a turn. All tightened to spec now (25 ft. lbs.) and the fuel odor is gone.

I haven't had a chance to stop by the shop to see if he had used a torque wrench, and they mysteriously loosened, or if he never torqued them properly to begin with. I was an auto tech for a number of years previously, and to his defense, this is the first set of spark plugs I've ever used a torque wrench on (and 25 ft lbs is a pretty tight spec).

Live and learn. Just thought I'd pass this along for anyone with similar issues.
 
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sesmith

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Glad to hear this helped someone. It's been a year since I retorqued mine and put the original post here. No problems since.
 

Dick Daigle

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I finally got around to re torquing the plugs last Friday. That fixed the issue. no more gas smell and the loud ticking has mostly gone away.
Number 5 was pretty nasty when I pulled it out in hindsight, I am thinking I should probably replace it. Its up front so it wont be much trouble getting at it. Those rear ones are a *****.

Also, I had just changed the plugs and coils back in November and obviously didn't tighten them enough.
 
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ManUpOrShutUp

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I've seen recommendations from 9-28 (dry) ft-lbs. Ford doesn't provide any official specs in the service manual. I think I used 15 ft-lb w/ anti-seize when I did mine. No issues over many miles.
 
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