blown plug

[99exbyut]

so today on my way home from work i heard a loud bang, come to find out i blew #4 plug. kinda pissed cause i dont have time to fix the damn thing so i have to take it in and get hit with a huge bill.

after doin a little looking around only one shop in my town does the TIME-SERT.

so no expy for at least 3 weeks get to roll around in the saturn

 

[panda24619]

that sucks man. the 99s were the ones to start to throw plugs. hope it all gets fixed right.

 

[designit]

Wondering if this was all of the sudden?... Or thinking back (now that it's happened) was there any sort of clicking sound you heard? ever?... I've seen some report ticking noises in the engine... (which obviously would be a Q to pull up the cops & check the plugs...

??

 

[99exbyut]

i didnt hear anything. i was just getting up to speed just right out of work and then all i heard was a bang. but i did read about this happening before i bought mine but never heard any of the signs of it going bad

 

[Thermo]

Panda, the blown plug thing is a common problem with 97 to early 04 5.4L motors. This is due to an engineering design flaw (3 threads for the plug hole in an aluminum head). This was updated in early 04 when Ford also went with the fancy plug while they also updated to 5 threads. Granted, my Expy now has 6 threads in each plug hole as I have Timesert'ed the entire engine following my blown plug.

99Expyut, I wish you had the time, I would send out my Timesert kit and let you use that. Then all you would have to pay for is the shipping both ways and the new insert ($12 per cylinder). To do the insert only takes but maybe an hour with the motor installed. Because it is #4, may take just a little longer due to the lack of room.

 

[JDMitchell]

99Expyut, I wish you had the time, I would send out my Timesert kit and let you use that. Then all you would have to pay for is the shipping both ways and the new insert ($12 per cylinder). To do the insert only takes but maybe an hour with the motor installed. Because it is #4, may take just a little longer due to the lack of room.

That is a seriously generous offer! That is why I love forums like this.

 

[sepedajh]

Blew mine too.

I was on my way home from Vegas last January and about 2 miles from the house, I heard a pop and it sounded like my truck started shooting a machine gun. Come to find out, blew the plug. The back one. About 800 bucks to repair out here. I was lucky to even find a shop that could do it in a day. I was either turned down, or told a week. I did not even get the luxury of fixing it with the kit they have for this issue. I had to put a heli coil (that how you spell it?). Worst thing about my Expo. Other than that, the beast has 156,000 miles and runs like a beast.

 

[Soldier777]

so if you blow a plug do you loose power or what ? I turned on my A/C the other day and after about 5 min there was a loud bang sound. but the thing is I have all power and my a/c work just fine. But the sound was a very loud bang and i felt it in the cab. just curious it should run rough right if the plug is blown?

 

[tmajikman]

so if you blow a plug do you loose power or what ? I turned on my A/C the other day and after about 5 min there was a loud bang sound. but the thing is I have all power and my a/c work just fine. But the sound was a very loud bang and i felt it in the cab. just curious it should run rough right if the plug is blown?

Yeah, on 7 cylinders the truck should run very rough.

 

[Soldier777]

thats what I thought... huh oh well i will just see if it happens again... thanks

 

[tmajikman]

thats what I thought... huh oh well i will just see if it happens again... thanks

no problem, open the hood and see if anything is wrong or broken.

 

[Soldier777]

I did, I checked everything and it is exactly how it was ... thats what is so weird

 

[sepedajh]

Just pop the hood and check your cop's. They are screwed in. When my plug blew, I lost power, and it blew the cop off with it. enough to snap it in half where it bolts to the motor. I would assume yours would do that to it if blew. I would just give them a quick glance to double check. You would still here it though. Mine sounded like a super loud machine gun.

 

[99exbyut]

Thermo maybe when i get back from my deployment i will ask if i can borrow so that timesert kit so that i can do all of the plugs so that i know that this wont be happening again.

cause i thought about doing a home made STS turbo kit for towing

 

[Thermo]

99, you say when brother (retired navy here). This will be vital, especially if you plan on adding a turbo as the cylinder pressures will get much, much higher leading to the possibility of a blown plug.