Cylinder Head Question

[rmckenna]

I'm having problems with the spark plug thread on my 2000 Expedition EB Left Hand cylinder head. I put a hiel coil in it, and it worked fine for about 3,000 miles, but now it is acting up again. I was told that if the vehicle was something that I was going to keep, to put a used head on it rather than try to fix the thread again, as they told me that I would continue to have problems with it. My question is, what year cylinder heads fit my vehicle. I called the ford garage, and they told me the 00-01 heads would only fit. Does anyone know if the machine shops are doing anything different to fix these ford heads. My head has already been tapped once, does this mean it can't be done again? If you buy a manf. head, they charge you a core charge for your head and then fix your old head and re-sell it.

 

[mustangrfast88]

you might want to check with a ford garage and see if your truck wasnt one of the engines that had a bad head and was blowing spark plugs right out of the head and no they dont just fix your head the send it back and melt it down and make a new head.

i mean there was a tsb on some of the engine that had bad heads causong the spark plugs to be blown right oput of the head

 

[green03]

I hear rumors that they have produced a new version of the PI heads in 03 that have fully threaded spark plug holes. All previous heads have only about 3-4 threads in the head for the plug to grip.
There is something called a time-sert that makes a nice repair, helicoils don't work well in this application. There is even a version that is installed from the bottom with the heads off at the machine shop. These are a permanent steel thread insert that is put in from the bottom. I would buy a set of stage one heads from Patriot Performance (cnc ported stock heads) use antisieze on the plugs (not recommended by the dealer) and torque to 11-12 ft-lbs and re-check every 20K miles.
Just my 2 cents.
Matt