September of 2009 if I remember correctly but that's not the point. I They something that was perfectly perfected and needed no improvements in my opinion and cause an issue. No one out there would say that they did a great job on the three valve. They screwed up in more ways than one. Then they had to go back and fix their screw-ups.
The two-piece plug design and it breaking off in the head is a classic example why I tell people they should not believe so fully the engineers and the manufacturers who recommend thanks. This is precisely a situation that shows they really don't know what's going to happen in a couple of years. People talk about all the testing and research they do and all the torture test for hundreds of thousands of miles and Laboratories and even on the road... Well obviously they didn't figure that out now did they.
It took until it was an epidemic problem and a huge percentage of vehicles if not almost everyone that was having the plugs chains at the recommended change interval was having the plugs break off inside of the head. We had dealers pulling heads off of engines because of this. If that's not a design flaw I don't know what it is. Because some moron made a two piece plug that fits too closely into a cylindrical hole in the block with a terrible design with a torpedo tip on it to start will stick so badly that it breaks in half as you try to remove it.
I wouldn't have had to fix it years ago if they wouldn't have screwed it up in the first place.
Now don't get me started on the moron that allowed them to make the first gen 5.4 heads with only 3 and 1/2 threads in the head.
The 2-valve was perfected and needed no improvements? How about being outdated and getting outperformed by global competitors and domestics alike. The old 4 speed trans was in the same boat. If they kept offering old setups the market would just go elsewhere and they would be out of business. You’ll have to take your variable cam timing hate back to the 1st gen section.
Offering that old drivetrain setup today is like trying to market a horse and buggy next to cars.....good luck with sales.
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