Well I had a very eventfull last couple days. I have been meaning to remove, clean and antiseize the plugs in my 04 Lariat 5.4 before the plugs became fuzed to the head after 100K. The truck has approx. 46k on the clock.

Well as per the TSB on plug removal, I had the engine warm etc...the first plug was no problem, a bit tough, but came out with soaking in penatrating oil. The second plug...snap. the outer electrode was still in the head. I was pissed and vey worried.

I came to the conclusion the truck was getting towed to Ford to get the part of the plug removed from the head and pay for it. I didn't have the tool required to remove it and it was going to be 4 days to get one.

I decided the next day (today) to make the removal tool. I looked at the pictures of the tool on Ebay and reverse engineered it after taking some measuerments in the spark plug hole.

I went to my work and spent 2 hours machining the tool I designed and to my delight it got the broken part out!!

Now I just have to make couple of minor changes to the parts I made and tackle the rest of the plugs.

Changing the plugs is not easy, but possible. I concider myself pretty lucky to have the ability and tooling at my disposal to bail myself out.

 

Check the link in my sig. They use the removal tool.

 

your plug snapped on that first 1/8 turn?, dang has to suck... i followed to the T, the smallest little turn then penetrant, all mine fought coming out but the backing in then backing out with a little penetrant did work... congrats on the tool fabrication... before i did my plugs i had created all kinds of scenarios and stragedies to get the plugs out if they broke. i still wanna try some of my theories on some broken plugs... good luck on the rest, you will feel way better when new ones go in with the antiseize

 

So I have a pretty dumb question, but do you feel with this special socket/tool off Ebay I would be able to change my plugs no problem, even with 82k and Im guessing original plugs?
Thanks.

 

I have been a machinist for 17 years and with a lot of experience tapping holes. When you tap the M9X1 thread in the broken part left in the head you have to be carefull not to break the tap. It was not easy to tap, felt like the material might have had some heat treating done. I only got about 2 1/2 turns done on the tap and was fearing it was close to snapping with the amount of torque I was puting on it. 2 turns with the rod part of the removal tool was enough to hold it and pull it out.

You have no idea how greatful I was when that part came out.

If that tap snaps in that head, there is a tool that can remove the broken tap but that is not going to be easy and not 100% guaranteed. I would hate to have to remove the head for a broken tap. Make sure you have a good quality ground tap that is very sharp (new).

 

It wasn't 1/8 of a turn, I had it loose after soaking and it was tight coming out and slowly getting easier as you would expect. When I pulled out the plug there it was, a broken plug.

They are actually made up with 2 parts that are swedged together and when you remove the plug, the upper part unswedges and leaves the other behind.

Did Ford redesign the head or the plug to deal with this in 06-07?

 

So after researching further Ill just save up and make Fred Ricarts Ford crew do it for me.... No reason for me to F things up.

 

That's what the smart thing would have been to do...but the answer is no. Ford has not addressed the known issue other than advising a removal tool usage and procedure. Spark plug changes have now become a potentially massive pain in the ****.

 

I believe 07+ have anti-seize compound but that's still a WEAK fix.

 

Smart move

 

How is it a weak fix? I've pulled mine with no problems.

PS: I even pulled mine on my 2004 F150 with NO problems.

 

Lots of people have no problems changing plugs on the 5.4 3 valve engines, but I feel bad for the ones that do.

 

Exactly, it gets real old when everyone tries to blow this out of proportion.

 

how much would ford charge to change the plugs, i am a major do it yourselfer but damn i dont want to break a plug...

 

pull them and replace them with aftermarket cooler plugs. they are too hot to begin with and caused preignition/blowout in my motor. now no buiold up and i anti seized them anyway.