05 SuperCrew been on the road since January of 06 w/60,000 miles.

I've had it about a month, bought it used. Been sitting on the lot for about 3 months prior to that.

Had already read about the plugs here in the forums (before I bought the truck), read the TSB, got some PM-3 carb cleaner from the Ford dealer and an OTC socket online. Ran a tank of Techron treated gas through it more for the heckuvit than anything. Didn't figure it would help, figured it wouldn't hurt.

Last Saturday blew the dirt off, pulled the COPS & the PCM & bracket.

Turned 5, 6, 7, & 8 1/8 turn and added 3/4 tsp of carb cleaner. Waited 30 minutes. Rotated repeatedly from snug through 1/8 turn to 1/4 turn until plugs rotated easily. Waited 30 minutes. Rotated repeatedly from 1/8 turn out to 3/8 turn. Waited 30 minutes. Rotated repeatedly from 1/4 to 1/2, then 1/2 to 3/4.

Waited 30 minutes. Started pulling plugs. They all came out with minimal effort-none of them made any squeaking noise at this point. #5 & #8 were broken, #6 & #7 were not. Both broken plugs/insulators were split at the tapered seat, with the outer shell "un-flared"-opened up enough for the ground shield to stay behind. #8 left the center electrode in the lower half of the insulator, pulled it out with a pair of hemostats.

Ordered up the Lisle kit and put the job on hold.

Got the kit Thursday, pulled out the #5 bottom half.

Saturday morning pulled out the #8. Repeated above procedure on 1-4. #1 & #2 came out, #3 broke (at the ground shield-center electrode came out with the rest of the plug), #4 came out in one piece (barely) with the flared tapered seat on the shell about half opened up and the ground shield loose.

The ones that came out in one piece were wet with carb cleaner and dissolved carbon all the way to the tip.

Only other thing I noted using the Lisle tool was that I turned the ceramic pusher until I felt the first ground strap break, then stopped immediately. On my tool with my engine, this left approximately one thread of the "pusher" exposed above the body of the tool. Was at least 1/8" away from being bottomed out.

This left plenty of room for the extractor to bite into the stuck ground shield. The first plug took three tries to extract. On the second two I seated the extractor, tapped it with a hammer repeatedly, tightened it again, tapped it again, tightened it again and ran the puller nut down and extracted the shields.

Used an air venturi vac with a 3/8" nylon tube on it to suck the ceramic nuggies out of the hole after pushing the ceramic. Used shop air to blow out the #5 but didn't like blowing the crap everywhere.

Am definitely not an expert, but it sure looked to me like the ones that were stuck/split/broke were going to be that way no matter what method I used.

Gaps on the intact plugs removed were all right around .070"-hard to measure to the center of the pit in the ground strap though.

New ones went in with nickle anti-seize (use it at work on other stuff, didnt have to buy it).

Planning on doing it again in another 40,000 miles.

What's really messed up is that I'm kinda looking forward to doing it again...

 

OR you could come do the job to my truck..lol

 

Good job! You have a lot of patience! LOL

 

Congrats, the hard part is over. Enjoy your ride.

 

Thanks!

Learned patience doing my day job. Could likely make a living doing flat-rate if I had to, but am getting older. Being near-sighted and needing bifocals is a major pain.

But the other stuff I work on makes it pretty tough to pull off the side of the road and park if you have a problem. Also access can be a major pain.

If what you need to get two is behind 2-3 other layers of parts (typical) you just dig in until you get there...

Thanks to everybody here who has posted their experiences.

 

Congrats!