So after seeing numerous posts on how bad this plug change was to do, I took my truck to school to do it where my instructor has the same truck and has never broken a plug so i thought i'd share my success story and what we did...it shouldve taken like an hour but i kept gettin flustered trying to get the coil bolts back in(tight spaces) took 2...first get the truck hot, what we did was disconnect the vacuum hose from the brake booster and attach a hose that is down in a bottle of combustion chamber cleaner to the vaccum line and start the truck and let it suck in all the cleaner should take like 15-20 min...while that is working you can loosen the pcm & bracket(makes it easier to get to 3 & 4 coils and plugs) and all the coil bolts...when the cleaner is all sucked in and the engine is very warm shut it off and unplug and pull out all your coils and use a 3/8 impact and zap them plugs out as fast as you can and you got em...put some antiseize on your threads and ground shied thingy and tighten em to i think it was 25 ft lbs put ur coils back in plug em up and attach your pcm and bracket back to the firewall and fire it up ur done!...well this is not the way the tsb says to do it but it worked for me and he said that he was 24-0 doing it this way so just thought id share...I'm good to go for another 80-100k miles

 

how hard was it getting to the ones way in the back? thats what ive been wondering. dang motor is halfway under the dash on these things.

 

The only thing I see wrong with your procedure is the antisieze on the threads. The Motorcraft plugs are nickle coated and do not require antisieze on the threads, just the shank.

 

Another success story of a fast full force removal

 

Hopefully you changed the oil afterwards too....

 

I'm assuming the "3/8" impact" you used was a battery type and not a pneumatic type. Most techs I know recommend the battery type.

 

i took the pcm and bracket off and used a couple of swivel extentions and put the socket in with a little extention then just snake some swivel extentions out til you can put the impact on it...thats how i did it

 

we just used shop air no problems but im sure a good battery type will work too

 

More details please

What kind of combustion chamber cleaner and how much of it?
How many miles on your truck?
And you put the OLD plugs back in??? If new plugs which brand and #?

Thanks.....gonna be doing this to my 08 this spring.
Should have about 50,000 on her when I get to it.

 

I believe any combustion chamber cleaner will work it helps clean carbon deposits off the shank and under the threads to minimize binding during removal and breaking off(we used mopar brand)...my truck has 91,xxx miles on it when i did my plugs...and i most definately put new plugs back in they were motorcraft but i'll have to get back to you on part no. but im sure sombody else knows it too on here

 

It's a lot safer putting Techron in the gas than it is sucking solvent down the booster hose.

Your 08 may not have this issue - look at the COP boots - if they are brown, you have the redesigned heads with conventional plugs. If they are black, then you have the 2 piece plugs.

Plugs for the old heads are SP-515, the new heads take SP-509.

 

sp-515 is what i used

 

I had a guy telling me to do this yesterday while I was getting my exhaust done! I've been reading about how to deal with these plugs for over a month now! My shop has me running 3 tanks treated with Seafoam before they attempt the change. he told me they have moderate success with it, but theres at lease one that breaks. I guess if you think about it, it's pretty easy to free a rusted nut if you heat it up with a torch right?

I'll be glad when I get thesse things changed, the thought of a possible $600 tune up is killing me! I'm gonna show this to my mechanic and see what he thinks. I guess the worst that can happen is the plug breaks...

 

Seafoam is garbage.....use chevron techron instead ......

 

boy this makes me feel a little better about doing plugs in my truck.

So what is the perfered method? Vacuum booster or just run three tank fulls of CC cleaner?