Rocks, you and another guy here said it best. You have to just not think and worry about it and thats what I am going to do. Drive it and take care of it like I do to all my cars and if anyhting happens then I will deal with it then.

Thanks for the input guys!!

 

NTIMD8


That's a good way to sum it all up. I am about to put the 03 to the test. Here in about 3 weeks I'll be sporting an extra 100 H.P. in the first of many stages in making this darned slow truck fast...LOL.

Damned the plug popping issue...I plan a built long block within the year anyway.


Rocks

 

I have personally talked to 4 different people who did not have 1 mod on their truck when a rod broke! i have seen 2 with my own eyes that were stock and broke a rod. and even saw 1 crown vic with a broken rod.there's a few reasons what i believe is the main problem.....
# 1 not all of the rods are xrayd and checked,therefor some with flaws will get installed in someones engine!
#2 these rods are a (powder/cracked) rod and are very long stroke.wrong choice in my book!
#3 were just flat out over powering the rods! yes there are many out there @ high mph runs probably detonating like crazy and they break! if these powder rods were not used to start with then we would have spark plugs blowing the tips off and maybe bending a valve. thats about it,maybe in extreme cases damaging a piston ring land.no matter how we look at it svt should have atleast put the h-beams in like the cobra to start with!(i would pay extra)this would have saved ford alot of $$ and the consumer too who gets stuck paying for a new engine! and would have saved us ALL from a big headache... JL

 

Johnny if I sell my camaro I plan on building this motor. I will call you and talk to you about that. In the mean time I still have to send you my chip for the reburn we talked about a few months ago. I dont expect you to remeber that convo since it was a few months ago. I just am getting better after a major operation so thats why I did not send you the chip earlier. Talk to you soon.

 

There is a fair amount of non supercharged (plain old 5.4 normally asperated) engines that are blowing plugs too.

 

More unsubstantiated data, unless you have a link to back this up, and not a link to someone else claiming "fair amount", this statement means nothing.

I must be the luckiest som bit#h alive...I own 12...count em....12 ford vehicles with 5.4's and NO blown plugs. These vehicles are used HARD by service technicians with 2500 lbs or more of weight including tools, parts, ect.

I believe the issue is with the mechanical aptitude of the plug changers. And don't start squawking about how some Ford tech did it...that just helps to prove my point.

There are millions of 5.4 engines in use today, 15 or 20 "guy's" popping plugs does not mean there is some mass production issue.

Hell, we should be having trouble driving around all the broke down Fords to hear some posters around here tell it. Maybe I should buy a helmet, with all the plugs flying around the atmosphere.

Better yet, how about some folks start assuming some responsibility for they're own actions, and try to fight the infantile urge to point at someone else and cry..."It's his fault, I'm fricking perfect". Jesus...welcome to the real world kiddies.


Rocks

 

Quick and simple lesson on failures...

One way to fail is to stress the part beyond it ultimate tensile strength. If this was the cause, then the plugs would immediately fly out of the cylinder because it would happen right away.

Another way is fatigue. But with a properly torqued sparkplug, there will be no oscillation between tension and compression, so the fatigue is largely reduced.

A 3rd way is the spark plug is loose and gets hammered up and down on the threads beating them to **** until there's not enough left to hold the plug and it launches it.

Moral of the story... Check your damn plugs. A tight plug will not just fly out. So many of the stories start with "I heard a noise". That means its friggen loose and tearing stuff up. Would more threads help? Yes. Would Ford making sure the plugs were tight when they build the engines help? Yes. Could you solve the problem and get off your lazy *** and check you spark plugs torque? Yes!!!!

 

LMAO Now its time for the Springer show

 

NTIMD8,

Have you had a chance to find out if Campbells is mod-friendly or not?

 

This is not a flame and I'm not a brand slave so I'm not defending Ford and I have sympathy for owners who've had the bad luck but...

You (and others) make these statements about "% astoudingly high" yet my observation it's probabaly 1% or less for the Gen II L's. Let's get some perspective here. The sky is not falling in the L world. I also think most agree that throwing a rod in a modded truck is the owners deal. How many rods were thrown in stock trucks? Not many, JL knows of a couple so right now we're talki' less than 1/10th of 1%. Both the plug launch and the rod throw could be caused by a negligent owner. We don't have to put up with it as you say, we need to take responsibility for how we operate and maintain the truck. What we do have to put up with is that nothing's perfect, including us and our toys.