well im drivin home right now doin about 25 mph. just blew a plug about 10 minutes ago. put on some headers about 2 weeks ago and I couldn't pinpoint an exhaust leak. well tonight drivin home it started sounding worse. then within about 10 minutes the plug totally blew out. got about 20 more miles to go. this sucks. oh yea. in case its a surprise its a 2000. :-) . I also got new plugs about 2 weeks ago but hadn't put them in yet. what a *****ty coincidence!

 

That sucks Bro

Rule #1 is when you think you have an exhaust leak and you cant find an exhaust leak, it's a lose plug.

There are a few fixed for this; inserts, heli coils, or time serts
YOU WANT THE TIME SERT


Part number 5553 Ford spark plug repair kit,
price $350.28 this includes all the tools and 5 inserts.

There is a Brother here on F-150 who just fixed his a few weeks ago and might be willing to rent you the tool HERE

More info here in this post, one Brother even has a Step by Step Pic fix he did on his Crown Vic

BEST OF LUCK ...

 

thanks 4 the info. im still not sure if the header isn't actually leaking. The sound started immediately after I started the truck after I installed the driver side header. The leak was constant in the cab until about 10 minutes before it popped. Although a few days ago on thursday the engine was running with the hood up and I thought I heard a little louder leak and wrote it off as the header leak getting worse. In a way it would be nice if it is the plug. I actually took the header off and reinstalled it with bolts and tried to do it the "right" way. When I fired it up the sound was exactly the same. the bigger problem might be that when I had my mechanic change out the plugs(about 6 months ago) he actually showed me a plug that had a threaded sleave that seamed like it was epoxied to the threads on the plug. It was oversize. Im not sure if the prior owner just tapped a larger hole or what they did. The original owner owned a carquest so you would think he would have known better. This happened before I started looking around on the message boards, and I had him helicoil it. :-( Im not really sure what my options are going to be since its been tapped larger. oh well. thanks for lettin me vent :-)

 

Been there dont that....



Wow so you already have inserts, that kinda changes everything...


I had issues with inserts coming out when I changed plugs on my old 02 (it's original built motor) What I did was had the machine shop provide me with another set of inserts (and the proper Sleeve Retainer (glue) to put um back in permantly. It worked...


BTW they also melt if they stick in too far (like mine obviously did)

You can tell by this picture the machine shop never pinned mine either hence the reason they unscrewed with the sparkplugs, but I'm told they dont have to be pinned if the proper sleeve retainer is used ??? Either way if they're done right they last forever, I hope yours is an easy fix but I wouldnt keep running it until you figure out what really happen, you sound unsure ???

Did you check all the plugs yet ???

 

that's the insert that was on the plug. I Was unsure of what it was because the mechanic or myself coudlnt get the insert off the plug. it wasn't melted. it also had epoxy or some kind of glue in between the plug and insert(it was actually showing on the topside of the plug) the substance was very hard. so im sure it wasn't antiseize or something like that. so is that a timesert? never acutally seen one. thanks for the pic, that helped a lot.

 

going to get the timesert kit. can't find it for 350 anywhere though. cheapest I found was 400?

 

No that is NOT a Time Sert, thats a basic insert that it seems most machine shops use.

We questioned the maching shop that did those inserts for me and they told us they dont have to be pinned. I however feel differant those grooves were put there for a very specific reason from the MFG that made them, so the machine shop could drill a small hole and pin each insert in multi locations, (hence making it impossible for them to ever come out).
It appears no one bothers to install them right @*%#$@(#(@$%$

What about that link above where the Brother was willing to rent his kit and inserts out, no luck there ??? BEST OF LUCK

 

Well in my great wisdom I decided to look around for a similar item to a timesert. I thought since it was the brand name there would be something similar to it, but without the timesert label. Well I got impatient and ordered a kit from matco tools. I wanted to get the order in by the next day air deadline. I also took extra days off of work this week before the plug blew, so I wanted to get it done before thursday. Well after doing more research I started noticing that the helicoil kits and timesert kits look "somewhat similar". I didn't know. Needless to say a bought a similar kit. BUT ITS SIMILAR TO A HELICOIL. I also found out that the timesert kits are NICE! I didn't think they would be worth 400 bucks, but after looking around they really are. Well I had to learn the hard way. I figure I can go ahead and use this on this plug and get a timesert afterwards. The timesert kit bores the hole bigger than the helicoil anyway, right? CHEAPA$$ MOVE OF THE DAY GOS TO ME! thanks for the info though. sorry im stubborn :-) P.S. maybe I can sell this kit to some loser like myself. hehe