Spark plugs popping out in Ford engines
- Thread starter Van on 66
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Yeah, it happened on my 2002 F150 that has the 5.4L motor. I personally think they should have recalled it and or paid for the repair. I work for Ford Motor Company and at one of the Plants where the F150 is made and went as far as I could up the ladder to see if I could get some assistance to no avail so I finally just fixed them myself. There’s a kit at the auto parts stores made by Dorman that I would avoid. I’ve gone a lot of research on the repair and what the in-house repair folks recommended was using a kit made by Calvan. It includes the drill, the tap and the inserts. Watch the vids and follow the instructions. It’s a fairly easy repair. Kinda tight to work on the ones in the back cylinders but can get each one done in about 15 mins each... I found my kit on eBay for $125, and it was missing 4 inserts so I bought 4 more and with this kit, you’ll never have to worry about it again.
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Here’s an eBay link for anyone that’s interested in them. Just make sure the kit matches your engine. There’s two or more kits depending on how many valves your cylinder head has.... The one in link is the 3 valve kit. Mine was the 2 valve kit...
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/99?loc=https://www.ebay.com/p/759610378?iid=133053478615
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https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/99?loc=https://www.ebay.com/p/759610378?iid=133053478615
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Depends on the years. I think it was the older ones. It really wasn’t that big a deal to fix. Every vehicle and brand out there will have something your gonna have to deal with. If your looking at buying one, perhaps negotiate having that particular repair into the deal if it falls within that year/ model range. Mine was a 2002 and last year was the first time it happened so it lasted 18yrs before I had that problem... The one you look at may have already been converted to the Calvan inserts. And they don’t fail...
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highdesertranger
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on 1999-2008 Ford V-8 or V-10 gas engines it can happen to. it is totally random if it happens or not. frankly I don't understand how Ford got away with this. especially because it overlaps the whole 6.0 diesel fiasco. highdesertranger
Bobhdus said:
And that is pretty solid advise. I have been toying with the idea of buying a 2004 E350 that happens to have the 5.4 in it. So after watching Bob's video today about which van to buy and hearing him advise to not buy a Ford van between 1999 and 2008 because of this issue, I began having my doubts.
highdesertranger said:
Yeah. I was taken back when I saw all the things that google pulled up about this. Welcome to corporate America right!
BTW highdesertranger, I got caught like a deer in the headlights this past Friday when I took my Astro to a friends shop to have it looked over since I was in the area where he lives and he insisted that I drop by to have it all looked over at his expense, I discovered that EVERYTHING is leaking from the bottom of the radiator, to the transmission, to the engine (it was completely soaked) to the differential, and then all the way to the back. It also turned out that the reason why my air conditioner had no freon was that when the mechanic who installed a rebuilt engine in it a couple of months before I bought it, put the engine back in on top of the air conditioner hose. Just the preliminary estimate to do this work was around 5K. With that said, and with other repairs needed that I already knew about, I opted to look into getting another van so I am shopping.
Van on 66 said:
Knowing what I know now, the issue doesn’t bother me anymore cause it’s an easy fix. Don’t even have to pull the cylinder head. Just remove the COP, the spark plug and then drill/ tap, and run the plugs back in with the new insert( with the high temp loctite). Only two details that come up is making sure piston is at bottom of stroke before drilling/ tapping and blowing the aluminum chips out from the drilling/ tapping. It’s about a 15-20 min job per cylinder (for determining shop rate) and the cost of the kit. If you priced having someone else doing it, you can negotiate the vehicle price down to compensate for the issue or have them do it themselves as part of the deal. I did mine out in my driveway in the cold last winter and it runs like a brand new truck and it’ll never blow one out again.
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highdesertranger
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doing it with the head still on the engine is just asking for trouble, you will never keep all the drill shavings out of the cylinder. do it the right way and pull the head. highdesertranger
My 2004 Mustang GT with a 4.6L modular motor had this happen twice. It was still driveable (to get home) as long as you unplugged the coil pack for that cylinder. It was a helicoil kit that fixed it.
There were also cam phaser problems with the 5.4 that start clicking to let you know to fix it soon.
There were also cam phaser problems with the 5.4 that start clicking to let you know to fix it soon.
highdesertranger said:
I was concerned about that too so I alternated between compressed air and a shop vac with small tube and used a cheap usb inspection camera and didn’t put the plugs back in until they’re were clear. The heads are soft aluminum on a steel block. If the heads were steel I would never attempt to do this with the heads still on the vehicle. Some people use a heavy grease on the drill and tap to capture chips as well.
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