Ford techs ,spark plug blew out in 5.4

A good buddy of mine has a 02 f250 with a 5.4 and it blew a plug out , the threads are gone, my ? Is will a helicoil repair kit work , I see they have a kit at autozone and is it a easy job or best to take it to a dealer ?

You can do just as good of a job as the dealer. the best way to do it and know it will hold is pull the head and put a flanged insert in from the chamber side. I forget who makes it. My lightning blew 2 out, and I ended up getting a deal from Ford labor at tech hourly wage $18.00 hr and heads replaced at dealer cost. The 2003 PI comes with a full complement of threads the 2002 down has only 4. It will be only a matter of time before another one comes out.

The main deal is not torquing the plugs too much, go by the Ford spec.

buy the kit from Cal-Van tools pt#38900 , works great for doing it on the truck
http://www.cal-vantools.com/p-15-two-valve-ford-triton-spark-plug-thread-repair-kit.aspx
it's the best kit
Frank

Work without pulling the heads too ? or just the best way pulled ? He's probably gonna take it to a dealer , I said if its screwing in a helicoil I,ll help him.

no pulling the heads , done 10 - 12 holes for myself and friends
Frank

Frank Merkl wrote:buy the kit from Cal-Van tools pt#38900 , works great for doing it on the truck
http://www.cal-vantools.com/p-15-two-valve-ford-triton-spark-plug-thread-repair-kit.aspx
it's the best kit
Frank

X2 have done this repair several times and it works !

nuclearcobra wrote:Work without pulling the heads too  ? or just the best way pulled ? He's probably gonna take it to a dealer , I said if its screwing in a helicoil I,ll help him.

. Like I said best way if you want it never to come out. The inserts from the outsides effectiveness depends on your mechanic. I have seen several put in and blow back out later.

Thanks Guys ,  and Happy Easter   

Gasser problems......

Does this problem affect the '03 Harley 5.4 Supercharged engines? I have an all stock '03 with 59,000 miles and I suspect its due for plugs and all these posts make wonder if I am asking for trouble with a plug change?

The early PI heads 2002 and down only had 4 threads in the head. 2003 and up they went to 12 threads and seems to have solved the problem.

Your Harley should have the retro heads with the added threads.

Thank you!

My 2002 HD supercrew has blown out two. One before I owned it and one after I purchased it. I had heard that this was an issue so I drove down to Autozone and bought a set of plugs. I pulled out of the parking lot, nailed it and the next thing you know "pop". Number 3 had blown out. I had read that you can sometimes tell when they are about to blow. They will develop a faint tick as the plug begins to loosen. Mine, in fact, had a slight tick and this was one of the reasons I decided to do the plug swap just in case. I found the #3 coil pack tab broken due to the plug being blown out. The #2 coil pack I found broken in like manner. Someone had placed a piece of fuel line between it and the fuel rail to hold it securely in place. Seemed to be working just fine.

I purchased the repair kit from NAPA. Put the #3 near TDC and started work. Used the supplied tool to ream and seat the new insert. Blew out the shavings with compressed air(they fly right out-path of least resistance). Then gently collapsed the top by carefully hammering it down. I used red loctite on the insert as well.

10k miles later of hammering on it and it's still in place. My truck has a 8# lower so it is seeing increased cylinder pressure. Both it and the one in #2 have worked flawlessly. IIRC, the technique is too check for tightness every 10k so I'm due right now. Will check to see if any of the plugs are loose. Apparently if you maintain tightness there should not be an issue. I don't think guys are tightening them enough. You don't need to torque them to spec. Torque specs. are kind of low. I tighten mine down like I would on any aluminum head. Don't worry about being too tight. A number of folks have tested tightening them to over 100 ft/lbs with the head off of the engine and broke the plug before the threads gave way. This was the 4-5 thread heads. Just nice and snug and check them every 10k and you should be fine. Racing applications should get the time serts as Blake mentioned.

Frank

My buddy took it to the ford dealer and they told him its a 50/50 chance it works at all ?

nuclearcobra wrote:My buddy took it to the ford dealer and they told him its a 50/50 chance it works at all ?

nothing against the dealer, their just covering there asses...?

Not trying to knock the dealer but i've done alot of these fixes with the kit from napa on pre 03 super duties and never had any recurring issues. Just like anything its all about pm's. 10-15k miles we check our plugs along with the normal pm.