So my lady "friend" is driving to my house in her F250 last night. She calls me on her cell in a panic that her truck is making a terrible noise. I'm trying to calm her down and get her to explain the noise to me. She says it is "popping"
she gets out and holds the cell phone under the hood while the truck is running.

Of course everything is distorted and "tinny" sounding through a cell phone, I sort of scratch my head and go, well it sure sounds like it's running on an open cyliner as though you have lost a spark plug or a severely broken exhaust manifold or something.

I tell her I'll come pick her up and deal with the truck in the morning, she decides to drive the rest of the short distance to my house. Come daylight I go outside to have a look, sure enough,it has launched a spark plug out of one cylinder and broken the individual ignition coil that those trucks use.

(it's a '99 Superduty with a 5.4)

So I tried to put a new plug back in after buying new plugs and an ignition coil. No go, couldn't get a plug started for the life of me, of course it's midway back of the engine compartment with very little room to work way down in a hole.

Anybody have any good suggestions how to repair this???

 

If it's a aluminum head, we used these on the old air-cooled VWs when the spark plugs came out with the threads still attached.



Grease up the tap, line it up, tap it out, turn the engine over to blow out the chips, locktite on the outside threads of the insert, thread onto the new spark plug (using anti-seize compound), and screw into the new threaded hole.

If it's a cast iron head, pulling the head and installing a helicoil may be your only option.

 

VERY common problem on the 5.4. Ford actually has a tool to drill out the head and install a helicoil, I believe it is available aftermarket also. It is the only other option besides replacing the head. The heicoil repair does hold up very well, as long as you drill it out straight. Let me guess, #3 or #4 cylinder?

Good luck

Tim

 

Thanks Shovelhead.

In fact I have done that exact procedure on my 71' Super Beetle that I still have..... It only lasted so long until it blew again and I replaced the head....

I DO NOT WANT TO PULL THE HEAD ON THIS THING!!!!! That looks like a big ugly time consuming job that I do not have time for right now. I just did a large amount of drivetrain work to this thing over the last couple of weekends.

I appreciate all your tips, I wonder what that magic ford tool is called. Anyone know what the head on a 5.4 is made of?

 

Mmmmm, not sure which cylinder it is, I forget off the top of my head. Facing the engine, it's probably the second cylinder back on your left. (If I remember right)

 

The head is aluminum, I can get the name and part# of the tool for you Sunday.

Tim

 

Thread all 8 for diesel injectors???
;-)

 

You might want to check with FORD to see if they will cover it under warranty. The same thing happened to a friend of mine a couple of years back (truck was out of warranty) but they covered it anyway. I think they might have one of those "secret" warranties for that issue.

I would check it out. Maybe you will get lucky.

 

Wow that would be pretty awesome considering the truck is a '99 with 175,000 miles on it..

I doubt I would get that lucky though.

 

At a pervious job, we had a 99 f350 w/ 5.4 in it and it launched number 7 spark plug. It had 80,000 on it at the time. If I remember correctly we pulled the head on it and took it to a machining shop and they drilled and helicoiled the head. I do remember it was a PITA just because of all the stuff you have to take off to get the head out.

 

Try thread chasing the rear hole, pass side on a V-10! Not fun at all. We did get lucky and just chasing the threads worked for us "that" time! NAPA makes a thread chaser for spark plug holes. Has both size of threads on it. Here is one from Lisle too.

http://www.usatoolsinc.com/index.asp...D&ProdID=18139

 

That is way over. I think he was about a year and 15,000 over his warranty when he got it done. I think you are right, I don't think you will be as lucky.

 

It's not too bad to pull if oyu have to. Ther's actually lots of room to work once the intake is out of the way.

IIRC you'll need new head bolts though. They are torque to yeild....

 

The Ford kit is about $600 bucks, so I found another one for you that is $30-50 bucks.

Car Quest Auto parts, part #5334-14, M14/1.25

This kit comes with the tappered tap, you don't need a drill, you just use a 3/8 drive ratchet, it self centers. The kit also come with 3 helicoil repair sleeves, use the N sleeve, N=normal. Just make sure you put grease on the tap and the engine is COLD, and vacuum out everything you can.

Good luck,

Tim