I took my truck in for a tuneup at my local mechanics shop and it turned into a nightmare. The plugs are a 2 piece design that happen to break and have issues comeing out of the head, and on top of that the mechanic broke the specialized tool built for Ford that removes these horribly designed plugs. Now Im looking at huge money because the engine had to be removed in order to get the heads off of the motor and be able to extricate the other plugs.
How many miles on this truck?
This could be a prime example of why the recommendation about leaving spark plugs in place for 100k miles or infinity is utter bunk.
Plugs should come out about every 40-50k miles and if they’re out then replace them at that time because a visual inspection is not a sure-fire thing.
The spark plugs in Ford Triton engines are notorious for breaking off and causing major headaches. On the other hand I’ve changed many spark plugs that have been in place for 100k miles or more with no problem. The Triton is just a special piece of work.
the truck has just under 83000 miles on it and I only wanted to change the plugs because I noticed a stumble at idle while at stop lights and such…the motors out and Im looking at a 1300 plus bill—the engine is full of carbon too and has to be cleaned out badly.
There is a TSB for this… Included is a method to prevent this from happening…
Experience in doing over 100 of these things, I have had good luck in performing an upper engine decarbon procedure… The decarbon helps loosen up the carbon residue holding the plug tips in.
You need to get the engine hot, run the cleaner thru, occassionaly reving the engine to prevent the cleaner from pooling in the intake. Finish the can of cleaner, shut the engine off and allow to cool. Plugs usually come out.
It is still not full proof but for all the plugs I have changed following the decarbon, I have only broke one… Use the special tool on that one and done.
What plugs work well in the Ford Triton V-8? NGK, Champion? I don’t want to put the MOPARs in if they’ll break and get ejected!
When the spark plugs are replaced, install these one piece design spark plugs to eliminate future removal problems. http://www.denlorstools.com/home/dt1/page_36465/champion_7989_one_piece_design_spark_plug__ford_3v.html
Tester
I just broke a plug off in a dodge, today, nightmare. but to get it out I used my mig welder and built enough weld on top of the broken plug to eventually weld a bolt onto it and extract it, this works because you can’t weld steel to aluminum or cast iron so it’s hard to mess up, it also heats up the broken plug to help with extraction. you can’t always get to every plug with the welder, but you can if the engine comes out, too many mechanics don’t know this trick, or don’t have a welder in the shop