Hause

If you recently installed the one piece Champion plugs part number 7989 and are experiencing misfires you need to double check the plugs.

Basically what happened to me is the porcelain broke inside the tip of the plug and it was sliding up and down causing a short inside the plug.

The plug may look perfectly fine, but using your finger nail, try to move the porcelain up and down. Movement is BAD. I do not know if this happened in shipping, manufacturing or installation but you need to check your plugs.

Read more here about my troubles here:
http://www.f150online.com/forums/eng...-stumbles.html

kmc

Glad you found it. Did you put motorcraft back in? And tell us about the trick on removing the broken spark plugs.

Hause

The other thing to keep in mind about the Champion plugs is that just because it "looks" good and passes the "finger nail" test it may STILL be bad. It may just be cracked and it can still short.

I tried to find Motorcrafts locally last night but the autopart stores only had the Champions so I had to buy two more at $21 each in order to get the truck running again. I am about to call Rockauto and explain the problem to them and try to get them to send me the Motorcrafts to replace the champions.

The basic principle to getting the porcelain out of the tip of the plug:
Don't worry about getting all of the porcelain out. What you need to do is push the porcelain down. I used a punch and hammer for the front one. Once the porcelain is pushed down you have to use a bottoming tap to tap the top of the tip. A standard tap won't work. The back plug is trickier. I modified a cariage bolt and used an impact hammer to push on the bolt. It is pretty tricky and you can push the tip to far so be careful.

Also, I found out recently that lisle makes a porcelain pusher. It threads into the spark plug threads and acts like a press. Or you can tap the body of an old spark plug and use a piece of all-thread and push the porcelain down. I don't really like this idea becuase I was worried about stripping the spark plug threads.

When I have more time I plan to finish a write up that I started.

Mod (Ret.)

I had this happen to me on my Harley; I had just replaced the two spark plugs, went out for a ride, and the bike would pop and mis-fire severely. I removed the two plugs to double check my gapping, and saw that the center porcelain on one plug had broken, and slid down the center tip, killing that plug basically.
I cannot remember the brad name of that plug though.

Hause

I called Rockauto and explained the situation. He said they could exchange the plugs for the same brand but could not exchange them for the Motorcraft plugs. I explained that I don't want the Champions as I don't have confidence in these plugs. So he agreed to refund my money for the Champions plugs once I send them back. I ordered the Motorcraft plugs and once they arrive I will send the Champions back for a refund.

tmuti13

how long have you had the champion plugs in? I've been running them for about 4K.

spdkilz02

there is a reason that champion plugs are just plain junk.

NGM

I would not install Champion plugs in my bicycle they suck. Motorcraft or Brisk for the new 5.4s

Hause

It ran like crap from day 1. It has been about 2 weeks since the initial install. I probably have 300 miles on the plugs. And, I just finally found the issue on Thursday. It was very difficult to tell there was a problem with the plugs. If I had not seen the porcelain had moved down I never would have known. If you are having trouble with misfire it could very well be 1 or more of the plugs.

If you don't have stumble or misfire then I wouldn't worry about it.

Hause

I wouldn't have believed this if I didn't know why. I would bet the real problem and manufacturing issues were caused by FORD and their stupid design.