kell490

I did a search and reading all about these guys with the 5.4 motors breaking plugs off and dealers pulling motors out to change plugs and stuff. I'm assuming this is with the 3 valve motor I have a 99 which I'm assuming should not have these issues. Any pointers on changing them out. I searched the fourm about a year ago thought I ran accross a FAQ on changing out plugs on these but now I can't find it by searching.
Thanks

whitecrystal1

The problem with the engine you have is with the heads not having enough threads. The plugs can come loose and get blown out. It is not recommended to use anti-seize on your plugs. It is recommended that you torque them properly to Ford specs. When I did mine I found it to be a lot easier to access the plugs after I unplugged the fuel injector's electrical connector. Some say they had to remove the injector to do the tune up, that wasn't the case for me. After I unplugged it I had plenty of room (mine was the 4.6 liter though). If you find you need to remove the injectors you should replace the o-rings before you reinstall them

kell490

I went ahead and pulled the injector rail isn't really a way to get to the back ones on the 5.4 if you dont. I found a FAQ on f150online. I already ripped a boot trying to get it off the plug it was stuck. I sprayed wd-40 down there until it came out but was lucky I didn't get it stuck down in the hole more would have to pull the head to get to it. I don't know what ford was thinking I guess it is a throw away truck. Figure after 100k you will trade it in. My truck has 89k on it the plugs look very bad.

whitecrystal1

89K, that's pretty good. I only got 47K out of mine. Plug #3 fouled out and cause my truck to run like crap.

NGM

I have never pulled the fuel rail.. Weird.. Done MANY MANY f150 tune ups.. 1 quick tip. Let the air out of the front tires. Makes it 32156132156+1 times easier to get to the plugs.

kell490

You said you have done a lot of F150's not sure if you were doing 4.6 or 5.4 motors but it looked like it would be tough to get out with the rails in there. A tip I would give to anyone trying this is to tape the socket to the extention because it came off inside the motor. I was able to get it out with a long pair of needle nose pliers. If that happened in the back it would be tough to get out. I had one injector leak because the oring fell out I didn't notice it. The moter ran kind of rough for about 5 min then it smoothed out. I thought one of the coils went bad but I guess is was just air in the fuel system. The truck runs very smooth now well worth the 6 hours of work I put in. I'm sure if I did it again would take me a lot less time. Letting the air out didn't think of that My chest is kind of sore today from leaning over the thing for 6 hours and standing on buckets.

ro87f150

took me bout a good 4-5 hours to do mine.. #1,2,3,5,6,7 were easy.. changed all of them in bout 30min to an hour.. but the last two.. #4,8 where a bish to fix...

After a good 3 hours of carefully replacing those last two... I was glad that I was done with that.. i didn't even disconnect the injectors.. had a fear of damaging them.. but worked around it and VOILA!.. oh yea.. and I broke/popped/forced the coil 3X..oh well.. its nothing that i couild have done a "DAMAGE SWAP" to it.. ha ha!.. man its good to be a manager at Autozone!

NGM

I am a tech at a shop so I have done the 5.4s the 4.6s the 4.2s the 5.0s the 5.8s and everything inbetween. I honestly havent done a tune up on a big block in a F150 though I have put some in.

whitecrystal1

Big block?

keedda

I looked into changing the plugs out myself on my F250 5.4 and finally figured since I was only going to do it maybe twice in the lifetime of the truck I would pay the $300 to have it done. My son's 2001 F150 suffered from "spark plug ejection" which was the plug tearing the threads out of the head. He was quoted $3500 for a new head but was able to do it for $600 with a helicoil-type repair; he then sold the truck to a Ford dealer. He was told the warranty didn't cover the situation since the head is not a lubricated part. Long story short - its too expensive not to do the job right.