I don't care what anything says. Steel spark plug in an aluminum head I will, and always have done a small dab of anti-seize. But I also don't use a torque wrench. After changing thousands of plugs I just know how snug to get a small ratchet. Never stripped/broke/blown out a spark plug of any sorts.

 

I changed plugs on a 68,000 3.5 2016 motor.
There was a hint of a squeak on a few plugs, but I was actually surprised the threads were in the good shape they were.
I put a small dab of anti-seize on the threads, leaving the lower threads clean.
If I change them in the future, they should come out nicely. If I don't, hopefully the next user has a good experience.

I did use a torque wrench on the plugs, but it's the first time I've ever done that. It's been a long time since changing plugs and since I have a torque wrench, I was fine with taking the extra effort to get the torque wrench out of the tool box, doesn't actually any extra work to use the torque wrench. Back in the day I'd also chuckle at the idea of using a torque wrench.

I don't perform a lot of mechanic activities these days and I do not always remember what 10 lb ft of torque feels like like I one did.

 

Just serviced my plugs on the 2.7 with 95K miles. They were the originals. They had quite a bit of resistance in removing. Felt like a lot more than 11 ft-lbs (133 in-lbs) when removing.

Put in the new plugs, small amount of anti-seize, and torqued to 11 ft-lbs which is really not much. Had I done it without I surely would have tightened a bit more. Also put some dielectric grease on the boot side tip.

 

For those using anti seize, make sure it isn't conductive. If all you can find is conductive make darn sure it's on nothing but the threads, and very very light at that.

 

Doesn't matter if it's conductive or not. Conductive steel plugs/threads mating to conductive aluminum heads/threads. Just saying...

 

It absolutely matters. The issue with conductive is the very thin film of conductive material that many (most) leave on the insulator, which in turn helps cause an arcing across the insulator rather than all energy passing through the plug. It's not the threaded area that leads to recommendations of no anti seize, it's the poor control of where the conductive paste ends up, and the resulting degradation of spark performance.

 

That's called faulty method on anti seize installation. If you don't know enough to not get anti seize on the plug insulator, maybe you shouldn't be changing your plugs or you should hang with the don't use anti seize crowd. It only takes a little bit.

 

Do you guys really torque your spark plugs or are you pulling my leg?

 

Yes, I did.

 

Woah, Ford has a bad history concerning spark plugs. If your judgement and research is good then you'll be fine. lol